Momster Memory - First Kiss

All this talk of vacations, and having just returned from my own family trip, has stirred up some interesting memories. We had a lot of great family getaways when I was a kid, but the most memorable of all of these was the year I had my first kiss.

Our family vacation that year was a road trip to PEI. It was the year before seventh grade so I was smack dab in the middle of that awkward tween stage. I didn’t have braces, but I was growing out a bad perm. It had been a pretty rotten trip for me. Long drive, long ferry ride, annoying younger brother. You get the idea. I stepped in an ant nest during a picnic and my ankles were covered in bites. I got car sick for the first time in my life. There was sand in my hair.

My swimsuit had disappeared somewhere along the way and my mom took me to the nearby tourist mart to get another one. It was a horrible red and white striped one piece that made me look like a barber pole. Unfortunately, the white stripes on the suit became see-through when I hit the water. Fortunately, I had some sort of allergic reaction to the suit and broke out in hives. You may think this was unfortunate as well, but it got me out of wearing the hideous thing. I ended up just lounging at the side of the pool, watching the other kids.

He was going to grade nine that year. He was tanned and handsome and looked just fine tossing the younger kids around in the water. He was the son of some of my parent’s friends, and much to my delight, we ended up getting tossed together (not literally, like the other kids). To the parents, it was a convenient babysitting situation. To me it was fate.

We were watching the younger kids one evening while all the parents went to dinner. There were seven of us crowded into one cabin. After a couple of hours of bed jumping and wrestling, the boys were finally asleep and I stepped out back for some fresh air and peace. It was a beautiful night, the sky full of stars. He came outside to push me on the swing.

And then it happened. His lips were kind of hard, and I could feel the peach fuzz on his face. My heart was pounding, probably more from sheer terror than anything else. It lasted about three seconds. And that was it. My first kiss.

They say you never forget your first. It’s always special. And I still think about it now and then when the sky is full of stars. Or when I break out in hives.