30 Days of Me - Day 2 "First Love"

The second submission in the
Thirty Days of Sue

is

"Your First Love"

Since I am assuming that 'First Love" means first significant other love, I'm going to have to go with my first husband, Joe.

Now, that is not to say that I didn't have some "first crushes" of course. I had a second, third, fourth...too.

My first crush was with Jack Gates. That was in 1st grade. He used to chase me around the pine trees on the playground at lunch and recess and he would pull my hair. I was smitten. He was a cutie, too. He had black hair, and brown eyes. We never progressed beyond the 'round the tree chasing and hair pulling but I'm sure that it was true love - You know, the kind that happens at least once a week between girls and boys.

Jack was my nemesis and 'boyfriend' till the second grade. To be sure it was a strange relationship. Neither of us ever said " Hey, I like you" to each other. We just knew it. It consisted of chasing me, pulling my hair, laughing and his following me around the playground at recess. Of course I always let him catch me, and he always tried to kiss me, and I pretended to despise him but he could see right through me. He moved away one summer. Oddly enough, my heart didn't break.

My second crush and true 'love' was Jay Chubb. It was third grade and he was blonde haired and blue eyed. He had beautiful clear skin, pink cheeks, those beautiful blue eyes and he was in love with me. I think.

During our Halloween carnival at the school that year, he and I went over to the far end of the playground. He said he had something to tell me. We were standing beside a huge old pine, one that Jack had previously chased me around, and when I leaned over to hear what Jay had to say, he kissed my cheek! And the true arch enemy of relationships stepped out from behind that pine tree and scared the bejeezus out of both of us. My brother, 7 years older than I, sternly pointed a finger at Jay, and warned him not to be kissing his sister. Had Thomas not done that, there is no telling where our love might have taken us. Alas, yon finger was enough to thwart any further attempt by Jay to display affection towards me.

Over the years there were other boys. Another Jack Gates, whom I really liked a lot,  asked me to the high school prom one year. I had just turned 14. We didn't have the money for a prom dress and I knew I wouldn't dare ask my parents to sacrifice something else for one so I politely declined.

I had a big crush on Tommy Lee when I was 15-16. He worked at the grocery store where my Mom shopped. I went with her to get groceries one day and Tommy when I were nearing the end of our relationship because Daddy was tired of catching me sneaking out of church to go and kiss Tommy over the fence that separated the church from his back yard. Oh, yes, it was love, thwarted yet again, only this time my brother had nothing to do with it. Daddy was beside himself. After telling Tommy that he'd better watch himself, Tommy told him "Hey, this is my yard and my fence. She's the one who came out here." That did it. Anyway, I was shopping with my mother and Tommy was trying to make small talk when a tall guy walked by carrying a huge sack of rice on his shoulder. I commented to Tommy, who was a scrawny little guy, that  "Wow, that guys got some muscles." That guy happened to be Joe and he overheard that.  He was tall, brown hair, blue eyes, and had this enormous smile. I asked Tommy who he was, and Tommy, being the jerk he was snidely remarked that his name was Joe, and did I want him to introduce us... Flippant, I remarked that I didn't need his help. One thing led to another, I got a phone call from Joe because Tommy had given him my phone number after Joe had asked him for it, and from then on it was a given, at least to me, that I had found my true love. We talked on the phone several times and after he asked me about 15 times to go out with him and I refused, I finally gave in. Our first date was to the beach on a Sunday afternoon, and we walked, at least 3 feet apart from each other, and after he assured me that he wouldn't bite, I let him hold my hand. When he put his arm around me I almost fainted. From that day on I was lost in every word he said. I couldn't think a single thought that didn't have him in it. Every day at school, I wrote him a letter in a notebook that reserved just for him. I filled up two of them at least... and when we married, I still had them. I don't know what became of them. We talked every night on the phone for hours. We went out together on Friday night, Saturday night, Sunday afternoons, and during the week he came over to visit and we spent hours talking outside or in the den and kitchen with my mom and dad. Then, he asked me to marry him one night and I thought heaven had opened up and all the gifts God could bestow on a girl had fallen right into my arms.  I said yes. A few months later I discovered I was pregnant and at 17, almost 18, we got married.

This is Joe and I and our preacher, Calvin Cook, on our wedding day. We got married in our house beneath an arch in the living room and den. My sister made my veil, the dress was borrowed from a friend, and my daddy gave me away. We were standing in the hall, and I had my hand  around his arm. I was trembling and Daddy asked me " Are you cold?" and I said " No, I'm nervous." He patted my hand with his other hand and told me " It'll be alright." And, it was.

My sister made the cake and we had the reception right in our dining room.

It was a small wedding but it was the only wedding of any of their kids that my parents got to witness. I am glad that we did it just the way we did.

Joe said he drove by the street a couple of times, tempted to keep going, to back out... and who could blame him. He was just 18, just got a decent job, and already faced the future of a wife and a baby. You can see the dark circles under his eyes in the picture above and his hand, which was holding mine, was squeezing painfully. You've heard the term " White knuckled". His were.

But we made it and we made it for 15 fantastic years. His job ended and he took a temporary job out of state. One thing led to another and our marriage took a turn for the worse.

I went to Arizona because absence makes the heart grow fonder... right? That's not true. I didn't know that,  so I ran away, but it didn't work, and time passed, so a little over a year later we were divorced. I remarried, and he did also.

This is also a very simplified version.

We remain friends, and that's important to me.

He was the one true love of my life and he will forever hold that title and a place in my heart. 

We have kids and grandkids together and we have history and no one can take that away, nor should they ever want to.

And that, friends and readers, is the tale of my "True Love".