Life Lesson

Be Careful What You Wish For — The Outcome May Not Be Desirable

A moment with this special man was all I wanted

I was enthralled with this guy from another department during the time I worked evenings at the local pocketbook factory. He walked past my station every night, about 15 feet away, and I wanted to meet him, but girls didn’t make the first move back then.

Each time he walked past, we would smile at each other, but he never came over to me. He gave me thoughts I never had and I wanted him to take me in his arms and kiss me — badly. It consumed my thoughts, and I waited for the night we would meet.

Young love

I was almost 17 at the time and asked around about him. Someone from another department who knew of him, said he was about 19 years old, which by the standards of the day, was too old for me.

That wasn’t the only deterrent — he spoke very little English — he was Latin, lived in an ethnic neighborhood, and was shy. Well, maybe shy at work because it would have been inappropriate for him to walk up to me there.

Back then girls were married right out of high school, and I hoped to be married sooner than later, too. At least that’s what my parents had planned for me.

Maybe he could be the one. He seemed to be enthralled with me, too. I hadn’t dated much yet and was ready for a boyfriend of my own.

From what I could see, he was about 5’10”, with curly brownish hair, a little mustache, a nice build, and an amazing smile. I knew little else other than what that girl told me.

When I mentioned him to my family, I was warned I should not get involved with someone I work with, someone I may not have anything in common with, and someone much older than myself.

“There are plenty of available men your age, why him?” I didn’t have an answer to that.

Time passed and we continued exchanging glances and smiles for months. I was hoping more would come of it, even a quick meeting in the parking lot for a hug or something. But nothing ever did. I was sure we could have found a way to communicate with each other if we had tried.

An opportunity lost

After I graduated high school I left the factory for a secretarial job. He may have still been there when I left, but I had never gone looking for him, nor had I tried to say goodby or send a message.

I just left, but I continued to think about him, and regretted never trying to find him on my last night.

I didn’t know what it was about him — his smile — those lips — that cute mustache, and I had this maddening urge to hug him and know him better, but I lost my chance.

I did learn that he lived near the shopping center my family and I frequented, but even though we drove through on many occasions, we didn’t seemed destined to ever meet again.

A chance encounter

Then one day, about a year after I left the factory, there he was, driving by me on the highway. We spotted each other and it was as if we were back at work as we exchanged smiles.

He had another guy in the car with him, and I had my mother in my front seat. Will he signal for me to stop my car?

So here I was passing this guy, whose name I don’t remember now as I write this, and he was signalling for me to pull over. I told my mom quite excitedly, “That’s the guy from work I told you about, I want to pull over, too.”

She amazed me by saying, “Go ahead!” which was out of character for her. Maybe she knew something I didn’t know, or she figured wanting something doesn’t always mean you’ll be happy when you get it.

I pulled over to my side of the road, and he pulled over on the other side. When he saw me leave my car, he quickly checked for traffic and then crossed the road to get to me. My car was slightly further up the road than his, so I ran toward him when I saw him cross.

I’m going to digress here. There was a song called Running Bear Love Little White Dove, which was popular in the early 1960s. Briefly, it was about a Native American boy who stood on one side of the river and fell in love with Little White Dove on the other.

As the song went:

“He couldn’t reach Little White Dove waiting on the other side — he couldn’t reach Little White Dove ’cause the river was too wide.”

Then one day, their longing to be together was too strong, he jumped into the river, then she jumped in and they met in the middle. They hugged and planted a kiss on each other’s lips, then “the raging river pulled them down.”

We smiled as we were closing in on each other and started opening our arms in anticipation of that first hug.

It was like a scene out of a movie.

He gave me a big hug, and I hugged him back!

And then he kissed me! The kiss I waited over a year for.

In that instant, while his lips were on mine, I wondered — when Little White Dove finally met Running Bear and it was too late to turn back, was she as disappointed as I was and had an “Oh, Poops!” moment?

I did!

He was not nearly as tall as he looked from far away, not as handsome, and quite a bit older than the age I was told. He was also still chewing down his lunch of pepperoni or chorizo or something, a few pieces of which found their way into my mouth.

It was one of my first and one of my worst kisses.

I gently pulled my arms away, politely smiled, then walked back to my car, and he walked back to his.

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