Summer of Love

It actually started in the Fall of 1960. Our little two-room school in Atomic City had been closed by the Snake River School district so they could get the money from the government for each of us. Okay, it could have been the fact that we had gone through four teachers the previous year and nobody wanted the job. We were bused 40 miles each way to Moreland Elementary where we were treated pretty much like white trash (whether we were or not).

I thought it was a grand adventure to spend a couple of hours on the bus each day and go to a "big" school. I was in the sixth grade and there were even TWO classes of sixth-graders! It was a huge change. There were more kids in my classroom than were in our whole school in Atomic City where there were only four of us in the sixth grade.

I was in Mr. Cushman's class. He was the Principal and the first male teacher I had ever had or seen. The other big difference was females, lots of females. There was only Linda Nelson in my class in Atomic City, now there seemed to be TONS! I thought I had died and gone to heaven.

It took most of the year before I finally got up enough nerve to let Christine Belnap know that I liked her. Actually it was the last day of school that we exchanged pictures and I was in love. I spent the entire summer basking in the glow.

Christine lived 30 miles away and I had neither wheels nor a telephone so we had no contact over the summer. I eagerly anticipated the start of the new school year at Snake River Junior High and seeing once again the object of my affection.

The perfect opportunity came when they had a seventh-grade "get acquainted " dance. Boy Howdy did I want to get acquainted! There she was. Standing with some friends across the gym. I walked over, extended my hand, and asked, "May I have this dance?" She reached for my hand then drew it back and said "Eew!" Like she had almost touched something disgusting. She shrank back, giggling with her friends...

and broke my heart.