An answer to that famous question

This is an important picture. Because I finally have a picture of her!

Do you remember those party games, where you sit at tables and have to answer embarassing questions? You go through questions like "What was the most embarassing thing that happened to you? (mine involved a hit and run incident with a lawnmower) Or when did you make a fool out of yourself? (I seem to remember a really bad experience with the song "Feelings" in a talent show…). And then there is that question about your first love.

For me, it was Nancy.

In 3rd grade, I confided in one of my best friends that I thought a girl in my class was pretty. I remember that she had long blond hair. I loved her smile. She seemed sophisticated. And I just couldn't stop watching her.

But I shouldn't have told Paul, my friend. Because he then got it into his mind that it would also be his girlfriend.

Being second graders, we decided that we both could like her. And then let her decide. Further, we decided that it would be the annual school carnival held at Joyland that would be the deciding factor.

Unfortunately, Nancy was diplomatic and went along with it. She might I have just liked the attention. But clearly, I though I knew who she liked the most!

Paul and I decided that the ultimate sign of our affection, and a prooving point on who liked her the most, would be to kiss her in the tunnel on the roller coaster at this amusement park that we would be having our school carnival.

The school carnival was an annual fund raiser for the school. For every 10 tickets you sold to family and friends, you received one ticket free for yourself. I decided that it would take many roller coaster rides in order to get enough courage to make my move. And if Paul decided to kiss her, then I needed to have enough tickets to take Nancy round and round on that roller coaster

I was a crazy salesman that year. I think I learned all about commerce, self confidence and the ability for marketing from that one event alone. By the time the carnival came along, I was in the lead for even selling the most tickets. My secret? I went to the older ladies in the neighborhood, and asked if they would by carnival tickets. I gave them my charming smile. And if they asked why I was selling the tickets, then I would telling them I wanted to take my new girlfriend on the roller coaster. That evoked a lot of great resonses, including most of them turning around and giving me their tickets back. Cha-ching!

The night of the carnival , I was loaded with confidence. But also fear. My only motivation was to be able to prove Paul that she really liked me more!

Later, Paul and I would debate the actual sequence of activities. I think we ended up agreeing that somewhere in the middle of the night, while all three of us were on the roller coast, we both each kissed a cheek at the same time.

But I would claim that she was looking at me, in the dark, and therefore, I had the advantage!

(This picture and story was inspired by my friend Brian McKenna (orange shirt - and to my left) who uploaded this picture to facebook!