The First Kiss

Anne and I had our first date serving at the Briercrest graduation banquet for the class of 1980. We were juniors – next year would be our graduation. All juniors had to serve at the grad banquet, and we needed to be in guy-girl pairs. Our friend Gowmatie told me that if I asked Anne to serve with me, she would say yes. After a year of working with Anne in Africa Prayer Band, I was seriously interested in her, so Gowmatie’s words were from Heaven. I asked Anne, she said yes, and we served together.

Not many days later on Good Friday, Anne and I got together to show each other some family pictures. We sat on the lawn in front of the Admin Building, facing out toward the athletic field, and after sharing our pictures, I made a little speech about how I could see myself marrying Anne, and that I would really want to pursue that possibility. Would she want to “go” with me? In briefer, less torturous words, she said yes.

It was Spring, and close to the end of the school year, but we were now a couple. We only had one or two actual dates before school was out, but we took walks around town and ate most meals together. People got great entertainment out of seeing me every day at suppertime standing outside Anne’s dorm, waiting for her. Then it was summer vacation, and a long summer of being apart. We wrote letters, and talked very rarely on the phone. There didn’t seem to be cheap long distance rates back then.

Senior year we were an obvious couple. But I was very cautious on two fronts: saying “I love you” and kissing. I did not what to mess things up; I believed in the dangers of “too fast.” Sometime pretty early in Fall semester I said the first “I love you.” I remember the thrill of seeing Anne’s breath catch when I said it. Anne also got the nickname “Twinkles” from her dorm buddies, because her eyes twinkled when she talked about me.

But the first kiss: when should it happen? Anne eventually got tired of waiting, and took the initiative.

We were double dating with our friends Sandi and Gerry, all 4 of us squeezed into Gerry’s pickup truck. We pulled into the crowded parking lot of the restaurant. Gerry backed into such a narrow spot that we knew the only way out of the truck would be through the windows. Gerry stopped the truck. All three had goofy grins. Sandi said she and Gerry would head in and get a table, and Anne and I should stay in the truck and talk for a bit. Gerry and Sandi wriggled out the driver’s side window and were gone. Anne was grinning. I was confused.

She turned to face me and put one hand on each of my hands. She said “Once there was a boy turtle (tapped one hand) and a girl turtle (tapped the other hand) who had gotten lost from each other at the foot of a mountain. But they had wanted to climb the mountain and enjoy the view anyway, so from opposite sides of the mountain they each started climbing.” And Anne’s fingers started climbing up my arms. Then all I remember is “blah blah blah turtle this turtle that” as her fingers kept climbing up my arms and shoulders until the turtles were reunited behind my neck. Then Anne said “But who wants to talk about turtles, anyway?” And she kept grinning, with her hands around my neck.

That’s how we had our first kiss.