Fred, you have an excellent memory.
I don't have a story to rival that, but I do have one almost as old.
In 1992 my family moved to Macon, GA for a couple years. In 1994 I was 15 years old, was kind of a gangly kid, and had a weird sense of humor that most people didn't know what to do with. It didn't help that I was "not yet out of my shell" as my mom put it. One of my best church friends, Dennis, was a couple years old than me, had a car and was usually nice enough to drive me around. He was also very nice looking and had a charming personality, and girls generally were attracted to him.
One day a 17 year old girl came for a few weeks to visit family at that church, and she was drop-dead gorgeous, I thought. Well, we all thought. There wasn't a boy in the youth group who didn't slobber over her. We had some very nice girls at our church, and of course they were nice enough to ask her to socialize with us, and of course all the guys were more eager than usual to be in on it. But of course Dennis had the easiest time talking to her, because he had an easy time talking to everyone. She wound up going out with us several times, but--it seemed inevitable--she rode with Dennis and he got to take her around and spend the most time with her. Because he was usually my ride, I wound up in the backseat a few times feeling like a third wheel, but I didn't care. I was just enjoying daydreaming about being two or three years older so the girl in the front seat wouldn't think I was a just a kid. And about being very handsome so she'd notice me more. And about being comfortable enough with myself to talk to her. And about knowing what to say if I could talk to her. I really liked my friend Dennis, who at that time was more like a big brother to me, but for that couple of weeks I was kinda jealous of him. He remarked to me several times how gorgeous she was, how smitten he was, how he wished he had the means to keep up with her after she left, or that she would move there.....all I could do was agree with him.
She was from Beaumont, TX, and I think I only remembered that because it's rather close to where my family comes from in Louisiana, and I thought that was a small world....me growing up in Baton Rouge, this girl from near where my folks originate and where I frequently visit my grandparents, but meeting way off over in Georgia.
But the moment passed, she was gone in a couple of weeks and despite the time I spent around her, I'd barely gotten two sentences out. When not visiting her family, she'd spent most of her time with my buddy. Not long after that my folks moved to southwest Louisiana, and I remember thinking how that was close to Beaumont, and maybe I'd see her again sometime.
But I never did. I continued growing up, slowly becoming less awkward, perhaps more personable--never losing my odd sense of humor that I still swear most people don't get, though--and finishing high school and then college. In those years I became a bit of an in-demand musician in my area, particularly in churches. I spent a lot of time in Beaumont for the next 9ish years meeting people, playing music, chasing girls, and I always remembered her...I knew she almost certainly was affiliated with one of the churches I had connections to...but I never saw her again. Life went on.....I moved to Austin, thought I would be married a few times, but things didn't work out for various reasons, then eventually moved back home, and she.....well, she married fairly young.
To an asshole.
Three years ago the miracle of facebook suggested via mutual friends that she could be "People you may know." There was no mistaking her, she looked exactly the same to me. So we dated for a while and then as BC put it, I wife'd the broad, 24 years after wishing I could get a girl like that. I consider it a win for awkward teenage daydreamers everywhere.
I still see Dennis on facebook sometimes, and more than once I've had an overwhelming urge to send him a message to the effect of "HA! I GOT THE GIRL!!!!"
Confirming my suspicions that I was utterly unspectacular as a kid, my wife doesn't remember any of this. She remembers the trip to GA, vaguely remembers Dennis, and me not at all.
