A&M: Finally! Romantic Entanglements

       I asked a good friend of mine that I worked with in the cafeteria one night if she wanted to go to Monticello and get a Coke. Well, on the way back to campus, I decided to park on a back road, a couple of miles from campus, to see if that friendship might blossom into something more. I soon saw that it was not going to happen. I was only a brother figure to her. She was due into the dorm pretty quick, so I turned the key. The car just would not start. We discussed what to do. She was a bold little girl, and she insisted I just run to campus and get a car. I was in pretty good shape then, so I did. I flung Jim Draper's door open, and hollered, "Get your car keys and come on!" He did, and we got her back to her dorm about 25 minutes after the doors were locked. Poor gal, she didn't even get a kiss out of the deal, but the dorm mother chewed her out good, and branded her a loose woman. In those days, a "good girl" just did not show up after the dorm doors are locked at 10:00 PM.

      Another girl I knew was a real beauty. She had been dating a big football jock for a couple of years, but they had broken up. After a while, I guess she was getting lonely, because one lonely weekend, she hooked up with me. She must have really missed making out with her ex-jock, because she moved into action really quick. Kinda shocked a slow mover like me. I had to go to work cooking breakfast at 4:30 the next morning, and she was right there, helping me. I had little experience with an aggressive woman like her, but still, I knew I could grow to like it.

      When my best friend, Ted Hobbs, got back to campus that night, the first thing I did was tell him all about it. ( College boys ALWAYS kiss and tell, in spite of what they may tell you girls.) He turned pale, then related a similar experience he had with her only a couple of days ago. He thought she was his girl.

Ted insisted that we both go talk to her right now. He wanted to settle this. I knew this was not the wisest course of action, but he was my best friend, so I went along. We talked to her outside her dorm. She got the drift in about two minutes, and she just dumped us both, right there on the spot.

      Though I was never a big talker, I just had a knack for saying the wrong things at the right time. I still do.

      Another girl I dated once was very straightforward. She just told me right off that she never planned to marry, and she realized she would always just have to just fill in her sex life whenever the opportunity arose. "However," she said, "I have a good reputation around campus, and I don't want to mess that up." She stopped there and waited for me to assure her that whatever happened between us would always stay between us. Well, I guess I always was somewhat of a Chicken Hawk. Even though I was as hormone laden as any other college boy, that little "Do right mechanism" just always seemed to pop up at the these times. This was my out. I never assured her of anything, and that's as far as it went. I never told that story to anybody on campus, she was also a friend. But stories of that side of her were soon circulating. Like I say, college boys just HAVE to tell of their conquests. They just can't help themselves.

      I called up a girl I knew named Peggy and asked her for a date to the dance. She turned me down, she already had a date. 20 minutes later, she called me back. She said she no longer had a date, and she could go.

      Just before we walked in the door at the dance, she stopped, looked at me kinda worried like, and asked me, "Are you real strong?" I said "No, but I can run a long way." She just shook her head, and we walked in. Right inside the door stood Tank, a big football jock. He was staring at me hard, and I soon saw the picture. He was the one she had broken the date with. I thought for a minute or two I might have to prove to her (and him) how well I could run, but he turned out to be a reasonable guy, and soon realized I was somewhat of a victim in this, too.

      I never tell stories such as those above to anyone. Only my computer. Alone with it in my room, it just seems totally trustworthy. I know I can trust it with my secrets. And, I never lie to my computer. That's not to say I tell my computer every single thing. Even a trusted computer could just start spewing it all out to the whole world someday. But what I tell, I tell it straight.

      That last year at A&M, I went to summer school. Two pretty girls started that summer, both from Watson. Pretty new girls make a big splash, and I was caught up in the backwash of one of them, Janice. We hung out together some, and I began to realize in our talks that she lived in the house in the delta I had gone to with Earl, to pick up that fox hound. She showed me her pictures in her wallet one day, and in one picture, I saw a beautiful girl in shorts. I said, "Who is THAT?" Well, she didn't like the idea of me going on about someone else while I was with her, and she grabbed her wallet, mumbling, "Oh, just a girl I live next to at home."  I had finally seen her. The love of my life. At the time, though, she was still just a picture of a very hot chick. She was still 6 month into my future. But I was closing in on Barbara Sue Dunnahoe, step by fateful step, getting ever closer.