It was my first real gift from a boy. And it was beautiful.
I was in the Eighth Grade and was serious enough about Mr. Richard Eric Killingsworth to sit with him in church and to attend all his wrestling matches. When you're 13, protected and innocent, that's about as serious as a gal can get! Well...besides writing his initials all over my binders...and writing my name as "Lori Ann Killingsworth" over and over just because I loved the sound of it. OK...I admit it...I had planned our wedding too.
But that plan got sidetracked.
For Valentine's Day, Richard had given me a gold necklace with an amethyst in it! Now you have to understand...I was from a family of 6 kids...my daddy worked in the steel mills at the time and was putting all of us through private school. We didn't buy new clothes. We didn't buy stylish shoes. We felt lucky to get a new bottle of Cover Girl foundation or a pair of Sheer Energy pantyhose!! There was no extra cash floating around and we lived a very simple and very frugal life.
To be given a piece of gold jewelry was nothing short of intoxicating. UNTIL...one day sitting in church, I was going through Richard's wallet...because apparently that is the way an eighth grade girl expresses her love...? Or avoids listening to the sermon. I happened upon a receipt for the gift I had been given and found that this young man had spent $42 on me!! Whoa. It might as well have been $500...because to ME, that was a huge sum of money!
I was simultaneously giddy and frightened! This necklace was actually VALUABLE and I better guard it with my LIFE!!
Unfortunately, I had brought with me into adolescence a propensity for losing things. I was much too consistent and before I knew it, I had lost the treasured piece. So, yeah, that was stupid...but not the epitome of my stupidity!
I was so afraid for Richard to find out I had lost the necklace - now that I knew how much he had PAID for it! - so I broke up with the poor fella. I dumped the guy I was ga-ga for just to avoid the embarassment! Sheesh. Why not just tell him? Well, I did...about 15 years later!
STUPID.
NOTE: I have renamed my "Stupid Things I've Done" series to "For Want of Wit"
3 comments:
Finally Google Alerts actually serves up something worth reading.
Thank you for bringing a smile to my face and a moment to remember those sweet innocent days of youth.
How does the quote go..."It takes a minute to have a crush on someone, an hour to like someone, a day to love someone, but it takes a lifetime to forget someone." :-)
Your friend for a lifetime! :-)
Rich
(a.k.a. Richard Eric Killingsworth)
Richard! Still full of surprises, arent' you?! I considered tagging you on FB so you would know I had posted this, but you found it anyway...guess I shouldn't be surprised. Can't stop smiling. Thanks for stopping by, long lost friend.
Hello again....I'm enjoying these posts. Interesting window to your life. I would enjoy catching up. Drop me a brief note to my Gmail or Hotmail account so I know how to connect with you.
Take care,
Rich
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