Blast from the Past

For those of you who pay close attention to defiantmuse's blog, you may recall mention of a
youthful ring-pop proposal last month. Since C has asked me to write about something from our past together - I thought I'd give you my side of that particular story.

C and I were young when we first met - 16 and 18 respectively. I realised just how young the other day when I came across an old photo album of my first visit to Louisianna in 1998. Staring back at me from those pages were two stick-thin young things I barely recognised - and yet it all flooded back, reassuringly familiar images that conjured up the sights, sounds, smells and experiences of our first Easter together.

I remember every detail of those first few days - driving round in C's car staring in wonder at the moss dripping off old trees; the smells of Lake Ponchartrain mixing with the smoke from my menthol cigarettes as we drove over the Causeway; being slightly scared of C's mom who was so different from my own; and of course that magical first night filled with moonlight and our first kiss!!

We made a trip out from Louisianna to visit C's dad in California - evidently he was keen to meet the young British girl who had stolen his daughters heart. Three things stand out above all else from that trip for me.

One - on arrival at LAX airport we were picked up in her dads' old Tercel. He drove us out to the beautiful coast (was it Zuma?) where we sparked up a J and all got high and giggly together as we got to know each other. To me - a pretty shy, middle-class school girl from Loughborough, UK - this seemed the height of liberal sophistication and I remember thinking to myself "I didn't know parents could be soooooooooooo cool!". Sitting on those rocks at Zuma Beach and holding C's hand as we looked out over the Pacific Ocean will be one of those enduring memories for me.

Two - Of course a few days later, her dad's liberal parenting backfired slightly when they decided to throw a party to introduce us to all their friends. C and I decided to do a few tequila shots just before the party was due to start in the early evening and her dad racked them up for us. I'd never drunk tequila before in my life and after the initial shock of the first shot burning down my throat, C and I gradually picked up the pace. We must have done 10 shots in the space of about 30 minutes (or at least that's how my tequila-addled brain recalls it)! Flash forward to the excited guests arriving, all looking forward to meeting a grown-up C and her new young British girlfriend. Sadly, by this point, we had already passed out in the bedroom - our heads held precariously over buckets of drool as we tried desperately not to vomit. lol. My next memory of that night is waking up hours later after all the guests had left - we'd missed our own party! That was and will remain the only time in my life that tequila shall ever pass my lips...

Three - And now to that ring-pop! As the days passed, C and I grew closer and closer. This trip was our first actual face-to-face contact with each other - but somehow it felt as if we'd known each other for years. We were young and idealistic and we believed with all our hearts that we were destined to be together, that fate had brought us together, that we completed each other, that we would love each other forevermore. Of course, that last part is probably true in one way or another, but we were naive in our teenage understanding of the world and we believed that our love alone could conquer the 5000 miles that separated our daily realities. Nonetheless, at the time, our true love seemed boundless, all-powerful and we decided right there and then to spend the rest of our lives together. C was braver than I and she sealed the deal by getting down on bended-knee and proposing to me on Venice Beach one night - with a red rose and a cherry ring-pop! It was the cutest thing - and it's easy to snigger now, with the benefit of hindsight and 10 years of living behind us, but it was the truest proposal and I accepted it with a happy heart.

The next day, we returned to Louisianna and from there I made my way back to rainy England with that ring-pop (it was a little sticky by then). That commitment to each other was strong enough to see us through the next 5 years - on and off, backwards and forwards. Though it was seldom easy, I wouldn't change a thing about our past together - those experiences shaped who I am today. Now we live separate lives - we've seen each other once in the last 5 years, we have both found other loves and sorrows in adulthood and lived life to the full since that first meeting 10 years ago. But first love endures. I know it always will.