I’m Addicted To Reading About First Kisses Of Writers In The Memoirist

You will be too if you read them

I know what you’re feeling.

You wouldn’t write about your first kiss.

That’s what I told myself when I first read about the March prompt in The Memoirist, and I thought, Nah, I will pass on writing about that subject.

But then I found myself writing about my first kiss, and I enjoyed remembering my first kiss and I was fine sharing it with others.

The first kiss writer’s club

I enjoyed reading the first kisses by other writers, and it feels as if I’ve joined an exclusive First Kiss Writers Club of those who wrote about their first kiss.

I enjoyed Michael L Butler’s awkward story about his first kiss in a closet while playing spin the bottle. Ah, the 70’s. I loved those times.

It turns out he had something in his mouth right as was about to kiss the girl and he put it somewhere and then it got awkward like most first kisses.

Then there was Sally Prag’s awkward attempted kisses with baby-faced Ash and near misses with a guy with greasy hair and pimples. So she gave up hunting for her first kiss at eleven before her on-and-off-again saga with Paul.

See why I like these first kiss stories? They take you back in time to a different era and the awkwardness of adolescence when no one knew what was what.

Then there was the first kiss of Martha Manning, Ph.D., and who can resist a first kiss story that begins like this:

I was twelve. Cool twelve.

I’d been following this kid, James Flaherty, since the sixth grade. We sat across from each other and straddled “I hate your guts,” and “I have some unfamiliar feelings about you.”

We expressed our growing attraction by making duck faces at each other and passing negative notes down the long row of desks.

I caught myself scanning where ever I was for his presence. Once I spotted him, I immediately ignored him. Little did I know that ignoring someone at my age was a form of foreplay.

And then there was a nun who relished stomping out love and I hadn’t even got to the vomit part to see how these outward enemies had their first kiss.

Most of the kisses as you can imagine were not romantic. I mean, how can you consider kissing a kid named Bucky romantic?

Especially when the cigarette-smoking Bucky has all the finesse of a bulldozer with KiKi Walter at a make-out roller skating rink called Skateland… and your jeans have a small rip in the butt and your flowered panties are showing.

Oh, the indignity!

Cats eat ice cream

There is something funny, awkward, and nostalgic about first kisses. It’s like they happened in a different time and universe where cats eat ice cream and adolescents yearn to experience a kiss or they get surprised by someone who takes the initiative in achieving the rite of passage of a first kiss. Yes, they are usually awkward. Two girls practicing kissing. A girl asking a boy for a kiss.

They happened in roller-skating parks. On swings at the park. On playgrounds at recesses. In closets in basements. When a Coke bottle spins and points at you. On merry-go-rounds. In baseball dugouts. After church services. And the unifying theme is … well you have to read some of these first kiss stories.

But did I say the awkward? Maybe, two or three times.

And if you want to be “in” the exclusive First Kiss Writer’s Club, well, all you have to do is take about 45 minutes and write about your first kiss story.

You will enjoy the trip down memory lane. And might get a warm feeling.

Trust me, it’s fun.

Thanks for reading my story.

Shout out to Paul Walker and his story on his first kiss around 20,000 Christians at a concert.

Here’s the prompt. Tag me to your first kiss story :) I’d love to read it!

Join the First Kiss writers club with Sadee Bee, Hogan Torah, Rodrigo S-C, Reece Reid, Sarah Paris, Mary Lou Heater, Amy Von Blickhahn, Chrissie Marie Massey, Gerald Sturgill, Michael L Butler, and Lu Skerdoo.

Join The Memoirist if you haven’t already — it’s a great place for your personal stories. Just ask to be added as a writer on the story link with the prompt.

Here’s my first kiss story:

Or check out my YouTube video on 10 Medium publications to write for.