by Donna Swagerty Shreve
I first saw John walk into the U.O.P. band room his freshman year. He was tall, dark and quite striking, yes, good looking. He played in the trumpet section and I sat across the room in the clarinet section. I could catch glimpses often as I scanned the room. Other girls also saw him and started their own attempt at allure. I waited and watched. We had chatted a few times but he was now dating another girl who had thrown herself at him. On our first band tour, she ran up and put a safety pin on his shirt as if she was claiming him as her property before the tour even began. I was not impressed. Some flirting happened on that tour but nothing that amounted to much.
I had been watching him that term and he was not my type. He and a friend decided to see if they could date every available sorority girl on campus and were surprised when they were so successful. After all they were only freshman but the sorority girls certainly didn’t care. I convinced myself he was not for me. What a show off!
Toward the end of that school year he caught my eye and crooked his pointer finger and beckoned me to come to his side of the room. The nerve! I responded with a beckon of my own. Then I countered with various other things one can do with a pointer finger. His frustration grew and he finally came to my side of the room. He approached and said, “You have something that I want very much.” I am trying hard not to roll my eyes. I replied that I doubted that. We continued our banter until he finally gave in and said he needed to borrow my parents’ big station wagon to move out of his dorm room into another place on campus where he would be staying the summer as he worked on construction. He helped build the Wendel Phillips Center building. I agreed to get the car and but that became awkward as I came with the car. I don’t remember the details of the move but I was along for the ride.
That summer I worked as a lifeguard at West Lane Tennis Club earning money life guarding and giving swimming lessons. I came home one day all spent from being in the sun and putting in some long hours. Mom took one look at me and suggested I might want to clean up as a certain John Shreve was coming to dinner in another hour. I was stunned.
“Did he call?”
“Oh, no I called him. In fact I had to get him out of the shower.”
“What?”
“Well I felt so sorry for him, working all day in the hot sun and not getting any home cooked meals.”
“MOM!”
“Better hurry up, dear.”
I did make an attempt at cleaning up and John arrived to have a home cooked meal plus Mom even removed a splinter he had in his hand. We chatted after dinner and he went home as he had to work the next day and so did I. We then began our 17 dates marathon of dating with no good night kiss. John would spend a lot of our “dates” telling me what other silly girls had done to him or his friends that was not cool. I became determined not to be one of those girls. Our dates were quite chaste as I was not making any moves and he seemed to be to be waiting for me to put the moves on him. Ha!
Previously one day in our shared Psychology class in the spring semester, John had given me a gum wrapper trophy for my sex appeal as he was rushing out of class. A gum wrapper trophy has a solid base and a cup on the top. I have tried since to copy his talent and been unable to be so clever. Stunned at the time, I did not react much but did keep the trophy on my bookcase in my room. Fast forward to the summer and our marathon dating. He would call ahead and see if the Fiat was available. My brother and I shared it and took turns. We had many adventures in that car as that beat-up Fiat seemed to need more water than gasoline.
Mom and various friends were asking me what it was like to kiss a trumpet player and I couldn’t honestly tell them. The pressure was mounting. It is now date number 16. Towards the end of that date I announced that I had a “little S” or surprise for him when we got back to my house. This “little S” was a reference to a story he told me about another girl who mistakenly thought she needed to be more aggressive with him when in truth her “little S” was the last thing he wanted from her. Her “little S” was disrobing in her car. I now had John’s full attention.
We parked in front of my parents’ home and proceeded to the well-lit front porch. I told John I had to go inside for a bit and would be right back with his little S. I returned to the door and opened it just enough for me to hand him the gum trophy. I said, “I am returning this as I obviously haven’t earned it.”
“What! You can’t do that.”
“But I just did.” And I closed the door.
The next day became our seventeenth date. John had called ahead to make sure the Fiat was available. John drove us out to the delta. We sat in the car a bit in silence. I finally said, “Why don’t you do what you came out here to do?” He replied, “Of course, that is a great idea.” He got out of the car by the levee and stood there looking at the moon with the water lapping gently at the levee’s sides. After giving a big sigh, I left the car after he did and watched him skipping rocks into the water. I rolled my eyes and found my own rocks to join in the activity. Soon he comes up behind me and wraps his arms around me. He then suggested I turn around and look at the moon over his shoulder. We are now nose to nose. I finally gave in and leaned in for our first kiss. When we broke apart he said, “I could almost like you.” When I announced to my friends and Mom that we had finally kissed, they both said they didn’t need to hear any more.
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