You never forget your first girl friend

 You never forget your first girl or boy friend.

It was 1964.  I was in the Army stationed at Ft. Lewis.  I didn’t have a car, but my friend Gary did.

When the weekend came, we decided to go cruising and look for girls, but Gary wanted his car to look good and wanted me to help.  So we spent the day, washing, waxing, vacuuming and cleaning out his car until it was ready for any young lady to appreciate.

We drove up and down State and Fourth, “dragging the gut”  several times before heading into Kings Drive In.  We pulled into a parking spot and noticed, one stall away a car with two young women in it.  Gary said, “Bet you, you won’t go over and talk to them.”

“How much,” I replied.  “I’ll buy you a burger,” he said.  “You’re on.”

As I walked towards the car I noticed the driver was an attractive brunette while in the passenger side was a cute blonde with curls that hung down over her collar.

I tapped on the driver’s window.  She rolled it down and looked at me.  I reached in through the window, took her drink, downed as much of it as I could in one gulp and handed it back to her.  “Thanks,” I said and walked back to Gary’s car.

It didn’t take more than a minute before she was at our window.  I rolled down the window and heard her ask, “Why did you do that?’

“First of all,” I said, “I was thirsty.  And second of all, I wanted to meet you.”

Eventually we all got out of our cars and stood around talking.  The driver’s name was Margie.  She and her friend were from Shelton and came into the big city this weekend “just to see what was happening.”

We talked for a while and I got her phone number.  Gary got the other girl’s name.

I called her a few days later and made a date to pick her up in Shelton.   Gary was driving up because the blonde was coming as well.

In those days, there was no freeway to Shelton.  You had to take the long winding road along the bay and it took 45 minutes to an hour to get there.   We did the normal things on a double-date.  A meal, some talk and then a little “making out”.  Me and Margie in the backseat and Gary and the blonde in the front seat.

Gary and the blonde broke up.  He wasn’t going to drive to Shelton any more.  I  borrowed my brother’s car and went Shelton one time, met Margie’s folks, but that was the end.

The Army called me away to go for winter warfare training in Alaska at Fort Richardson.  When I came back, I was interested in someone else.  I thought of Margie occasionally but only saw her one other time.  I ran into her on the Capitol Campus.  We said “Hi, how are you?”  she responded similarly and we went on our way.

But, obviously, 60 years later, I thought of her.   Guess you never forget your first real girlfriend.