The Guys in My Life, part 2

There were others guys in my life during those elementary years but I don't really remember any one special - except for one. He was the brother of one of my good buddies. He gave me his sophomore picture and across the back, I wrote "Cute, isn't he?" More about this guy will be in a later blog!

My first boyfriend in high school was a blond blue-eyed boy. My twin brothers teased me about his "baby blue eyes." I didn't like for them to tease me. We hung around together most of my freshman year. I couldn't really go out on dates so we'd meet at the movies and hold hands.

Things changed for me so much in my sophomore year with Daddy's passing. Mother let me date and go to teenage dances and the Saturday night dances at the Legion Hall. Elvira, a classmate who worked at Rexall with me, taught me how to dance. It wasn't unusual to see two girls dancing together because we liked to dance and the guys didn't always want to dance. So rather than sit on the sidelines, the girls danced together. I really liked to dance.

The blond blue-eyed boy from freshman year wasn't around. I think he found a new girlfriend. That felt like abandonment, just as Daddy's death left me feeling abandoned.

All the month of October that year, I went with a guy who graduated in May 1950. Some of the older girls in school warned me that he had "Russian hands and Roman fingers." He never exhibited that behavior with me. We saw each other nearly every day in October - and then he disappeared from my life. I shed some tears over that -being a moody 15-year-old. I learned later that he dated other girls the same - he would see them every day for a short period of time and then drop them. That probably didn't make me feel any better at the time!

The rest of my sophomore year I dated a foorball running back for a while. I had a huge crush on him. Then I dated a brown-eyed boy in the spring. He was an athelete who stole my heart. We didn't have much opportunity to go out together. We saw each other at school events. Our parents didn't want us to date because we were of different faiths. My Mother didn't forbid it but his parents did. This was very hurtful for me because I was a nice girl who couldn't really understand this.
We continued to care about each other in the next school year, even with our parents' opposition. We went to Jr.-Sr. prom together.

There was another boy who liked me a lot during sophomore and junior year. I went out with him once in a while. Six of us went to Dodge City to the Lamplighter night club. All the guys kept buying him drinks until he was really drunk. On the way home, we stopped in Jetmore to get a bite to eat - just before we went in, he got the dry heaves. It was the last time I went with him anywhere. He came over the next day to apologize. Later I realized the guys were buying him drinks because they knew I was a "tee-totaler" and they thought it would be funny to get him drunk!

My senior year - all the senior boys were dating the younger gals - I dated a couple of junior boys - one dark haired boy who could really roller skate - so I did lots of roller skating. The other was a blond with curly hair. Both were much taller than I. The blond took me to prom. Both were very nice guys.

My senior year I had a few dates with an Air Force guy and a sailor. These guys were friends of local fellows who had gone into the service, came home on leave with buddies. I was pen pals with these fellows for a while.