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.     .