His name was Bruce. We met on a blind date. My oldest sister and he went to church together. She had asked him several times if he would take me out, but he wanted to see a picture and she wouldn't show him one. He had joined the Marines with a delayed entry date. So the next time my sister asked him if he would go out with me he said yes. I learned later that he felt like he had nothing to lose. If I looked like a dog it was just one date and then he would be leaving. My sister called me and told me that she had a friend from church that was leaving soon for the service, would I come visit her and go out with him. I told her I would do it as a favor. I was dating someone else at the time and I even asked his permission. He said, "sure have a good time."
He showed up for the date wearing a sleeveless shirt and tight blue jeans. I was used to dress pants and shirts with sleeves. I peaked out the window and asked my brother-in-law, what is he wearing? He shrugged his shoulders and said, I don't know. I was wearing dress pants and a blouse, the finger nails and toe nails where painted. I had a very good tan, so there was no makeup. I sat on the couch and my brother-in-law answered the door. He came in, looked at me and his mouth fell open. No kidding!!! Since that had never before happened to me I was thrown off balance for a minute. I finally asked him to be seated and he chose to sit right next to me. He was a bold one! He put his arms out on the back of the couch so his right arm was behind me. He kept lifting his arm and checking his watch, I finally asked if we needed to go and he said yes, the movie would be starting soon. We walked to the car and I opened my own door and slipped inside. He was upset with me because he had wanted to open the car for me. I stepped out of the car and let him do the "man" thing.
He took me to see Hot Lead and Cold Feet with Don Knox and Tim Conway. I don't remember much of the movie because he was either talking or staring at me. The couple in front of us ask him to be quite but he wouldn't, so they moved. I remember how country he sounded and just trying to keep up with him, because sometimes it seemed he was speaking in a different language than I was. I remember laughing so much. All during the movie I kept forgetting his name, I kept wanting to call him Phil for some reason. After the movie we went to Pizza Hut for something to eat. He chose a booth for us and I sat on the inside. We talked with some people he knew. They talked about football. I found out he had played football since he was little. Every little bit he would move closer to me and I would scoot over closer to the wall. It didn't take long for me to be pinned to the wall. I had never been around anyone like him before. The guy that I had been dating had always been looking at other girls and I had called him on it. He said he wasn't dead, and he could look if he wanted to. Don't ask me why we were still together. Maybe it was because I am a tall girl and he was a lot taller than me. Any who, back to my date... I watched him like a hawk, and he never looked at anyone but me. It made me feel special.
We left Pizza Hut and went driving around. This was before the seat belt laws, and his car had a bench seat in front. I was sitting on my side of the car still trying to figure this guy out when he turned a curve so sharp that I slid across the seat right next to him. He put his arm around me and said that this is where you belong. I had to laugh at him, but I stayed put. ( Found out later that he had Armor All'd the seat, just in case he liked me). We went back to my sisters' house. Upon arriving we found out they were asleep. We sat on the couch in the living room and looked through my sisters photos. She was an avid picture taker at that time. I put the book down and turned toward him and all of a sudden I was being kissed! All night this guy had been pulling fast ones on me. It was not my practice to kiss on the first date. I have to tell you that it was one mighty fine kiss. I actually saw stars, yes I did! I felt such passion at that moment that I wanted to strip naked and let him have his way with me. I am not kidding!! Thank God I thought, "what would he think of me?" Instead when the kiss ended I told him he better leave. His mouth fell open again, but I managed to get him out of the house and my virtue still intact.
All night I went over and over what had happened, and wondering what to tell the guy at home. I finally made up my mind to end the relationship with the him. I felt that if Bruce could treat me like I was the only women on the earth that maybe there were other guys like that. I was going into my senior year of high school and I wanted to have fun and not be tied down. That night I had so much fun, laughed more than I could remember ever doing. It had felt good to be that lighthearted, since Bruce was leaving for the Marines it made sense to think about dating other guys just to have fun, nothing serious.
My parents relationship had been up and down for as long as I could remember. I felt like I never wanted to get married, because I wanted to be happy. They never seemed to be truly happy. My sister had told me if I liked Bruce to invite him to a trip to the Arkansas River for the following day. The business my brother-ion-law worked for was having a party out on the river. They took a large party barge and most of the employee's rode on that. My brother-in-law had a skiing boat, a very nice one. The four of us rode in it
This all took place in 1978, when the girls wore short shorts. Well the boys did too. Bruce and I were facing each other during the boat ride. He had on some very short cut offs and knee high socks!! I wish I had pictures from that day. All of you girls know how guys sit, with their legs spread wide open. Thank the Good Lord that the boy had on his tighty whiteys or I would have seen every thing he had. I remember my mom telling me something at the time that everyone was streaking in our town. I had told her I wanted to go and see who they were. She told me that if they were naked that seeing who it was would not be what I saw first. I thought that was so funny but she was right. All day I had to keep adverting my eyes from those tighty whitey's.
The barge pulled up to a sand bar for the afternoon and so did we. Bruce and I were the youngest people there so we went off by ourselves. We walked and talked down the sand bar away from everyone and then walked back. We were holding hands and talking, he brought up the fact that his older brother was getting a divorce and how hard it was on the family because there were two very young girls involved. Then he said, even with that going on I think I'm in love with you!!!! Time for my mouth to fall open. I laughed at him and told him he didn't even know me yet, he couldn't be in love with me. His mouth fell opened. I don't think he was used to having girls laugh at him like I did. I couldn't help myself, he made me laugh. As the day progressed we tried our hand at skiing or should I say hands and feet? I could never get my skies to stay straight up so I could be pulled up by the boat. Bruce tried and I can't remember if he could or not. It was finally time to go. As we started to leave we found out the barge was stuck. Our boat was quiet a ways from the boat so Bruce being the macho man that he was decided he would jump out of our boat and go help push the barge. He stripped down to just his shorts, grabbed hold of his nose and jumped in. Even though we were quiet a ways from the barge, the sand bar came out a long way. When Bruce jumped in he landed in water that was just up to his knees. He was standing there with his knees bent and holding his nose in knee high water! Once again, I laughed until I cried and my sister and brother-in-law joined in. I hope that I will always be able to recall that memory. Just thinking about it now makes me chuckle. We finally head for home. Bruce and I had agreed on another date that night. He was going to take me out to eat and then go for another movie.
After a shower and nap I started getting ready for the date. I can't remember what either of is wore, I just know we both had clothes on.. When he came in the house to get me I can remember looking at him and seeing him a different way than the night before. I still don't know what the change was but I liked what I saw and was looking forward to spending more time with him. He took me out for Chinese. He ordered everything on the menu because I had never eaten Chinese before. Boy did we have a lot leftover. Chinese is my favorite food now. After eating we drove to the movies, which was in the next town over. Guess what we saw? Grease!! Back when it first came out. He had already seen the movie with his sister so he knew all about it. When the time came and all the boys dropped their pant to moon someone he put his hand over my eyes so that I wouldn't see. He treated my like such a lady. I can't remember if it was before the movie or after the movie, he took me buy to meet his best friend. He was working at a fish place by the lake. After I met him the guys talked privately about me. I can remember hearing about a brick #@!^ house. Having never heard that term before I later asked Bruce about it. He explained to me that guys said that when they saw a girl that was built very well. Okay, so being compared to a brick #@!^ house was good? I think that weekend I entered the twilight zone. It was sure different from what I was use to, I was a city girl that met a country boy and the two worlds came crashing into one another. That night Bruce told me he loved me, and asked me to marry him. This time I didn't laugh, I accepted. I knew in that moment that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with him.
