Thursday, November 17, 2011

Nov. 17 - Make a list of everyone you've ever had a crush on in your life, then choose one from the list and describe him or her in great detail.

Everyone?  Let's see.  Travel back in time with me...

My big brother, Steve; any horse ever; Mr. Ayers, my fifth grade teacher; Ray Boettcher, kind of...  These were all pre-adolescence.  Around 6th grade, I got the idea that boys and girls were supposed to have something to do with each other -- the dances made that clear, even if no one wanted to dance.  I think 6th grade was when everyone was in love with David Cassidy.  Barf.  I went for more mature actors, like Chad Everett.  Big crush there, and he instilled my preference for blue-eyed brunets.

My first Big Crush, though, came in junior high.  David Wheaton.  Brown eyed brunet, long hair, wore a fringed leather jacket, played guitar.  We were in English classes together, Mrs. Frazini's creative writing, drama club, which I joined because of him.  His dad was somehow envolved in what we called "ecology," which would now be "environmentalism."  My mom didn't like that.

David liked Kim Bender.  I hated Kim Bender ("benderbutt").  She was really very nice, even to me.  I tried to show David I loved him by standing on the notebook he'd left outside the classroom door.  Kris told me to get off it.  I don't think he saw.  I'd sing "I Don't Know How to Love Him," loudly, along with the JCSuperstar record.  

David and Chad Everett's character on "Medical Center," Dr. Joe Gannon, were the inspiration for "David Gannon," main male character in the fantasy role-playing game that occupied Kris and me for years.  It started with plastic horses, and involved bringing the whole herd to each other's houses.   That was no small undertaking, as I had about 24, and she had over 30.  We would arrange the horses in "stalls" all around the room; Laura now has the canopy bed that was mine back then, and there are still remnants of scotch tape on the metal frame, where names of horses labelled those stalls.  We eventually outgrew the horses, but not the game.

(I'm defining a crush as infatuation with a real person, not a celebrity; I was seriously in love with Neil Diamond for awhile, but he never knew.  He fed the David Gannon fantasy game, as did most everything we came into contact with -- movies, TV shows, books, music, sports.  I also don't think of a crush as the same as being in love, or in like with someone you're dating; a crush has to not know you exist.)

The only post- high school crush I can think of was on the pastor of my church's huge college group.  It seemed every girl had a crush on him.  He was cute, and in charge, and aloof to any advances.  Catnip.  I got serious about relationships around then, as I was a good Bible student and had learned it is "better to marry than to burn."  I burned a LOT, and didn't want to burn in hell.

2 comments:

  1. I recently found my first boyfriend on facebook, after not having seen or heard from him in what, 35 years? Now I have to decide whether I want to contact him or not. He probably wouldn't remember who I am.

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  2. I found David Wheaton on FB, and he still doesn't know ;-) (I didn't friend him.)

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