Going Back in Time 45 Years

After we left the house in Henry County we moved into a newly developed small subdivsion called Emerald estates.  it was kinda in the middle of nowhere but there was an elementary school within walking distance, and yes I walked to school, but it was by choice not necessity and it very rarely snowed, maybe once a year.

It didnt have air conditioners in the window in those days, matter of fact houses didn’t either.  I started elementary school in 1964. I remember a lot of noise about something called “de-segregation” but it didn’t seem very important to me, the thing I most remember about it was that now black people and white people could eat in the same places and drink from the same water fountains. At that young age it didn’t seem to be any big deal to me.

I used to walk to school carrying not only a pocket knife but either a .22 rifle or a pellet rifle.  When I arrived in my second grade classroom I would put it in the coat closet.  Nobody ever questioned me about it, the police weren’t called, child welfare wasn’t notified and when I left I would collect my rifle and once outdoors I would load it and hunt squirrels and rabbits on the way home,   if I killed a couple they would be dinner.

I never worried about strangers abducting me or being abused by an adult, of course to a predator I would have been a rather desperate attempt, after all I was armed….

I made good grades in school, straight A’s and I honestly didn’t have to work very hard at it.  I breezed through.

In 6th grade we got a new girl in the class, her name was Judy Burnette, she was tall and wore glasses and had long brunette hair.  She was my first crush as they call it these days, but to me she was my one true love.  I rarely spoke to her, just admired her from afar. When school let out for the summer, the last day of school she came to me and handed me an invite to her birthday party in three weeks.

Three weeks later, I road my bicycle to her house, I left my rifle at home but had a small gift that I had carefully wrapped with a card that said “Love Mike”.  It was a determining moment in my young life, I was convinced she would be my wife.

Judys House

When I got to the party, it became very clear to me that there was something going on that I didn’t understand.  I was the only boy who had been invited.  I felt out of place but hung in there because I knew all the girls with the exception of some of her cousins.

When it came time to open the gifts, she saved mine till last.  when she opened it she got this dumbfounded look on her face and began to cry and ran back to her room.  All the other girls were yelling at me but I didn’t really understand what was going on, I exited through the open sliding glass door, got on my bike and rode away as fast as I could, I didn’t know how but I knew I had made a monumental mistake.

You see, when I asked the only female I really knew what I should give Judy for her birthday my mother responded that girls like things that smell nice, something like some nice smelling soap.  I remembered my grandmother, she always had a special soap she used and it did smell a lot different from the soap we normally used.  I remembered it was called “Camay”, so I headed off to the grocery store we frequented and found the camay soap at 3 for a dollar, and I had a dollar and change….perfect.

Or so I thought.

You now know the rest of the story.  I learned a very valuable lesson from all of that.  That lesson being that women will never tell you exactly what you are expected to do. Not even Mom.  They expect you to be able to figure out the important parts even though you have no frame of reference and or no experience.

It’s a wonder I didn’t turn gay.