Terry

Granddad loved to kid around. I can still hear his loud gregarious laugh. He teased me saying that a boy in the neighborhood was … My boyfriend! At first, I didn’t know what a boyfriend was. We were about five or six years old back then. When we walked home from school, Granddad put me up to giving Terry a kiss. Try as I might, with granddad taunting, “Run Dane Run! Give him a kiss!” Terry squealed all the way home - Running as fast as he could, He always got away! Granddad laughed and laughed. I chased the poor boy almost every day. And Terry cried. But we were still friends. Then, came the day we had our first date. Our parents dropped us off at a movie. I think it was “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.” At the ripe old age of seven, maybe eight, It was the perfect choice. We sat there together with some older children. Holding hands never crossed our minds. Neither did kissing. (I guess the fun was in the chase And granddad laughing.) We went home awestruck by animations. We played a lot, never thinking about a kiss. My family moved away that same year. Terry grew up and married somebody else. We never did K-I-S-S at the movie… Or in a tree, or anywhere at all! But I always remember him fondly. Smiling! © July 9, 2011 Dane Smith-Johnsen