Back In The Day..

Remember break dancing and double-dutch?  Remember Phat Laces and "Fortune Tellers"?  Fortune Tellers, the folded up pieces of paper with colors and numbers and that told you who you were gonna marry, the type of car your have and how long you'll live?  Penny Candy???  Now-N-Laters and Chico Sticks?  Astro Pops and Boston Baked Beans... MIKE & IKE'S???  How about the first boy or first girl you held hands with?  What was his name?  Was it the Parachute Pants with all the zippers and shell toe Adidas that he always kept spotless (with a toothbrush) with matching Phat Laces that got you to swoon?  Fellas, was it because her Mom always hooked up her perm and she had the prettiest hair in class?  Or was the tight purple Jordache jeans that made your hormones scream?  Or was it because her breath always smelled like watermelon Now-N-Laters? What was the first song you slow danced too?  Love You Down by Ready For The World?  Shower Me With Your Love by Surface?  Or perhaps Ooh This Love Is So by Al B. Sure!?

Yeah, I know.  Damn...so much simpler back then.  I hope this trip back down memory lane was as good for you as it was for me.  The following is my Ode' to 1984.  If you weren't yet born or aren't familiar with the days of 1984 in the Mid-West...sorry, it sucks to be you. (JOKING, uh..seriously).  I hope you have as much fun reading this shortie...as much fun as I had writing it.

PUPPY LOVE

Something happened.  My heart stopped.  My fingers went numb, I felt like my feet were no longer touching the ground.  Sounds came through like I had water in my ears.  Her lips, I have dreamed of those lips.  They kissed me. 

She captivates me.  Her presence is a vastness of warmth and comfort.  A feeling of home and I don’t want to leave.  Her smile lifts me and the feeling I get when her fingers run down my arms gives me the simultaneous fire-n-ice feeling all over.  She speaks in a sultry alto and my toes curl. 

She still tastes like honey.  Soft as a summer breeze...my mind sends me.  She is Junior High lemonade stands, roller skates, Double-Dutch and Hide and Go Get It too.  She is the sweetest memory standing before me.  Warm and fuzzy things goin’ on in my stomach.  That crazy puppy love feeling I got when I first saw those pig tails and pink barrettes in the 5^th grade comes rushing in like the Atlantic did to the Titanic.  Now I am drowning.  Green eyes shock me back into living.  I was code blue, standing, stammering.  My first kiss has come back and now she stands before me and it appears that time has romanced her like I always dreamed I wanted to.  Her skin is the shade of cinnamon and maple syrup. Her green eyes dance beneath her light blue eye shadow.  High cheek bones and the fullness of her lips bring back the x-rated dreams of one pre-pubescent boy and run through my mind as she smiles at me and reaches for my hand.  My hand with the wedding ring. 

Her eyes tell me that she hasn’t forgotten our puppy love.