Early days up to first kiss

I don't remember when I started noticing girls. I guess it was sometime in my early teens, kinda like pretty much every guy. I just didn't seem to have time for them. I played hockey which took up 3 or so nights per week. I also had a couple friends that I'd hang out with any chance I got, playing street hockey, or skateboarding, or computer games. So yeah, I knew girls existed, I just wasn't sure how one would fit into my life.

I do know that I went to pretty much every school dance in junior high and high school when I lived in Estevan. Didn't actually dance though....just hid in the corner. Not only was I too shy to actually ask anyone to dance, but the few times that I got asked I begged out of it. I just couldn't do it. Everyone who knows me knows that I'm incredibly shy, but it's nothing compared to how I was back then. So basically, I'd go to the dances, sit around by myself, or chatting with a friend off and on between their dances, and just feel miserable. Repeat that monthly for the better part of 4 years.

Two side-effects from this is that I still don't really like to dance. And I pretty much hate all popular music from 1990-1993. Paula Abdul, Gloria Estefan, Madonna, Mariah Carey, Vanilla Ice, MC Hammer, Roxette, Bryan Adams, Michael Jackson, Janet Jackson, Amy Grant, C&C Music Factory, Whitney Houston, Mr. Big, Boyz II Men, Ace of Base, any pop-country (Garth Brooks etc) or Hair metal (Poison, Motley Crue etc). I guess I should follow this mess up with a post about the music I actually do like. To summarize though, most of what I don't like can be traced back to my years in Estevan. Commercial pop? Ick. If it's "the greatest song ever" this week, how come you can't even remember it in a year?. Pop country? If the only thing separating your "country" record from the "pop/rock" records is a steel guitar, a 5-gallon hat on your 2-gallon head, and some quasi-patriotic xenophobia....you're selling an image, and I'm not buying it. Hair metal? I'm not even going to address this, however I knew who listened to this kind of music in Estevan (pretty much every male) and I knew I didn't want to be like them, therefore.....well, you figure it out.

So, you're probably wondering now how I went from torturing myself at school dances and not actually being able to talk to any females to my first kiss. Or you're not. Or there's actually nobody reading this. Oh well, onwards.

My family on my dad's side is from the town/area of Gull Lake, Saskatchewan. A little ways outside of Swift Current, it's not much of a town, couple grocery stores, a pharmacy, beat up movie theatre, chinese food restaurant. Guess it's a typical Saskatchewan small town. Well, we used to head out there for a portion of every summer to hang out with my relatives, you know...the family thing. Well this one summer, and I'm not sure which one off hand, probably 1992 if I had to guess, my brother and I were playing basketball with my cousin who had come down from Saskatoon. Nothing too exciting, just taking turns playing 1-on-1, HORSE, or whatever. Well at some point a couple girls walked by, and my cousin being a very outgoing guy, called them over. The two of them came over, and started chatting, and eventually the five of us ended up hanging out pretty much all day. The one girl, ended up asking my brother out to a movie that night, which he took her up on. Not really sure why they were the only ones who went on a date, the other girl Kris seemed to be tagging along with me a bit.... but I did end up getting her phone number and address.

So through the fall and winter Kris and I wrote each other a couple letters back and forth, and talked on the phone a couple times. This was a few years before the invent of the internet, and this was how communicating was done back in the day. We didn't have your emails and your facebooks and your unlimited supply of porn. Nope, we had regular old Canada Post, $0.50/minute long distance, and a sticky mess of a Swank magazine that someone forgot in a truckstop bathroom.

So finally, after the months of communicating, it was time again for another family visit to Gull Lake. The first full day I was there I looked up Kris, and we met up to hang out. We walked around town a bit, not really doing anything, and decided to go rent a movie. For some reason I remember it was Police Academy 4....which if I recall correctly, had a pretty cool skateboarding scene. Her mom wasn't home, and I probably had tons of opportunities to make my move, but for some reason I didn't. Oh wait, not for "some" reason, but because I was fatally shy, and had never kissed a girl in my life. So yeah, we watched the movie, and chatted, and then went for another walk....

I'm not sure why, but I was supposed to be back to my aunt and uncles at 4 o'clock. And it was almost that time. Probably going out to the farm for supper or something. So Kris and I headed in that general direction. Somewhere along the line we started holding hands as we meandered our way across town. When we got close, we stopped walking to say our goodbyes. We ended up getting out of the middle of the rode and sort-of hid behind a ragged old garage. Finally I got up the courage and leaned in to kiss her. Just closed lips on hers. That changed quickly when she basically grabbed me and pulled me back in so she could jam her tongue down my throat. I quickly figured things out and we were soon kissing like crazy. I had to keep a step away from her because I had the worst (best?) hard-on of my life up to that point and was kinda freaked out about what I was supposed to do about it. I was pretty sure stabbing a girl in the leg while kissing her was poor form....but I didn't know what the acceptable alternatives were. So yeah, I was already way past my 4pm curfew, so I pulled myself away and walked gingerly until my gear was back to its normal state.

I got in all sorts of trouble when I got back to my aunt and uncle's place, but I guess it was worth it. Got my first kiss out of it. We wrote each other a couple more times, but I don't think I ever saw Kris again. My family left Estevan and moved to red deer in the summer of '93 and we started spending more of our vacations at my parent's cottage again rather than visiting family in Saskatchewan.