It was Late Summer 1977 and High School was over....and much to my total surprise, a four year relationship with my High School sweetheart was over as well. I guess the part that hurt me the most was how it came out of the blue! A sucker punch in the form of a telephone call from a friend of hers. Already on her way... out of state... to get married. It was too late for me to reason with her or ANYTHING!. So final.
I stayed in THE ORANGE ROOM for weeks, even months. ICC was a new experience with new challenges and diversions from the hurt, but I was lucky enough to find comfort and reassurance from a friend I had known in school. It was a meaningful relationship, however short, that I'll never forget and always treasure. She helped me through those tough times and made me realize there was a big world out there. We dated for sometime but for one reason or another I moved on and always hoped that I hadn't hurt someone like I had been hurt the previous year. Love Hurts, Love Stinks and Love is not fair. My advise to my kids much later in life was...don't date anyone steady because one of two things will happen:
You are going to get you're heart broken OR you're going to get married!!! Each one is painful lol.
It must have been at least a year later that the blind date happened.
I can't even remember how the date was set up or how we met. She was only a year older than me, but seemed that it could have been TEN!!!
She had seen way more of "the world" that I. She had travelled a bit and was more mature. I was naive..... still a boy really.
I parked my old beat up car in front of the house and knocked on the door. Her parents were eating dinner and said hello as they directed me down the stairs where my date was getting ready. As the door behind me closed, a woman appeared at the bottom of the stairs! She had curly brown hair, very cute and not wearing a bra!!! She exposed herself briefly while slowly zipping her silk tour jacket from her waist up... only stopping when enough cleavage was exposed to make my head spin. My sneakers hadn’t even touched the bottom of the stairs and I knew I was out of my league!
Before I could get my tongue off the floor, she motioned me into the basement bathroom and pulled out a vile from her jacket pocked and asked if I shot up or snorted. What???
A syringe appeared and she asked me to tie this brown rubber band around her arm. I watched the whole thing and felt like I was in one of those drug PSAs we watched in High School. My stomach was in knots and I was VERY uncomfortable. She took the mixture that had burnt down in a spoon and shot it into her vein. I asked what it was and she said Cocaine. I guess I was expecting Heroin so I was a little relieved but not much. "You're turn", she whispered but I quickly declined.
We ran up the stairs and said our goodbyes and took off in my piece of shit car. Where do you want to party? I think I may have just turned 19, so I didn't really know many bars or how to even get there for that matter. She suggested a bar that had pool tables and told me where to drive. We pulled into the parking lot and I realized that I was in Alice In Wonderland and Alice was taking me to a biker TEA PARTY!!! She knew everyone by name and introduced me, but I can't remember much except that I played pool like the inexperienced fool that I was. When it was time to move on, I suggested the Kollisium in Ceve Coeur. At least I had been there once or twice and they had music. Luckily, I remembered my way there with out too much problem and we found a booth to sit in.
After about 30 minutes of conversation, I'm not sure why, but for some STUPID REASON, I suggested we call my good friend to come out and JOIN US!!!! Looking back many years later, it only reinforces how naive I really was. I guess I was nervous and felt that somehow that would be a good idea. GEESH!!! I don't know!!!! She looked kind of surprised I guess and within the hour, he was at the booth with us sharing a picture of beer.
I excused myself and went to the bathroom.....when I returned....THEY WE'RE BOTH GONE!!!
I looked around the club. I was a bit buzzed, but was I that bad that I had forgotten where we were sitting? I walked closer to the front of the club and caught the image of them leaning against HIS car MAKING OUT!!!!! She got inside and with a cloud of dust, they we're both gone!!!! My blind date had left with my best friend!!!! My best friend!!!! What kind of friend steals your date!!!!
I guess I couldn't blame him. She was bored and I had invited him on OUR date. I felt so stupid. I forgave him but never forgave myself for being such an idiot!!! I had been stung again!!! How did it feel? You deserved it, I thought. It was just one of life lessons I was learning. Childhood was gone and the waters we're going to be rough in the big ocean of life.
I returned that night to the comfort of THE ORANGE ROOM, humiliated and alone. I guess it all turned out OK in the end as she and I would have never worked out. I missed the secure feeling of a relationship with a woman... yet I knew that I could never go through the pain of a break up again. Unfortunatley, there would be more relationships and more hurt. That's life.
The blind date had taught me that to have loved and to have lost... is better than to never have loved at all. However, on this particular night...love was NOT LOST!!! IT WAS STOLEN!!! Just another tale of lost love, When Days we're Psychedelic....FROM THE ORANGE ROOM.
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