There's Something About Missy

My sister Elizabeth told me recently "Remember those girls from Onion Creek that I used to play golf with?"  I had to go deep into the memory banks, but yes, I did remember all 3 of them.  "One of them remembered you!"  Cue to go even deeper...

All of this will read like an 80s movie.  It was the summer of 1983, and I had just graduated from Austin High.  One day we heard there was going to be a party in Onion Creek and we decided to go.  No idea who was hosting.  Back then, if you heard there was a party you just showed up and looked for the cars and walked in.  I guess Elizabeth may have told me about it.

At the party I met Missy who I knew a bit from the high school golf community.  As a newly graduated senior I must have had some swagger.  She was probably only 16 then.  We talked for what seemed like a long time and even went to the local store to buy cigarettes with my friends John and Greg.  That was living on the edge!

Sometime later I was talking to her one night on the phone and she said they were having a pool party at her house.  "Maybe I should come over.." I suggested.  "Sure, come over" she said.

Ten minutes later, I was doing 85 mph southbound on I-35 in my dad's 1982 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme with my friend Clint.  "Time's a wastin'!!"  Back then, the speed limit was only 55 and 85 was the max speed on most speedometers.  To use the lingo of the time, I "had it pegged".  We got there and had a very chaste evening, swimming in the pool.  I recall that as a pretty nice night.

After then, we saw each other a few more times, but since I was heading to college in Virginia, there was no real future in this.  She saw that, particularly when we had a party at my house and I ended up dead drunk and passed out.  I told you this would be like an 80s movie, with Ben Stiller or Anthony Michael Hall playing my role.

But it took me a lot longer to get over that initial "crush".  I remember we talked on the phone for the next 4-6 months.  She had her own phone line in her room, which was very upscale for the time.  I'm sure when the phone was ringing about 10 or 11 p.m. she knew who it probably was.  This was of course before caller ID and when long distance rates went down after 11 p.m.  I do recall some night nights of talking on the phone.  It probably helped combat some homesickness being over 1,000 miles away.  For that, I'm thankful.

A lot of memories come back, even when I don't even remember holding her hand, much less a single kiss.  In hindsight, it was just two kids in Austin, Texas passing the time together for a summer back in a simpler time.   But that might be the happiest ending of all.