|
 Being from South Carolina and reared in a traditional Southern family where manners were taught in the crib and regarded with religious vigor, I embarked upon testing my manners at an early age with the opposite sex. In the fifth grade there was a beautiful dark haired blue eyed girl whom looked almost six feet tall sitting in the desk in front of me. We kept passing notes in class and finally we were caught and as for punishment, separated-This lovely girl was asked to take the first seat on the front row in directly in front of the teacher and I was placed in the back of the room next to the cloak closet. All girls from South Carolina of any social status were given double names and Mary Lynn was no exception. Being apart did not prevent me from still sending notes to her, passing them from student to student. The nerve hit me--if Rhett Butler could get a date--so could I. In one of the notes I asked Mary Lynn if she would go to the movie with me to see the horror movie--The Thing. Having getting permission from her mother and her mother talking to my mother the BIG DATE was planned. Mary Lynn lived six blocks from me and the city bus ran by both our houses--so she was going to get on the same bus as I was on to attend a four o'clock movie. She was on time -- the bus was on time and all connections were made-----the bus was nearly empty. Mary Lynn sat in the front seat of the bus and I sat in the back of the bus. When we got down town-----She walked about five feet ahead of me -- while I wondering--how the heck she got so tall. When we got to the movie we each got a box of popcorn which Mary Lynn bought. "The Thing" was the scariest movie that ever existed. I had already seen it nine times and knew when to scream and when to shut my eyes. Mary Lynn had never seen it, but she was in for a rude awakening. She sat in one seat and I sat in the seat right behind her and we kept talking. The Thing was a monster from out of space that was incased in ice from a space crash in the arctic. The first horror scene was when the some soldiers put an electric blanket over The Thing and it melted and got loose. The Thing was free and started chasing the soldiers-----that is when Mary Lynn let out a blood curdling scream and raced towards the exit. I finished watching the movie and met her at the bus stop. We boarded the bus and she took the front seat and I took a seat near the back of the bus. We got off the bus near her house and to show I really had manners, I walked her home--Mary Lynn five feet ahead the whole way. Needless to say this was not only my first date----it was my last date with Mary Lynn.
 
 |