Does your first real kiss stick in everyone's mind? Does yours? Mine certainly does.
Those of you who have read other entries in this blog will have realised that I was a child at a time in the past so distant that it would have been unsurprising if you had seen the odd dinosoar passing the window. When I was a kid village life was pretty much unchanged, certainly since before WWII and possibly even earlier. We still had village pantos that everyone went to, and parties in the school building that all the children went to up to I don't really know what age, under the supervision of of a gang of village ladies acting as mentors and chaperones. I can't remember the details of this particular party, or really how those parties worked, given the variety of age groups involved but I do remember the circumstances of my first real kiss.
Among all the other things we must have done we were playing some version of "postmans knock". It went something like (1) kids form a circle of alternating sex. (2) one kid goes out to other room. (3) kids spin bottle, nearest child of opposite sex to the out-of-room one is next to go out. Before s/he does so everyone shouts "kiss or stamp"? Kid in other room (not knowing who is coming) has to decide if they want to kiss that person or have them stamp on their foot. (4) exiled child shouts "kiss" or "stamp", and when the selected kid comes out they transact the deal in private, and then the first child comes back and the whole process starts again with the second child in the other room.
I guess I was about twelve years old when this game happened. The first time I was called out it was to give a kiss to a slight girl of about ten years old. We exchanged, as you might imagine, very chaste pecks on the cheek and off she went. Now it was my turn to choose the forfeit. From the other room comes the shout "Kiss or stamp?". "Kiss!" says I, the alternative being deemed spineless, and in comes Elaine S. Elaine was probably about fourteen and more or less a woman, but only the same height as me. I leant towards her for the expected peck, and found myself clamped to her body like a limpet to a very attractive rock, while she gave me an extremely adult "snog". It is clear to me now that she had spent not a little time with older boys, much to my advantage. After a few seconds she put me down and I staggered back to the rest of the company. I remember across all the years the smiles on the faces of the adults who were there, which I now realise indicated that they knew that Elaine had promoted yet another boy from childhood to adolescence, or at least had imbued him with aspirations that up to that moment had been nothing if not ill-formed.
Of course Elaine would remember absolutely nothing of this, any more than I remember any of the other people I met up with in that game. I don't really remember what Elaine looked like, but boy, do I remember that kiss.
Those of you who have read other entries in this blog will have realised that I was a child at a time in the past so distant that it would have been unsurprising if you had seen the odd dinosoar passing the window. When I was a kid village life was pretty much unchanged, certainly since before WWII and possibly even earlier. We still had village pantos that everyone went to, and parties in the school building that all the children went to up to I don't really know what age, under the supervision of of a gang of village ladies acting as mentors and chaperones. I can't remember the details of this particular party, or really how those parties worked, given the variety of age groups involved but I do remember the circumstances of my first real kiss.
Among all the other things we must have done we were playing some version of "postmans knock". It went something like (1) kids form a circle of alternating sex. (2) one kid goes out to other room. (3) kids spin bottle, nearest child of opposite sex to the out-of-room one is next to go out. Before s/he does so everyone shouts "kiss or stamp"? Kid in other room (not knowing who is coming) has to decide if they want to kiss that person or have them stamp on their foot. (4) exiled child shouts "kiss" or "stamp", and when the selected kid comes out they transact the deal in private, and then the first child comes back and the whole process starts again with the second child in the other room.
I guess I was about twelve years old when this game happened. The first time I was called out it was to give a kiss to a slight girl of about ten years old. We exchanged, as you might imagine, very chaste pecks on the cheek and off she went. Now it was my turn to choose the forfeit. From the other room comes the shout "Kiss or stamp?". "Kiss!" says I, the alternative being deemed spineless, and in comes Elaine S. Elaine was probably about fourteen and more or less a woman, but only the same height as me. I leant towards her for the expected peck, and found myself clamped to her body like a limpet to a very attractive rock, while she gave me an extremely adult "snog". It is clear to me now that she had spent not a little time with older boys, much to my advantage. After a few seconds she put me down and I staggered back to the rest of the company. I remember across all the years the smiles on the faces of the adults who were there, which I now realise indicated that they knew that Elaine had promoted yet another boy from childhood to adolescence, or at least had imbued him with aspirations that up to that moment had been nothing if not ill-formed.
Of course Elaine would remember absolutely nothing of this, any more than I remember any of the other people I met up with in that game. I don't really remember what Elaine looked like, but boy, do I remember that kiss.
