Suzie
A very, very, very long time ago ... so long ago, Eisenhower was still president - there was this girl you see ...
3 foot two; eyes of blue. At the time.
I remember her mother and mine being good friends.
I remember Scott White ... but I don't remember getting into a fight with him over her. But she does.
I remember smoking corn silk cigarettes with her behind the garage.
I remember discovering the differences between boys and girls with her ... behind the garage. When too young to care.
I remember that garage ... :)
I remember "breaking up" when her family moved away. (Kennedy might have been President by then. Maybe not yet.)
I remember our family moving away ... then her family moving into the neighborhood we had moved to.
I remember we got "engaged" on our front porch. Kennedy was President by then.
I remember she was the first girl I saw naked when I was old enough to appreciate such things for what they were. Earlier didn't count.
(I remember it was a couple more years before that happened again.)
I remember our paths splitting apart when puberty hit. Way apart.
I remember her complaining I spent too much time studying and not enough partying (just how much was enough???)
I remember my youngest brother asking when she had gone into heat when she got pregnant young.
I remember hearing she died in a drug deal gone bad down in Mexico someplace.
I remember finding out - 40 years later - she hadn't died. (But I had gotten used to idea she had died.)
I remember finding she had tuned into a burned out, worn out, bedraggled druggie living on welfare in "public housing".
I remember finding out we had nothing in common except hazy, half-remembered, no longer desired memories.
I remember today is her birthday.
I know memories can carry more weight than reality.
Happy Birthday, Suzie. I know where you are ... and it doesn't matter anymore.
