NaBloPoMo: Crushed?

NaBloPoMo Prompt for Today: 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.

My Response: I didn't have to make a list. I remember being in either 5th or 6th grade when the teacher introduced a new student to the class. I remember falling in love with her at first sight. I think it was because we both happened to be very small people compared to our classmates. She was also the mayor's daughter so my young silly mind equated that to royalty.

(While doing research today I found out that she is married to someone who was the mayor of the same town as her father. So yes, I was right all along, royalty!)

I was fairly introverted as a child and most of my attempts at communication with her were met with calamity and disaster. I remember one time pouring something on her friend while they were walking down the sidewalk, all the other details are gone but I remember thinking, man, I was stupid. I thought, why can't I just talk to her?!?!? This is really ironic because practically all my friends are women in my adult life. I am no longer introverted as well. (Metamorphosis?)

A few years later my older sister and her were in band and both happened to be the oboe players. She had the first chair and my sister the second. I remember my father saying some unkind things about the situation, but I am sure it was just his ignorance talking. The neighborhood kids would tease me about her, especially Jimmy from across the road. Jimmy is also the person who told me that mayors were rich!

I remember the best days at the swimming pool were the days she happened to be there.

One time at a Boy Scout meeting her mother was there, and I introduced myself. She had brothers. (I later learned just a few years ago from her father's obituary that all of the children in her family had their first name start with the letter P.) At the Boy Scout meeting I think I told her mother that I wanted to marry her daughter someday. I don't remember her reaction.

These were all events that took place when I lived in South Dakota. My parents moved me to Texas in my teenage years and I was crushed by that experience, a negative crush quite opposite of the romantic kind. But I decided to try to maintain contact with some people, and I have stayed up with person P over the years. We chat every few years by phone. I haven't seen her in nearly 40 years except by the photographs that are online and the several news articles about her.

She wound up getting a music degree and then advanced degrees in business and education. She worked in several countries before making it back to the states to become a college professor, and then the dean of a department, right back in "our" hometown in South Dakota. She is also a marathon runner and has been in several big name races multiple times with her husband. I can relate to that as a person who sells high performance running shoes. I just need to spend more time moving, but doubt that I am a 26 miler.

I remember seeing a bumper sticker on a car a few years ago that had "Got Oboe?" and smiled and thought of her. She got a kick out of that when I phoned later in the day.

So I hope she either forgives or has forgotten all the times I was mean to her. She is a wonderful person, very busy in her community, college and beyond; 

a blessing.