Fantastic Four Fishing Stories - Chapter 4

Time really flies by when you get busy! Finally posting the 4th chapter of my fishing stories. They have been fun to write and even more fun to remember. I get a little homesick for Alaska as I think of the many experiences I had as a teenager in Homer.

In the summer of 1985, we decided to take a couple days and go fishing around Sheep Creek. Sheep Creek is one of the rivers that feed the Kachemak Bay. The mouth of the river is about 30 miles from downtown Homer. We could drive about 20+ miles of it but then it was all wilderness after that. We didn't have any ATV's or horses so we contacted Lynn Tietjen, a good friend of ours who lived on the East End Rd which led the direction we were going.

Lynn was dating my older sister, Melinda, at the time. He was a great guy who like us, loved the outdoors. He and his family had some horses and he agreed to make the trip with us.

I was pretty excited as I hadn't been horseback riding much. This would be my first real ride. When we got to Lynn's house on a Friday morning, Lynn already had the horses gathered and fed for the trip. We went to the barn and fetched the saddles. Lynn then assigned us our horses. He told me I would be riding the "paint" horse. He was a gelding and was very well broken in for any rider. Lynn would ride his personal horse, which was a large muscular horse. It was a beautiful bay gelding. The last horse was a white horse with few black and grey markings. He was a stud horse and Lynn said he could be a bit of a handful at times. I was happy that my Dad would be riding that one!












We began our journey and rode about 5 miles or so up and down some hills and across a couple of large wide open spaces. We eventually came to an old abandoned homestead cabin. We decided to rest the horses and have some lunch. Lynn had brought up some homemade burritos that were double wrapped in aluminum foil. He started a fire and once there were some hot embers, he dug a spot in them and placed the burritos in. Then he covered them up with the embers he had removed. In about 6 or 7 minutes we had nice hot food. Best burritos ever! :)

After lunch we climbed back into the saddles and rode the horses down to where Swift Creek enters the bay. We turned the horses up the coastline towards the Fox River and Sheep Creek drainage. I remember seeing a bunch of old abandoned fishing boats along the coast. Many, we supposed, were probably taken by the seas and later washed up to shore. Some of them were obviously once owned by some of the many Russian natives that still live in much of Alaska today.

The horses were riding pretty well. Dad's stud was having his moments though. Once he sat down like a stubborn mule with Dad still on his back. Lynn tried all sorts of things to entice the animal back to it's feet. I honestly don't think any of his antics worked but the horse did eventually stand back up and we were on our way again.

At the head of the bay the landscape opened up with fewer trees and some grazing land. There was some cattle here and there but they paid us little notice. After a short while we came to the Fox River and Lynn told us we would need to cross it. There was a lot of water in the river at that time and I wasn't sure of the situation. Lynn gave us specific instructions on how to handle the horses in the water so that they could manage the river bottom with their hooves. He said he would go first and that the other horses would be more apt to follow once he was on his way.

I was surprised that the horses did just that. We followed him without hesitation. We were quite surprised at the depth of the river. I felt like the horse was swimming more than walking along the river bottom. I felt the cold water enter my boots and soak through my pants. Good thing it was fairly warm out that day, or we might not have ever dried out. It took a few full minutes to finally reach the bank on the other side. Dad and I both cheered as neither of us had ever rode across a river before.

After the river crossing we came to Sheep Creek. We followed it upstream for a few miles. The brush had become very thick and some of the overhanging tree limbs almost knocked me out of the saddle. I'm sure the horses were bothered as well but they continued to trudge through. After a couple more hours we finally came to a nice clearing that would be good for the tents so we made camp.

The area was beautiful and the Fox River and the Sheep Creek were flowing nearby on opposite sides of us. There were some large leafy trees where we tied up the horses to graze. We removed the saddles and let them cool off. Their backs were lathered in a sweaty foam!

We ate a quick dinner and decided that we still had a few hours of sunlight so we would start fishing. (One of the great things about an Alaskan summer!) We were hoping that the Sockeye salmon run was happening so we rigged our rods accordingly. We waded out into the Fox River and tried a number of techniques but to no avail. No salmon that we could tell. We caught one or two other fish, mostly small Dolly Varden, but nothing else.

We decided to call it a night and we would see if there would be better luck in the morning. I slept like a baby listening to the river flow and the howling wolves and the occasional snapping of branches as a moose or deer walked nearby. I just loved being in nature.

The next morning we arose and quickly ate breakfast. We had some good conversation and I mostly enjoyed Lynn describe his time in England as a missionary. He told a story of how he was sitting around the table with a family and when they offered him more food he exclaimed, "No thanks, I'm stuffed."  He said this caused a great laughter among the family and he was confused. They then told him that in England, when you say you are stuffed it means you are pregnant!" That was awesome!

After breakfast we gathered our fishing gear once again and headed to the river. It was the same as the previous day. Not many fish. I began to walk along the bank downriver from where Lynn and Dad were fishing. I came to a little stream that was feeding into the river. The water was slow moving and very clear. I saw something large move in the shallows. I looked closely and saw a fairly large Dog salmon, also known as a Chum. It was fat female that looked like it was at the end of it's life. I decided to try and catch it and show Dad. I knew he wouldn't like the salmon, cause he had said they weren't as tasty, but perhaps we could find some use for the eggs that it was getting ready to lay.

I took my fishing pole and stretched it slowly out over where the fish was setting. I dropped my small spin-n-glo down about 3 feet in front of its head. I let the water drift it slowly down until it was almost directly in front of the fish. The fish frightened me a little when it went from a very docile state to a flash of power and speed as it gulped up my hook. The fight did not last long. The salmon had obviously used it's energy getting to this part of the river and had nothing left to save itself.

I hoisted the fish up and checked the underside for eggs. I squeezed the body slightly and sure enough a bunch of little orange eggs appeared. I hurried back upstream and showed my Dad what I had caught. Sure enough he was not impressed with the salmon, but when I showed him the eggs, I could see the twinkle in his I and knew he was pleased.

We killed the fish and then slit open the belly, careful preserve as many eggs as possible. We then began to take the eggs and position them in clusters on our hooks.  We walked out into the river and cast them out hoping that our luck would change. And it did. In a big way. Let's just say we lost count as to how many fish we caught off of those eggs. But we fished until every egg was gone. We didn't catch any salmon, but we caught a lot of large Dolly Varden. The little ones were each over 4 pounds! Some of the bigger ones were 6-8 pounds. It was a blast!

The fishing lasted for hours until we were finally to hungry and tired to continue. We ate something, packed up, and headed for home. Completely satisfied with our triumph.

The ride home was much like the ride in. The river crossing was smooth and we were much more confident riding across. We decided to take a slightly different route once we hit Swift Creek. We climbed up the hill further and rode ac

ross the plateau above. We were able to let the horses speed to a full gallop. The wind against my face felt wonderful and I could smell the sweat from my horse as well as the grass and the salty air. I closed my eyes and felt the rhythm of the gallop. It was an amazing sensation.

We eventually arrived at a little ranch and we could see some people outside working with their own horses. Lynn obviously knew them and we rode directly onto their property. They greeted us and we told them about our little trip. They were very nice and brought us some drinks. We couldn't stay long so we finished our drinks and said our good byes. We began to ride along the outside of their fence when Dad's stud started to get all excited about something. I thought he was going to buck Dad right off the saddle. The stud jumped forward and then raised its head. He quickly lowered it and shook it back and forth. I thought he was crazed. Then we noticed what the commotion was about.

Racing from the other side of the corral was a big brown mare and she seemed to want to get to know Dad's horse. The stud was frustrated as the fence was blocking his access to her. She turned and backed herself up to the fence and to my surprise the stud lifted his front legs over the fence and onto her haunches. Dad was barely hanging on and I could tell he was more than a little nervous. Lynn tried to grab Dad's reigns and lead the stud away but the stud was not interested in going anywhere.

Luckily the owners of the mare saw what was happening and had ran down to help. They took the mare's harness and pulled her forward away from the stud. Before the stud lost her underneath him, he lifted himself back over the fence and onto the ground. He reared back a few more times and snorted heavily. The mare fought as well but with less force and soon was taken into a small barn. It took a little longer to calm the stud down, but eventually he did and Dad was able to control him. We wasted no time hurrying away from the location of the mare and getting to Lynn's home.

All in all it was another great trip with my Dad. Fishing is something that we loved to do together. Today we still enjoy it and try to go together often. Idaho fishing is awesome but there was some magic during my time in Alaska that will live with me forever.

Fantastic Four Fish Stories - Chapter 3

     The third fishing story is truly one that people would question if there had not been so many witnesses. My best friend Tony Darling, his dad, Jim, and my Dad and I went to a place called Halibut Lagoon across the bay from Homer. We took Jim's boat. It was larger and had an open bow. The main reason was because it had a real working motor.
 
 Halibut Lagoon was absolutely beautiful. It was a little inlet of water that you could only get into during the hi-tide and you would have a limited time before you had to head back or be stuck there until the next hi-tide. It was surrounded by gorgeous mountains all the way around except the small opening where the water came in. It was somewhat shallow and you could see the bottom very well.

     We could see flounder, lots of different crab and other fish all over the ocean floor. We were there to fish for Chinook or "King" Salmon however. At the opposite end of the lagoon from where the Ocean's opening
was, there was a small river that emptied into the lagoon. This attracted many of the salmon who would spawn in the fresh water. This was a great time to fish for salmon because they were still in the saltwater and had not yet taken on the harsh deteriorating characteristics that were caused by life in the fresh water.

     On this particular day the sun was shining and the temperature was mild. For Alaska it was the perfect Summer day. We were fishing with a little different technique on this day. We were "snag" fishing. Snag fishing is where you do not use bait but rather you cast out a heavy treble hook into an area where you believe some fish to be and you reel it in hoping to "snag" onto one of the fish. It is not easy to do and is not my favorite way to fish at all.

     Tony and I didn't really snag fish too much but rather we were content to use the normal "spin & glo" lure. After a short time my Dad was able to spot some large salmon thanks to the help of his fancy polarizing sunglasses. He readied his pole and with a small cock of his reel he catapulted the large treble hook to land just beyond where he had seen the fish. He then began to reel it in and after just a short couple of reel rotations the pole arched and a glistening salmon flipped out of the water. It was amazing. Even from a distance you could see the reds, blues and silver scales on the fish. It fought valiantly. It jumped out of the water many times, drawing ooh's and awe's from all of us. Dad was very patient and slowly wore the fish down. Finally he reeled it in towards the boat and Jim scooped it up with a large net.

     The fish was the most beautiful fish I'd ever seen. We figured it to be about 25lbs. Dad was so excited and said that this was the fish that he would have mounted and hung in the house. We admired the fish for a short time and it was good seeing Dad so happy. He gave it a kiss and then ran the cord through it's gills and set it down over the side of the boat. This would keep the fish alive and fresh until we were ready to leave.

     We continued to fish for a while keeping an eye on the time so that we wouldn't get caught inside the lagoon during low-tide. We caught a couple more fish on the lures but none of them were as nice as Dad's fish.

     When we finally decided to call it a day and head back we noticed the fish was frantically flopping along the side of the boat. We figured it had begun to die and was giving it's last fight to get away. We were quite surprised however when we turned to see a seal swimming away from the boat. Dad violently jumped towards the fish line and pulled it up. At first the fish looked OK until Dad turned it

around so we could see what had happened to his prized catch. There in the belly of his perfect fish was a perfect semi-circle bite right out of the mid section. Dad's face went white and I thought he would cry. But in no time at all, his face heated to an intense red coloring. I could see his jaw muscles were flexing as he bit down in anger.  He grabbed his pole and quickly flung the big treble hook towards the seal that was quickly swimming away. It missed by a couple of feet and Dad tried to reel it in as fast as he could so he could get off another try. Jim grabbed onto his arm and said "He's gone, Mike, just let him go."

 
 Dad was breathing heavily and slowly hung his head with his shoulders slumping.

     On the way home Dad said he really wanted to laugh because the whole incident was funny, but he just couldn't get the thought of that beautiful fish out of his mind. He relented however when Jim let out a roar of a laugh and Tony and I joined in. Jim said "I swear that seal turned around and smiled at you."

     Dad said, "That's why I wanted to snag him, he was mocking me!". Now all four of us were laughing!

Fantastic Four Fish Stories - Chapter 2

        Here is one of the great fishing outings I had with my Dad that was very eventful and another great bonding moment for my Dad and I.

I will start by saying that Dad and I were not the smartest guys to have ever challenged the great Pacific Ocean.  This story will more than prove that! One day this almost proved to be our doom.  The world's largest ocean will take full advantage of those lacking logic, common sense or as in the case of my Dad and I, a combination of the two.

One day we went out in our ginormously, huge 13-ft aluminum skiff that my dad had used for years.  It was pretty beat up and we used a souped up (how my Dad says jury-rigged) 10.5-hp motor that worked about 40% of the time.  Most people who had the privilege of seeing the motor thought that my Dad had actually built it himself out of a bunch of random parts he found.  It was something you might see a couple of young boys using to putter themselves around a small pond. To use it in the grandest body of water on Earth was quite..... remarkable. Yes, that is the word we will go with.

       We put our boat in the water near the mouth of the Anchor River. We took the traditional 15 minutes waiting for the motor to start and then putted out about 500-700 yards out off the coast just outside of Anchor Point.  We set the anchor and dropped our lines in hopes of landing a nice halibut. For bait, we were using pieces of Irish Lord, the ugly fish mentioned in my previous post. As we quietly floated we talked and enjoyed the cool summer air and the relaxing sounds of the ocean as it gently rocked the boat. It was a beautiful day and those moments in the great Alaskan outdoors were the ones I cherished the most.
After about 30 minutes or so, I looked out in the distance and saw a large black sailboat.  I thought that it was interesting that someone would use a black sail.  It reminded me of the pirate stories I'd read as a kid.  After a few moments of watching the sailboat we noticed that it went under the water line and didn't come back up for a while. When we saw it again it had moved a considerable distance while it had been under water.  This is when we realized it was not a sailboat at all, but rather a whale.  I normally didn't think much of seeing a whale in Kachemak Bay or the Cook Inlet but something was not right about this whale. It wasn't a big harmless krill eating whale. It was a meat eating Orca Killer Whale! Dad told me he had never seen a killer whale out there before.  It was pretty cool to see.  We were alarmed at how big the whale was for us to think that it's dorsal fin was a sail! We laughed hard at our mistake as it was a pretty funny goof.
It was only funny for a short time, however, as we began to realize that the giant dorsal fin had turned and was now heading directly for our boat.  At first we had no reaction other than continuing to watch it.  But it didn't take long for us to realize that the whale was getting closer than we were comfortable with.
"Pull the anchor!" my Dad said slightly raising his voice.  I was pulling the anchor before he even finished telling me to do so.  As I was hoisting the anchor rope as fast as I could my Dad quickly reeled in his line and began to prime the motor.  Of course it wouldn't start on the 1st pull of the cord!
I finished with the anchor and began to reel in my own reel while my Dad yanked the cord a second, third and fourth time.  When I finally had my reel ready my Dad was on the eighth or ninth pull.  In the mean time the whale had made considerable distance and was now only about 30 yards away.  Dad looked at me and I looked at him and then he said, "I love you, Horace."  I knew what he meant and the realization of what was about to happen began to envelop me.
We watched the whale submerge below the surface just 15 yards from the boat.  It seemed like forever as I braced myself for the inevitable.  I had seen the movie Jaws many times and this whale was much larger than that shark.  It could just about swallow the boat whole!  I was sure that it was shooting it self from depths of the sea up to our boat to devour us as if we were just a large blubbery walrus floating on the waves.
It was just when I was about to release my bowels into the bow of the boat that I saw the whale resurface on the opposite side of the boat.  It continued to swim away from the boat until we lost sight of it in the distance.
After a few moments of time our heartbeats slowed to an above normal pace and Dad looked at me in relief.  Then he said three words I shall never forget. "Drop the anchor".  He REALLY likes to fish!

Fantastic Four Fish Stories - Chapter 1

       One of the great things about Alaska was all of the fishing we did.  I had fished most of my life.  At least during the times I lived with my Dad.  Alaska fishing was different, however, because of all the fishing locations, amounts of fish and the size of the fish.  If you went fishing in Alaska and you came home empty handed, then you had better stick to buying your fish at the local supermarket.  That would be just as easy. Here is the first of 4 fish stories that I thought I would share from my time in Alaska.
The Anchor River ran very nearby our little home and we could go fishing in the evening and it would literally take us an hour to leave, fish, make our catch and return home.  This was nice because it wouldn't take up so much time when there was homework or other family things that needed done.
Dad had a knack for catching fish.  It was a trait that was handed down from his father and for the most part passed on down to me.  One time we went up to the Kasilof River where many of the large King Salmon were. The Kasilof was one of the larger rivers where fishing was more than a leisure activity. It was sometimes very dangerous. Which is why it was referred to as "combat fishing". People would line up and down the banks of the river pretty much elbow to elbow. This made it very important to follow the rules of the river. The rules were fairly simple to understand, somewhat difficult to follow, and downright suicidal to not concede to.
    The rule was to cast in rhythm and in perfect timing with all of the other fishermen. Everyone would pull their lines in, lift their poles slightly and toss their lines back into the water upriver about 10 or 12 feet or so. Then you would let the line drift past and then wait as everyone seemingly at the same time would pull their lines in, lift their poles slightly and again toss their lines upriver. You would continue to repeat this unless you heard someone shout "fish on!". If you heard that and you were upriver from the person who shouted it, you just continued on with your rhythmic casting. However, if you were down river, you needed to quickly reel in your line and back out of the water. This would allow the lucky fisherman to follow his fish as it fought to swim down river. Once he had past you, you could walk forward and resume your fishing. Sounds easy, right? Well you should see what happens when someone gets a snag and can't keep with the flow! Or if they cast out of time, throwing their lines up and over multiple peoples drifting lines. Let's just say that Alaskans are really nice people. Unless you get in the way of their fishing! Big, lumberjack looking dudes that would scare even your tapeworm out of you!

    This day was a bit of a blustery day, looking like it would soon rain.  That had never stopped us before and wouldn't on this particular day either. We arrived at our spot somewhat late in the morning, pulled all the fishing gear out of the Subaru and headed down to the bank of the river.  We passed along a number of fishermen and asked how they'd been doing.  They said they had only seen one fish caught in the past couple of hours.  That did not sound very promising but we continued on anyway.
We found a nice little area down near the end of the line of about 25 fishermen and began to get our poles ready.  It started to rain fairly hard and the other fishermen began to pack up to go wait out the rain in their vehicles. Dad smiled and shrugged at me and I knew he wasn't going to let a little rain stop his fishing.  We finished putting our "Spin & Glo's" on the end of our lines and I cast mine first.  My line no sooner began to follow the current than, BANG, my pole nearly flew out of my hands.
"Woohoohoo!" I yelled and gained control of my rod. I didn't have to yell "Fish on" because everyone had left the river.  It was a matter of seconds and out of the water jumped the biggest fish I'd ever hooked.  Dad started talking me through the process of reeling it in as I was inexperienced in bring in such a large catch.  He also did not want me to break one of his nicer poles either.
I fought the salmon for about 4 or 5 minutes and then was about to bring him close enough to the bank so Dad could net it when the hook came loose from the fish's mouth.  I sulked as I realized I had just lost a huge catch.  Dad said he figured the fish was about 50 pounds.
He saw that I was disappointed and encouraged me to recast.  "Trust me, Horace," he said, "there are plenty of fish in this river." Then he promptly cast his own line into the water.  Before I could get my second cast out I heard Dad again saying, "Fish On!"

I chuckled because I think he was only yelling it so that those that had left could hear him. He was more successful with his fish than I was and he actually landed his.  It was also around 50-55 pounds and Dad was pleased.  We had no sooner fetched the hook from the mouth of the fish when we noticed that everyone else had decided that a little rain would not be so bad.  They were coming back to the river bank almost as fast as they had left.
It took about another 15 minutes and then I was able to land my own fish.  Though only about 35 pounds it was fine with me and was huge in comparison to the fish the other fishermen were catching.  It was at least 35 pounds bigger!
We received a lot of glares from everyone when we packed up our gear and our fish and headed back to our car.  We had only been there for about 30 minutes and had only seen 3 fish hooked and only 2 that were landed.  They were the exact same fish that we were hauling up to our car and that didn't sit well with all those who had been there since the wee morning hours.
I often thought that there was some divine intervention that day.  What are the chances of my Dad and me going fishing among a group of ornery, tired, native Alaskan fishermen and arriving at the same time as a down pour?  It was like we were supposed to have the entire river to ourselves.  We quickly caught our fish and went home.  It was awesome.

A little Martian learning about those pretty aliens from Venus.

So a couple of nights ago I had the opportunity to spend an evening with a number of young men and women from our church. The purpose for our getting together was to have a discussion about dating. We had a nice couple, Bob and Judy Holbrook, who had just moved into the neighborhood with their two teenage boys speak to the youth and share their experiences. They discussed a lot of what is good and bad about dating and what the difference is between dating and just hanging out.

It was fun to listen to the ideas that were presented and the questions that were asked. It caused me to reflect on my own history of dating and I was able to share some of it with the youth that night. I think it is important to discuss dating with our children so I thought I would share some of my thoughts on dating as well as some experiences that I had with dating, or the lack thereof, and my list of "firsts" with girls.

I remember the first time I held hands with a girl. I was in the 9th grade at Alameda Jr. High. The girl's name was Jennifer. (I will keep the last name's to myself on this one) Jennifer was in the band with me and we lived not to far away from each other so we saw each other often. I liked Jennifer but I liked a lot of other girls as well. I was quite small in stature so most girls did not notice me as an attractive guy.  I really never thought about many of the girls to seriously for a lot of reasons. For one, I knew they weren't interested. Two, I was taught that I shouldn't date until I was 16. And three, I was pretty busy with my selling, gambling (see previous posts), and my paper routes. 

So when I first held hands with Jennifer, it was quite unexpected. I remember we were at one of the school's "Sock Hops", which is an after school dance that they held in the school gymnasium. I went to quite a few of the dances but never danced much. I spent most of the time with a friend or two on the sidelines just watching all the cool kids dancing with all the popular girls. I would sing along with Journey, Pat Benetar, Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, Survivor and the rest of the great 80's bands.  I was actually sitting alone on the bleachers and Jennifer came over and we started talking. She was acting kinda weird and then awkwardly asked if I would like to dance. I said sure and we walked out and began to dance to Twisted Sister's song "We're not gonna take it!" 

I know I looked like a real klutz but it was fun joining the crowd of popular kids. My dancing skills were somewhat like Willard learning to dance in the movie "Footloose". When the song finished it was immediately replaced with the popular slow hit "Love is a battlefield" by Pat Benetar. Before I could walk off of the floor Jennifer grabbed my hand and pulled me closer and we began to dance. Her hands were on my shoulders and my hands were on her waist and we took slow steps in a circle.

Dancing slow was actually pretty nice. I enjoyed the closeness. I wondered the whole time what she was thinking. I imagined it was something like "Wow, he's a lot shorter than I thought" or "why doesn't he feather his hair more?" More than likely she was thinking like I was which was "I can't believe I'm dancing with a girl!" 

At the end of the song I released her and started to say thanks when she reached out and grabbed my hand and led me back to the bleachers. I don't know why but I didn't fight it. We got to the bleachers and sat down still holding hands. She began rubbing the back of my hand with her thumb. I was completely taken off guard and didn't know what to do or what to say so I just sat there and let her hold my hand. For the rest of the dance she held my hand. 

At the completion of the Sock Hop she asked if I would walk her home. I said sure and we grabbed our books and went out the door and into the early evening air. We hadn't gone but a couple of steps when I again felt her hand grab onto mine. This time I felt her fingers working their way between mine. We walked about a mile to her street and then to her house. I left her at the porch and said good bye. She said "Thanks for walking me home, I'll see you tomorrow." She looked at me strangely with her eyes partially closed and a slight grin. 

"OK" I replied and turned and walked away. "Holy cow, I think she likes me!" I thought to myself as I quickened my step and then ran home.

So that was the first time I held hands with a girl. Had a great impact on me. My self confidence received a gigantic boost. Even though our "relationship" only lasted a couple of days, I now knew what it was like to have a girl like me.

The next year I was brought back to earth. I finally worked up the nerve to ask a cute girl that lived down the street to the homecoming dance at Highland H.S. Her name was Camille and I'd had a little crush on her for about a year. She was smaller like me so that was good. She was good friends with my older sister but she was my age. It took a while to get the nerve and I was scared to death when I picked up the phone to call her. When I finally did, I fumbled through the question. My heart was beating out of my chest and my hands were clammy and my forehead was perspiring as I waited for her to reply. There was a little delay before she finally said, "Thanks for asking, Horace, but I am waiting for someone else to ask me." 

Talk about a blow to the ego. Felt like I'd been punched right in the...in the....in the gut. (I'll try to keep it PG). I don't think I even responded to her. I just hung up the phone, went to my room and threw myself on my bed. I couldn't believe what had happened. Thought I hate to admit it, I cried myself to sleep.

The next day I avoided her like the plague. I couldn't even look at her. I wasn't even mad at her though. I was just too embarrassed to look at her. Later that day I ran into a good friend Malinda. We talked about it and she felt bad for me. I asked her who had asked her and she said she probably wasn't going. Out of nowhere I said, "Do you want to go with me?" 

Before I realized what I had done she said, "Sure, that would be fun!" And just like that I had planned my first date!

A few months later I had fallen for one of the trumpet players in the band. Her name was Lori and she was a lot of fun. Super cute and great personality. She always included me in whatever was going on. One time she invited me to go hot-tubbing. She said there were a bunch of people going. I said I would love that and we made the arrangements. 

I remember telling my mom that I was going out for the evening and she asked what I was doing. I said that I was meeting some friends at the Holiday Inn to go hot-tubbing and then over to a girl's house to watch a movie. She laughed at me. I think she believed the movie part but the hot tubbing didn't sound like something I would do. I guess she wasn't seeing that her little man was growing up!

When I got to the hotel I went back to the pool area and found Lori and some of her friends already in the hot tub. The guys in the tub were all ripped with muscles and I again felt that twinge of insecurity knowing that I was not built that way. Lori seemed happy to see me however and when she asked me to jump in I quickly removed my shirt exposing my skinny undefined body underneath. Before anyone could get a good look I quickly entered the hot tub and sunk down below the surface of the water. This is when I realized that they called it a "hot" tub for a reason and it was all I could do not to scream. Oh am I glad I didn't scream. My voice had still not changed and I could hit the high notes with the best of them. That would have been the end of me!!

Gritting my teeth I adjusted to the water temperature. Then I noticed that Lori was holding hands with one of the guys in the tub. Keeping it PG, I felt like I was punched in the gut again. I tried my best not to show my sadness. I just sat and quietly listened to them all talk. After what seemed like forever, Lori said that we should all get going so that we could have time to watch the movie. So we all got out, dried off and went out to the cars. I got in next to one of the guys and we all drove over to Lori's house.

When we got to Lori's house she pulled me aside right before we went in. She said, "Horace, are you ok?" 

"I'm OK" I said. "Just a little headache". Though the truth was it was heartache that was bothering me.

She said, "Well I wanted to introduce you to my little sister. I think you will really like her and I know she already has a crush on you."

"OK" I said, but to myself I was thinking "Great, her sister likes me but I like her. How's that going to play out?"

We went inside and their were people sprawled out on the floor, the sofa's and other chairs. I found an open spot on the sofa and sat down. Lori walked out of the room down the hallway and then returned with a pretty brunette girl. "Everyone, this is my sister, Andrea." she said "She is a freshman at Franklin Jr. High." 

We all said hi to her as Lori went around the room and introduced everyone to her. "Andrea, you can sit here next to Horace." Lori said to her and those of us on the sofa adjusted to make room. Andrea looked at me and I saw that same look that I had seen on Jennifer a year or so before. She sat down and any gap that was available was on the other side of her as she seemed content to sit right next to me. I could feel my stomach turn to nerves as I thought about sitting this close to such a pretty girl.

Lori opened up the case to the rental video her mom had rented for us and put it in the cool VCR with big colored buttons on it. The movie was Footloose starring Kevin Bacon. I had heard it was a good movie so I was excited to see it. Lori got everyone some drinks and made some popcorn and passed it around. It was an enjoyable time but I couldn't feel comfortable as I felt I was in a sauna or something. It felt so hot. Mostly because of the cute girl to my left who was giggling at anything I did or said.

I was keenly aware that Andrea was intentionally putting her leg against mine. Ten minutes into the movie I felt something moving on my thigh. I glanced down and saw that she was nonchalantly rubbing her pinkie finger against my leg. Slowly I turned my head and it was then that I realized that she was not watching the movie but rather was staring at my face. Talk about turning up the heat. I could feel the temperature rise into my face. I was glad that the lights were off for the movie because she surely would have seen my face turn into a bright red tomato!

She smiled at me and then without saying a word she moved her hand over to mine and entwined her fingers with mine. Finally I was able to crack a smile and turned back to somewhat focus on the movie. I felt her lean her head on my shoulder. I looked around the room and it appeared that nobody was paying attention to us. I searched the room and finally found Lori laying on the floor over to the side of the couch. She was laying next to the guy she'd been holding hands with. She was looking at me with a big smile on her face. I felt a twinge of guilt for acting the way I had earlier when I realized she had a boyfriend. She had set me up with her very pretty sister.

About a half hour later Andrea got up and went to her bedroom or the bathroom or somewhere down the hall. She came back and like we had been together forever sat down next to me and moved my arm so that it would be around her. Then she placed her hand on my muscular chest and lightly moved her fingers around. I have to admit, this was pretty nice.

The movie continued to play though I wasn't really paying too much attention even though I was looking at the TV. My mind was definitely elsewhere. I felt my temperature rising again when I realized that Andrea was slowly moving her head closer to mine until I could actually feel her breath on my neck. That made me a little disoriented. I guess it was a natural high or something. A combination of excitement and nerves all at the same time and in huge doses.

Then the unexpected happened. I barely turned my head down towards hers to look at her and she was like a mountain lion pouncing on her prey. Her lips were on mine and I'm pretty sure I lost consciousness. OK, not really but I was completely unaware of where I was or what I was doing. I don't even know how long it lasted. When she broke away from me I stared at her with my mouth wide open and she just smiled showing her pretty teeth. I think I tried to smile back but I don't know what that looked like. Then she nuzzled herself back into my neck and left me gazing at the TV. I remember seeing scenes of the movie but not hearing any of the words spoken. I didn't understand anything that was going on in the movie or in real life.

Right before the movie ended she took her hand off my chest and reached up and grabbed the back of my head and pulled me into her again. This time I was felt her lips as they lightly brushed against mine. Without thinking, I sorta kissed her back. It was amazing.

The movie ended and someone turned on the lights. That's when the razzing began. Everyone looked at Andrea and I and knew exactly what had happened. What I didn't know, was that Andrea had put on some nice red lipstick when she had got up during the movie. And apparently I was now wearing it too. There I was again with the heat rising to my head.

Now you would think that this has a great ending to the night. But, and remember I never claimed to be very smart, I would do something that will blow your mind. You see, I made the mistake of telling Andrea that the reason I had come that night was because I had a long time crush on her sister, Lori. And that I had been disappointed when I found out that she liked somebody else. I honestly didn't think much of what I was saying but it didn't go over very well. Andrea had a look of anger and then she turned and walked away from me. She never spoke to me again. She didn't even let me finish telling her that I was glad that Lori had someone else because I really liked her too.

So a note to self, never tell a girl that she wasn't first on your list. Even when she wasn't even on the list in the first place!

After Andrea I didn't have to many other opportunities with the ladies. There were a couple of school dances but they were with friends of mine. They were a lot of fun but no romance.

It wasn't until after my mission that I began to date. I dated a couple of times a week. Mostly dinner and movies. Sometimes bowling or hiking. I had a lot of fun. I liked some of them a lot. At least until they would bring up marriage on the first date and I was out of there. I didn't understand why we couldn't get to know each other a little before we were planning our families.

One girl that I really liked worked at the Safeway store in the Strawberry Village in Mill Valley, CA where I worked at a print shop. I would make up reasons to go into the Safeway just to see her. She was one of the checkers and I would conveniently buy my stuff in her lane. My work associates knew how much I liked her and even got me her name which was Kim. She was a short gal. Cute as a button. The guys finally talked me into introducing myself to her. I just had to figure out how.

I wandered around the store looking at her from a few different places. I probably looked a little suspicious if anyone was watching me. I decided to by a nice red rose and a little card. I wrote a little message on the card basically asking her out on a date. I walked up to her lane and laid the flower and card on the checkstand. She rang up the charges and I paid her in cash. Then I left the flowers and started walking away. "Sir, you forgot your flowers." she called to me. I stopped and turned towards her.

"Those are for you." I replied and turned back around and left the store. I walked quickly back to work and told the guys what I had done. They all thought it was a great idea and they wanted to know what she said. "I don't know." I said. "I walked away before she said anything."

About 15 minutes later Kim walked into the print shop. She was holding the flower and had a big smile on her face. "What is your name?" she asked me.

"Horace" I replied.

"Well, Horace" she said, "That was very sweet of you. Thank you for the flower. I really needed that today".

"You're welcome" I answered.

"I'm free tomorrow night. If that works for you." She said and smiled even bigger.

All I could say was "OK" and I smiled back.

"Pick me up at 6pm after work tomorrow." She said.

"I'll be there!" I said. Kim walked out the door and I basked in the cheers of my workmates.

We went to a wonderful dinner the next night and I loved watching her as she talked to me. She had the cutest little smile. After dinner we went to Sausalito and looked at the boats in the marina. The sunset was beautiful and it was very romantic. We talked about a lot of things. Religion came up and we talked about my missionary service. I could tell that she was impressed by that but she grabbed my hand and asked me then "what do you see in me?"

"I see a beautiful girl who has an amazing personality and I like being around her." I responded.

"You don't really know me" she stated. "I am not good enough for you, Horace. You deserve someone who is as good as you."

"I think you are great" I said.

"You don't know me" She restated. "I have so much baggage and I would never unload that on somebody as sweet as you. I really appreciate your good intentions and for being so kind to me. You are an angel. But I need you to take me back to my car. I am not the one for you."

I didn't say much. I just honored her wish and took her back to my car. She thanked me again and then kissed me on my cheek. She got into her car and drove away.

I was beginning to think that understanding girls was impossible. I went home and laid in my bed and again cried myself to sleep.


 I would go on to have a few other dates. Mostly just one timers. Not one night stands just no long term relationships.

                                                                                                                                                   
Things would get better for me though. I would move back to Boise and receive a phone call that would change my life forever. (See previous post about how I met my sweet wife.) All that inexperience and I still found the love of my life. She is the only one I have actually dated more than a couple of times. Now I've been dating my wife for over 22 years. I love our dates more than any time I had dating or hanging out with the girls of my boyhood. I still feel the excitement when she holds my had or kisses me softly. I still look forward to spending exclusive time with her. We love the same things and life never gets old.

The other day I was driving and I thought to myself, "I wonder how my beautiful wife is doing today." As a 6th grade middle school teacher I'm sure it was awesome but I thought about how much I love her. I couldn't help stopping by the flower shop and picking up a nice arrangement of flowers in a vase. I delivered them to her classroom during her lunch time and received a huge welcome from her. She got up and said, "Horace, you have no idea how much I needed this today. I have had a day to forget."  She hugged me tight and gave me a nice sweet kiss. Oh it is good to be in love!!! 

Today I find joy in the fact that I never had serious girlfriends. I'm glad that I experienced what I did but I feel that things worked out the way they were meant. I like knowing that my entire love life has revolved around one sweet girl who I have the pleasure of going home to each and every day.