Courting the Tallahassee Lassie – NO, not a reference to the TV series that had a collie as the star – the reference is to a 1960 song by Freddy Cannon of the same title. So to make things simpler, let’s just call her “El” for short, OK?
Idaho and I had a time trying to date girls that were a 3 hour drive away. Our crazy navy work schedule didn’t help matters much since we might go out to sea from 5 days to 2 weeks at random intervals and then add in our “duty days & weekends” while in port – just made for a lot of creative juggling. Luckily, the ladies were fine with coming out to see us on a regular basis, or maybe it was just an excuse to go to the beach since we were providing the hotel room. I don’t recall how long it took until Idaho and I stopped sharing the one room to permit “more privacy.”
At some point came the obligatory meeting of the parental units. She had three younger brothers, the oldest was a bit odd – but a nice kid. The younger two were a ball to play with. Her mom was the classic Italian, all hugs and “eat, eat, eat.” The father and I didn’t hit it off too well. He was Mr. Great White Hunter & Sportsman; remember how well I developed (not) my love for hunting and fishing with my step-father? Besides that, you could tell that there was “an air” about him, or at least I felt like some poop that he just stepped on and couldn’t get off his gucci loafers.
Being immersed into El’s family life had a significant influence on my perception of where I wanted the relationship to go. In ways, it was too noisy and complicated for an only child like myself. But seeing how she interacted with her brothers (kind of like a mini-mom) made me think she’d be a great mother. Of course I developed an opinion of myself that I could be a good father because of how well I got along with her younger brothers (despite my male role models). However I did learn later that fatherhood is a lot more than just being a playmate.
As part of the 1970’s courtship ritual, I continued to press El for sex and after countless sessions of heavy “romancing,” I got my way and stole her virginity. But for once it did seem “right” because at the time I was firmly convinced that “she was the one,” and you would have never been able to convince me otherwise. But was it right?
No it was not. It was definitely a theft of immense proportion. With her virginity came love, trust, and things I’ll never understand because I never took the time to discuss it with her. It was not mine to take, no matter how willing she was. Chivalry should not have been dead that night or the subsequent nights that followed.
The courtship developed into sort of a pattern and about 8 months later I asked her to marry before I had to go to Virginia for a navy school. She said yes and we made plans to tie the knot when I came back from my second deployment.
I missed the start of the 2nd med cruise thanks to the school I was in and upon graduation, it was a plane trip to Greece to catch the ship. The new school didn’t get me off of the carrier; it just put me into a different job, replete with new faces and levels of stupidity.
You’d think that someone who had just got engaged to the love of his life would honor that commitment; nope, not me. I had a new band of shipmates to get drunk with and chase international whores. Some of us just have trouble figuring things out, and it would be another 35 years before I saw the light.
On to Matrimony – Take One.
Or back to the previous blog Matrimony – First Contact.
babychristian55 