Back when I was first on Facebook, I sort of got into doing these list-type posts. This one, called “Firsts,” was from March 11, 2009, when I still had a year and a half left of my life in California.
1. First Prom date?
Jeanne Crisinger, to my own senior prom in 1967.
I could be wrong, but I’m pretty sure it was the only prom I ever attended.
2. Do you still talk to your FIRST love?
No.
Although I do send her emails on her birthday. She’s 71 now.
3. What was your 1st alcoholic drink?
I think it was vodka and lemonade.
4. What was your FIRST job?
Delivering catalogs for the Fuller Brush man in Huber Heights, Ohio.
I didn’t mention that I was only 9 or 10 years old. I left them inside people’s screen doors and got paid 1 cent for every one I delivered. That wasn’t as horrible then as it would be now.
5. What was your FIRST car?
A ’72 Pinto. Bought it in the summer of ’74.
6. Who was the FIRST person to text you today?
I don’t text. I’m on the wrong side of 35.
I actually do text now, although I’m still on the wrong side of 35.
7. Who is the FIRST person you thought of this morning?
My wife.
And every morning.
8. Who was your FIRST grade teacher?
I don’t remember.
Oddly enough, the only elementary school teacher I don’t recall. Second grade was Mrs. Brown, who did not have a daughter, lovely or otherwise.
9. Where did you go on your FIRST ride on an airplane?
I was 17. DC to New York, a one-hour flight with six hours of weather delays while I was on the plane. We actually landed in Philly and sat there for a couple of hours.
10. Who was your FIRST best friend & do you still talk?
Monty Beakes when I was 5 or 6. Haven’t seen him since then.
11. Where was your FIRST sleep over?
I don’t remember. I don’t know if I slept at other kids’ houses as a child.
12. Who was the first person you talked to today?
My wife.
13. Whose wedding were you in the FIRST time?
My own, to Leslie Golman in 1975. We divorced in ’82.
14. What was the FIRST thing you did this morning?
Fixed my wife’s breakfast and went back to bed.
15. What was the FIRST concert you ever went to?
Al Hirt at U of Va in the fall of ’67.
In that school year, a also saw the Lovin’ Spoonful for a $3 ticket. That same fall, I spent a night at the Stonewall Jackson Hotel in Staunton, Va., for $4. Things really were cheaper then.
16. FIRST tattoo?
Never had one.
17. First piercing?
Nope.
18. First foreign country you’ve been to?
Pretty sure it was Canada, Expo ’67 in Montreal.
Went back once in 1979. Have never been to Mexico.
19. FIRST movie you remember seeing?
Old Yeller maybe.
More likely it was “Bambi.”
20. When was your FIRST detention?
I don’t remember. There weren’t many.
21. What was the first state you lived in?
California, when I was too young to remember.
Earliest memories are of Ohio at age 3.
22. Who was your FIRST roommate
Charles Owen Taylor at U of Va in the fall of ’67.
Chuck bragged that he had sex 200 times in high school. I did too, but not with other people.
23. If you had one wish. What would it be?
Happiness and success for my wife and kids.
Amen.
24. What is something you would learn if you had the chance?
Brain surgery.
25. Who do you think will be the next person to post this?
Don’t know, don’t much care.