At Long Last Love?

I guess it is time to bring this "crush" thing through high school; then pre- and post-mission.  We'll see how far I get.

Sixth-grade, because my elementary school was running out of room, was spent at Orem Junior High School, as the youngest (and least privileged) class.  We did have lockers, which I thought was pretty cool.  The buildings were still pretty new.  The other thing I remember about sixth grade is that they introduced mat dances (short for matinee).  These dances were held right after school, just for sixth graders, and were primarily exercises in clots of girls looking and giggling, and clots of boys trying to stay just out of reach of Vice-Principal Zimmerman, who would try to push us toward the clots of girls to ask them to dance.  There were a few boys who figured out early that they could dance with pretty much anyone they wanted because the rest of us were too chicken to ask.  I don't remember any specific sixth-grade crushes, just one long year of quiet desperation.

Seventh grade brought on a whole new landscape, as we were mixed up and co-mingled with kids (some of them girls) we had never seen before (many of them legitimate crush material), and the mix changed with each class. Two new girls hit my radar: Bonnie Leavitt, who I would describe as 10 lbs of cute in a 5 lb sack, with, of course, dimples, and a perfectly coiffed mop of curly black hair.  She was also smart, witty, and totally beyond my reach.  We did have gym the same hour, which meant that when they tried to teach us to dance, our classes joined together and we were paired off by the instructors.  Failing to read my mind, however, they never once paired me with the bonny Bonnie.

The other was Deb Roberts...a more classic beauty...not a Mormon!  How crazy was that in Utah Valley?  But she was even more out of reach that Bonnie, because we didn't have gym the same hour, or any other classes for that matter, and she ran with a different crowd.

We did have seventh-grade dances, actually held in the evenings (7-9).  These were exactly the same as mat dances, except for the time.  Mr. Zimmerman was ubiquitous.

Eighth grade did little to erase my admiration for Ms. Leavitt, but Ms. Roberts was replaced by one Debora Steed.  I had always loved horses, and this one was no different (no comparisons to Julia Roberts, by the way...you know who I am talking to). She combined beauty and cuteness, something I had never seen...and super-smart, super talented...but she was science, I was band, and never the tracs shall meet.

I did have her for one class in ninth grade: seminary.  In fact, I only sat a few desks away from her; but by then I had relegated myself to admiring from afar.  

Seminary did bring some other opportunities, however.  I was President of our class, and as such, part of the seminary council with my friend, who was the overall Seminary President, Mark Pinegar.  At mid-year Mark's family moved, which saddened me, but I was called by our Seminary Principal, Brother Jones, to take Mark's place.  This meant I got to work closely with the executive council: me, two vice-presidents, and a secretary...and they were all female.  The Vice Presidents were Janene Marrott and Velda Cramer, and the Secretary was Becky Billings: all really smart and really talented.  But Janene especially stood out.  She was short, but a lovely bundle of energy, and we had something in common.  Her brother Robert had actually once gone on a date with my sister Michelle, leading to the "Carmel does it to me everytime" legend.  There were real possibilities here.

Unfortunately, timing is everything, and though I got to go to several meetings with her and the others, and got to be good friends with all, Janene was connected to another guy from our rival Lincoln Junior,  so I never got any further with her than with any others.  I think the last two years of High School she may have had a crush on me, but by then, I was running with a different group of guys and girls...like I said...timing is everything.     .           

        

Unrequited Love...

or, Hope Blooms Eternal

...So after another halcyon summer, I set my face for fourth grade, and further adventures, romantic and otherwise.  Of course that begs the question of how I was to have further romantic adventures when I hadn't had any previous romantic adventures...only disappointments.  

In fourth grade there were once again two: Rita, a short, athletic blond, dimples of course, and really smart, of course, who was attractive as much for her personality as her looks; and Nan Starley, a kind of geeky girl, super smart, and a piano player; but also taller by two heads than any of the boys in 4th grade.  I ruled Nan out early because of the height thing, and more's the pity.  She continued to be smart, and didn't gain much more height, so that by high school she had become the brilliant, talented, kind, graceful swan she was meant to be.  She was Young Woman of the Year at Orem High her senior year...made me wonder what might have happened if I had gotten in on the ground floor.  The what ifs...

But Rita was a worthy object, and things looked like for once they might be going my way.  My fourth grade teacher, Mrs. Smith, was also athletic (I think she minored in phys.ed.), and for our big performance for our parents, we were going to do this synchronized jump-rope extravaganza.  There would be individual jump-roping and negotiating two jump-ropes at once...but the centerpiece was to be an activity where the boys would line up in one column, girls in a column adjacent, and two by two we would pair off, (isn't this cozy...boy-girl, boy-girl), take your partner by the hand, and together negotiate three jumps over the twirling jump-rope before exiting and returning to your line.

It just so happened that, though I can't remember her last name, it must have been close to the L's, because she was paired up with me. That meant for every rehearsal/practice (and there were many scheduled) I would get to hold her hand at least once by teacher decree. The boys couldn't accuse me of liking one of the flea-ridden girls, because I had no choice; meanwhile I would be in Fantasy Land for several moments each week...and this time, NO WARTS! 

Fickle fate...we hadn't gone through more than two or three practices (each one a bit of heaven) when I came to school one week and Rita was nowhere to be seen.  I had a bad feeling, confirmed soon after class started:  Mrs Smith announced that Rita's family had moved across town (there was never any proof it was so she wouldn't have to be my partner), and we would have to reassigned partners for the paired jump-rope demonstration.  The extravaganza was a blur for the rest of the time.  I don't even remember who my partner was.  I am sure she was fine, but she wasn't Rita (or even Nan), and I felt a great kinship with a Bobby Vinton Song popular around that time:  

    Blue on Blue

So much for fourth grade.

I don't remember too much about fifth grade, crush-wise.  There was a girl I thought was kind of cute, though she didn't have dimples, didn't play the piano, and was only moderately smart.  She was one of a pair of identical twins, and for good reason, the school never put them in the same class.  They did not shy away from dressing the same and using their twin-ness to confuse people.

I remember in the spring we were assigned to work on a bulletin board together.  There musdt have been something else going on for others in our class, because we were just two of a few kids in class at the time.  At any rate, we started some kind of friendly joking, and by the end, she was try8ing to put staples in my back with the stapler.  I remembered my misguided attempts to get JaNae Anderson's attention in 3rd grade, and hoped this meant Sharon had some affection for me.

NEXT WEEK: The Teen Angst That Is Junior High