Flashback Friday 1988

While I was trying to decide on the topic for today's flashback, I realized that 20 years had passed since I lived in England with my aunt and uncle for six months. I was 15. There may be other posts in the future about my trip to England. For this one, I will limit myself to my first date and kiss.

This is the boy. His name is Tommy Withers and in this picture is he is 19. Isn't he handsome? Of course he is nothing compared to my Jason, but this isn't a post about Jason. Tommy is from Scotland and as a young and impressionable 15 year-old, he blew me away! I didn't think he even noticed me until he talked to me one Sunday at church.




He had gotten his mission call and one night he called me to ask if I wanted to do some sightseeing the next day. Did I also mention how naive and innocent I was? I didn't think of it as a date. We were just two friends who were going out to see the town. Really! I took every Friday off from school to go sightseeing and the way I saw it, one Friday I had a friend to come with me. Again, very innocent.


Don't we make a cute couple? My 15 year old heart was ready to make this our engagement picture!


I know you can barely see us here. We are in the bottom left-hand corner of the photo and by this time that day, I was deeply and forever in love. He was the one and I knew it! Actually I didn't know it. Looking back, I didn't know anything at all. It completely caught me off guard when he tried to kiss me! For the record, I did not kiss him at that time. I turned my head and we hugged.











It was the next time we went out that we kissed. It was very sweet. I think that if I had to do it over again, I still would. It is a good memory. We wrote faithfully while he was on his mission for about two months and then he stopped writing so of course our great love affair ended. I think I was more hurt by his abrupt failure to return my letters than anything else. I mean, think about it. There was a four year difference in our age and we were from two different countries. Besides, I would have had to dump him anyway once Jason, the love of my life, came along. Our time together was short, but precious and in my 15 year old life, very romantic. You know, I may even have those love letters somewhere. It might be fun to read them again.

So there you go. A momentous event that happened 20 years ago. Fun flashback! I've always said that London is my favorite international city. This just might be the reason why...