Friday, February 27, 2009

Memory Lane: The Love Note

A long, long time ago, in a land far away...

All right, it was December 1987 and it was in Northern Indiana. I turned 14. Turning 14 was sort of a milestone for me. I couldn't date, but I could start attending certain youth functions hosted by our church. The ones I most looked forward to were Super Saturdays. These were church-sponsored activities for youth 14+ and included youth from our "stake", which covered about a 50 mile radius. We usually had some sort of service project or seminar and often times there would be a dance that night.

I looked forward to these because my best friend HeidiK & I were BOYCRAZY! So, starting in January '88 I began attending these activities and dances. It was cool to meet other kids that had the same religious beliefs that I did, and somehow they seemed more cool than the boys I went to school with. I think boys who don't go to your school always seem cooler.

Anyway, at my first dance, I danced a lot of the dances with JasonF, because we were sort of crushing on each other at the time. However, I think he started noticing all of the different girls there. And I was definitely noticing all of the guys there. So, as if he was reading my mind, JasonF says that since we're not really BF & GF, there's no reason we shouldn't be allowed to dance with other people. I was like, right...no reason. So, that was that. We started dancing with other people. There was this one guy. I thought he was soooo cute. Plus he had on SUSPENDERS. And, like, Oh m'Gosh! Suspenders were like so totally cool back in 1988.

I wanted to this guy to dance with me; but I was too afraid to ask. So, I put in motion some of my flirting techniques (from "Flirting Techniques 101" written by yours truly) and within minutes, he was standing in front of me asking for the next dance. Just so happened his parents were the DJ's. How cool is that? Any song I wanted, he would just tell his parents, and it happened. So totally cool...totally. Oh - and his name was Mickey. Talk about even more Totally Rad. Especially cuz of that song... "Oh Mickey you're so fine, you're so fine, you blow my mind, hey Mickey! [clap! clap-clap!] Hey Mickey! [clap! clap-clap!]..." Well, you know the song.

Anyway, I had to leave a little early since I rode with friends and their parents were their to pick us up. So, we did what any normal teenager did back then, since we didn't have email, cell phones, texting, IMing, etc. We exchanged ADDRESSES!!!

That set in motion The Long Distance Love Notes. Looking back, they were more like "Like" notes. We wrote each other from January all the way till August of that year. We also danced and hung out at every Super Saturday, and called each other at least once a week. Anyway, I sort of forgot about the love notes until the other night, when I was looking for something else in an old box, and ran across the love notes instead. I am surprised I still have them. I am not your average pack-rat. I have 1 box, count it - 1, containing things from my childhood. And that box is smaller than the average size copy-paper box.

Anyway, I started reading the notes, and thought they were cute. So, at the risk of Mickey hunting me down... I am going to post the first Love Note on the blog. [click on note to enlarge]


Yeah...I like how he ends it with "love you" when we had barely just met.
Totally Cool...Like, Totally.

19 comments:

Anonymous said...

You saved those letters? What is with all you bloggers saving everything from your childhood? Lol!

Now I will be singing the 'Oh Mickey' song all day.

greenolive said...

I just told Mickey's cousin in law that you used to date him on Saturday. It's funny that you found the letters around the same time.

TravAndToni said...

Oh my GOSH! Totally Rad! Wouldn't it be sweet if big boys were as honest and open as little ones? He sounds like he was a 14-year-old keeper, seriously. He hung out at church functions, played sports, kept his grades up, and sent a picture in his first letter. Wow!

Megan said...

My favorite part was "Big smile, huh? that's for you." Woah, Emma...that's love. Too bad you probably don't have that picture still.

Rhonda said...

HA HA HA I love it! My hubby and I were high school sweethearts so I saved a lot of his first letters to me. DUDE he was head over heels for me right away. He said so in the notes. ;)

Btw, as soon as you said his name was Mickey I was singing the HEY MICKEY song then got to read it too. lol

Holli and Billy said...

That is so adorable! I kept all sorts of things like that. I agree with the comment about how much cooler it is to go for guys from other schools. Billy went to our rival school and I felt cool hanging with the "enemy".

okeydokeyifine said...

So tell Greenolive to find Mickey and hook you up. That means dating or blog or call, etc.

Ya never know.

Ruthykins said...

hey okey, i'm sure mickey is taken now. let's ask his sister.

EmmaP said...

Mom & Ruth... Don't you remember, Mickey married Kelly from so. Bend. He was like 20 and she was like 18. They have 4 kids who are so cute. I found his blog and read it like a year ago... His parents are still adorable too! :)

Paige said...

oh how cute---when I find things like that, I am so embarrassed for some reason.

We spent one whole Xmas reading the BILs similar mail--man did we have fun

Amy said...

JasonF Should have not let you dance with anyone else, he had a catch and did not know it!!! (from JasonF's Sister :)Too cute!

EmmaP said...

Amy...you are funny! Too bad jason & I don't live closer. We'd probably be hanging out, swapping divorce anecdotes and the like. You should give him crap about that dance the next time you see him! Lol!

ann said...

Mom and I say to each other all the time how we wish Jason and you lived closer you would be so great togther! Like back in the day. I remember him being so sad one night I asked him what was wrong he said he was having girl problems and mentioned your name! This made me laugh so hard it was prob. this night... I was to young to go to those dances.

Susie said...

Oh my gosh!! I have a box full of notes like this! It is so fun to go back through those isn't it?

Tulsi said...

So cute!! I remember doing this. I am a pack rat of letters and notes. I have some from about 35 years ago. I was a letter writer at a young age. I found a letter from a former boyfriend demanding that I get unengaged from my husband when he was a girl chaser when I was in college and before his mission. I was going to toss it, but decided to put it on the bottom should I need a reminder of why I didn't get unengaged.

purplehaze said...

Can't believe you kept those notes! AWW to be young again, well maybe not!!

Vickie said...

Oh great, I got that song in my head now:) I always thought that was a cool song.

This was such a sweet post. Unfortunately, I burnt all my love notes or threw them out. Ended badly:(

I've moved on. I am a big girl:)

The Willeyes said...

I LOVE this post! What great memories...and now I have that song stuck in my head!

Megan said...

hahahahaha I love it! His big smile is only for you. Priceless!

(and I'm SO glad I'm not the only one that's kept this kind of stuff. heehe)