Girlfriends

I find myself now at age 61 enjoying movies like: "The 40 year old virgin", "Superbad", "I love you Beth Cooper", "Knocked up" and other coming of age or relatively young dating movies.

When I look back to the first girl I asked out on a date I was 15 and I did it because JFK was just assassinated then in fall 1963. So my motivation was to go out on a date before I died for one reason or another because I thought, "If the President of the United States can get assassinated so could I." Looking back at this logic it makes me laugh now but then it was deadly serious at age 15. You know just how important things can be when you are only 15 and the whole world seems to revolve around your every emotion, your every thought or dream.

Since I didn't marry because my girlfriend got pregnant until I was 26 I had 10 years of dating which is a long time dating different women, especially from 1963 until 1973 when I married for the first time.

I think I was a much more serious and adult like person than most people my age always from about age 4. It probably was the whooping cough I almost died from and then at age 15 I had had childhood epilepsy form age 10 to age 15. so I had just gotten over it when I turned 15. So because I had almost died from two illnesses in my life I just tended to me much more grown up emotionally than most kids, much like veterans who have been shot at tend to be ready to settle down and get married if their post traumatic stress disorder isn't too bad. I think it's a lot the same. If you have survived really awful things marriage sounds much better than death or maiming. That was kind of where I was too starting in 1963 when I asked Gayle, a blond haired blue eyed girl from Alaska out on a date. We went to the Alex Theatre in Glendale to see "Muscle Beach Party" with Annette Funicello who originally was a Mouseketeer on a Disney program called Mickey Mouse Club on TV. Since I was only 15 I couldn't legally drive so I asked my best friend who was 16 to drive us to the theatre. As I got out of the front seat I accidentally kicked out my friends thermos and broke it in the gutter. So, an embarrassing start to my first date. Then I walked my new date home about a mile or more to where she lived. She liked to Ice Skate so I sometimes took her to Pickwick Ice Skating rink Near Griffith Park after I could drive.

Earlier, when I was about 11 I wore my Sunday blue suit and tie to a nice restaurant in La Canada with my family. A girl from my class was there with her family too and she stared at me during our time in the restaurant. Later, in grade school she got her friend to ask me to go steady. I was embarrassed by this because there was no way I was ready at 11 to be anyone's boyfriend yet.

The summer I turned 15 I was at a church camp in Mt. Shasta, California and two 15 year old girls took an interest in me. One was from Canada and one was from Florida. I was pretty shy then but I was almost 6 feet tall and I had just gotten my front teeth capped that I had broken off in a car accident with my bicycle also at age 9. So I now looked handsome with perfect teeth and 6 feet tall. Both girls said they kissed me that summer. I actually didn't remember this. What I remember was that they both were interested in me and that I felt sort of awkward but flattered at all the attention. It took me about another 4 months to get used to the idea that girls found me attractive and it took me some time to figure what to do about this. So about 5 months after the summer camp I actually asked out Gayle just after JFK died who sat in front of me in English Class at Glendale High School then in 1963 when I was 15 and a sophomore there.

When you are young you are eager to grow up quickly. However, enjoying the moment then is actually a better idea. Growing up too fast can be very counterproductive in ones life. Don't forget to smell the roses. Otherwise life passes you by and you have nothing. In life if you don't have memories in the end you have nothing. So smell those roses. You will remember the fragrances the rest of your lives.