Two years ago on this site I published a story "Easy To Kiss, Easy To Forget". In fact I also included it in my recent book, Wrights Lane...Come On In. For those newcomers to Wrights Lane and others who may have missed the original post, I run it again (below) in order to set the stage for a rather surprise recent development. Regardless, it would be best to give the following insertion a quick read before continuing.
Click here: *"Easy to kiss, easy to forget: "...courtesy of a first Love's mom? A lot of what I write is for the benefit of my grandchildren, four being teenagers. Of course, as unbeli..."
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SPECIAL NOTE FROM DICK: I will not go into detail at this point, but I am compelled to make several corrections in the "Easy to Kiss, Easy to Forget" story that you just read. For the record: 1) Sylvia was in fact 17-years-of-age at the time; 2) she played the glockenspiel in the high school band, not clarinet and 3) we met at the Cocoa Methodist Church (not Presbyterian) where her mother was choir director.
When I first wrote this story I intended it to be the opening chapter of a book that I had in mind at the time. My thought was to follow a young couple through life and to have them find each other again many years later through a computer web site designed to locate old friends and school chums.
When I first wrote this story I intended it to be the opening chapter of a book that I had in mind at the time. My thought was to follow a young couple through life and to have them find each other again many years later through a computer web site designed to locate old friends and school chums.
The book never materialized and I eventually decided not to waste the text that had been stored in several computer files over the years. I also never completely gave up the idea of someday writing at least a final chapter for the story in a follow up publication.
Well, believe it or not, two years ago I joined the "Classmates" Internet site and have had fun since connecting with people who attended Lambton Kent District High School in Dresden in the 1950s. Just recently I have extended my search to include other people that I knew in the 50s and 60s, one of which was my "Easy to kiss, easy to forget" girl Sylvia.
Much to my surprise Sylvia popped up on my monitor screen, sans photograph but displaying a hyphenated married name and still living in Florida. She was listed as having attended high school in Cocoa, Fla. between 1952 and '56. A perfect match...It had to be her!
"Should I send her a message?" I debated with myself. After several days of weighing the pros and cons, I threw caution to the wind and dashed off what I felt was a compelling "for old times sake" note to the bulletin board on her Classmates page.
"Should I send her a message?" I debated with myself. After several days of weighing the pros and cons, I threw caution to the wind and dashed off what I felt was a compelling "for old times sake" note to the bulletin board on her Classmates page.
Second-guessing my wisdom, I nervously checked several times a day for a reply. Almost two weeks later Sylvia registered a visit to my Classmates page, but with no comment. I waited again for several days before sending her another note thanking her for visiting and apologizing if I had initially appeared presumptuous or intrusive.
This past Sunday I was surprised to find that a guest book visit had been removed from my Classmates site, a most unusual occurrence. Sylvia's name had mysteriously disappeared from the list virtually over night. The notation "Sorry! This profile no longer exists." greeted me when I subsequently called up her site which had been wiped clean except for my now rather pathetic notes, strangely enough.
The message was loud and clear. This particular Sylvia was neither impressed nor interested in hearing from this particular ill-advised sentimentalist. Maybe she thought I was a stalker, as someone has suggested, I don't know. Nevertheless, not quite the happy, warm and fuzzy ending to the story that I had nurtured for so long.
Kind of a letdown, right! Sometimes life is like that.
I'll never know for sure, but if this was the Sylvia that I knew and loved all those years ago, she may be wishing now that we did kiss that night after the Valentine's prom. That way, by her mother's rationale, it would have been easy for me to forget about her...Maybe, but not likely. I'm just not that kind of guy.
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