October 14, 1974 was Monday

And I was oh SO sad. Downtrodden really. The Guy I mentioned on October 10, had since left our fair burg. I was beside myself. Has the first major big time crush I had that was not a classmate or some celebrity. By 1974, I was into the Osmonds, but this Guy beat them!

Just a recap of that weekends' events. On October 11, Guy's final day and you woulda sworn he WAS the celebrity. I recall a girl, from one of the high-up cliques shed enough tears to flood the hallway, as she left his classroom. I waited and tried to be the final one the Guy spoke to. Somehow it was just the two of us, and I can't remember what I muttered. Anyway, I tried not to cry as I thought it was my final time to see him.

Wrong. The Guy asked if he could see me the next day to say good-bye. I was 16 and quite content to fall and bust my head wide open after I heard him say that. So on Saturday, October 12, he came to my house, I was nervous and such. I'm sure he noticed. We went to the dance studio of a friend of mine. She had a crush on him too--and proceed to show him how she danced on her toes.

Always hated her for that. To dance on her toes, I mean. Yet, she hated me more. For you see, when The Guy drove me home--and this was still broad daylight--he hugged me tight and said good bye. I'd never really seen any of my high school mates, have such PDA's--so I felt so grown up. Alas, I didn't know what to do, yet I returned his hug.

The hug just lasted seconds, alas I wanted it to be forever, but it didn't. Our hug ended and that was that. Innocent. He left and I felt as if I stood on a cliff to watch ships sail out to sea.

On October 13, I called the family that had hosted him during his stay in our fair burg. The nice woman said he'd left that morning. It was official. He was gone. She said, "He was the nicest guy."

So move on to Monday, October 14, and the return to school. It felt empty. Outside of three close friends, no one knew what happened. How would I go on? Did he think of me? I just doodled on my notebooks for the first couple of classes until a classmate asked if I'd been home Saturday night.

Huh? The classmate who asked me was one of the guys who would shoot hoops with The Guy I still didn't get the questions.

Well, turns out, a bunch of em got together on Saturday, and The Guy drove past my house enough, they wondered why he didn't just stop.

That made my day.

Life did go on. And I saw The Guy just one other time--January 1975. He broke my heart. You'll have to wait until January for that one. :)

Fast forward to now. I found The Guy on the Internet a couple years ago. We exchanged a couple e-mails. Life has treated him well. Married. Kids. Made me smile when I read he remembered me. And the girl of 16, in me wondered, he'd ever seen me when I grown up...

Here's a song even when I hear it 2009, reminds me of The Guy. Why? Because I heard it for the first time, just minutes after he hugged me good bye and left. I sat in a corner and cried.