KS - beach trip
Summer 1962 – The construction job lasted only a few weeks and then the steel part of the building was completed – it didn’t last long enough for me to be comfortable with walking on the high beams. Another job of a similar nature lasted only a week and I was laid off again, but it was enough ironworking experience to determine that I didn’t care for that line of work.
Not only did I not know what I wanted to be when I grew up, I was somewhat ambivalent as to whether I really wanted to “grow up”. All this time my personal life was very much in limbo, caused mostly by the collision of my undecided and uncertain future with the stark reality of a need for some sort of permanence.
I had friends of the feminine persuasion and I knew I wanted one of those to share life with, but the ones that seemed to care for me were not the ones I wanted caring for me. One particular one that I wanted to date would not go out with me because her best friend had laid claim to me without my knowledge.
This issue was further complicated by a trip to the beach with these two friends and their families. They invited me to go along and I was only too glad to go. Both the girls had siblings and we went in two autos. The beach was near Savannah, Georgia and it was a good day of pulling both girls around the water on floats. This even involved sneaking a little affection from the one that wasn’t supposed to be showing any interest in me.
After a good day, we headed back home with the two girls and I in the back seat of one of the cars. The one that claimed me was on one side and the one that was supposed to keep hands off was on the other. It was quite an adventure for me because I was holding hands with the one openly and with the other on the sly. Both girls got sunburned badly from being on the rafts so long, the one of my real interest almost had to be hospitalized for it.
Added to this predicament was the fact that I was living a restless “on the run from God” type of life. Deep down I knew the Truth from being raised in church, but I was not willing to commit my whole self to it, and I knew enough to know that total commitment to God was a necessary thing. I was even going to church every Sunday, but mostly just to see friends. Church attendance was required if I lived at home – plus a thing called respect, which seems to be a foreign concept in many households today.
TBC – ec
Not only did I not know what I wanted to be when I grew up, I was somewhat ambivalent as to whether I really wanted to “grow up”. All this time my personal life was very much in limbo, caused mostly by the collision of my undecided and uncertain future with the stark reality of a need for some sort of permanence.
I had friends of the feminine persuasion and I knew I wanted one of those to share life with, but the ones that seemed to care for me were not the ones I wanted caring for me. One particular one that I wanted to date would not go out with me because her best friend had laid claim to me without my knowledge.
This issue was further complicated by a trip to the beach with these two friends and their families. They invited me to go along and I was only too glad to go. Both the girls had siblings and we went in two autos. The beach was near Savannah, Georgia and it was a good day of pulling both girls around the water on floats. This even involved sneaking a little affection from the one that wasn’t supposed to be showing any interest in me.
After a good day, we headed back home with the two girls and I in the back seat of one of the cars. The one that claimed me was on one side and the one that was supposed to keep hands off was on the other. It was quite an adventure for me because I was holding hands with the one openly and with the other on the sly. Both girls got sunburned badly from being on the rafts so long, the one of my real interest almost had to be hospitalized for it.
Added to this predicament was the fact that I was living a restless “on the run from God” type of life. Deep down I knew the Truth from being raised in church, but I was not willing to commit my whole self to it, and I knew enough to know that total commitment to God was a necessary thing. I was even going to church every Sunday, but mostly just to see friends. Church attendance was required if I lived at home – plus a thing called respect, which seems to be a foreign concept in many households today.
TBC – ec
posted by mreddie | 7:21 PM
5 Comments:
Oh, the courage it took to take those first tentative steps toward romance....I wonder if they know that you are writing about them now, and that you still remember.
bonita - For sure one of them does, she's still with me as later episodes will bear out. It is strange how some things stick in the memory and others seem to just fly away. ec
Hi Mr Eddie ~~ What a good memory you have for all these past experiences.
It sounds as though you have met your wife, so you had better settle down and get some work !!(And no heights)
Thanks for comments, so you are a
clpiboard guy. Apparetly it only works if you can look serious. Cheers, Merle
The plot thickens.
merle - It seems that I can remember the past better than the present. :)
peter - Thick indeed - and maybe a bit sinister. ec
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