A trip down memory lane is always a little fun, a little creepy. The Boy’s been talking about his girlfriend, Emily, a lot these days. They’re both 3, so I’m not worrying about them running of an eloping, but his excitement has me thinking about my first crush.
His name was Dante Prince. Isn’t that the perfect name for a first crush?
I grew up in a very small town, population 2200. I graduated high school with a dozen or so people that I started kindergarden with, some I’d even attended preschool with. But Dante, he was an outsider.
I don’t remember him before the third grade. I’m guessing he moved to our town that year. He lived at the opposite end of my street. We rode the same bus, my stop one before his. Every girl in our grade {maybe there were 9?} had a crush on him.
We all wrote I Love Dante on our white sneakers. They may have been Keds or Tretorns. I remember my mother being mad. Dante moved away in the fifth grade, and returned for the end of seventh. By then, I’d outgrown my crush.
We continued as neighbors through most of high school. Not speaking much. I don’t remember him much in high school, he must not have played sports. Oddly, we ended up attending the same college, and being in the same dorm.
In college, all the girls had a crush on Dante. They were so excited that I knew him. Could I hook them up with him?
My guess is that Dante was the first crush of many girls. And he’s probably broken a few hearts along the way.
According to one of my sorority sisters, he’s living in Hawaii now, the captain of a charter boat. He’s probably still breaking hearts.
Do you remember your first crush?
This post was written as part of BlogHer’s NaBloPoMo February 2013 challenge. Today’s prompt was “Tell us about your first crush.” Sign ups to participate in this month’s Blog Roll are open until February 5. You can still check out the participating bloggers and the daily prompts. Daily writing prompts can often become a great source of inspiration and encourage you to write about things you haven’t previously explored.
What a perfect name for a crush! My first crushes name was Blaine. Oye, the teenage years.
All the girls loved him! I’m sure the name had something to do with it!
That’s so funny to write about this!! I had a couple, but I would be afraid to write about them! LOL! We are all friends on FB!!!
C’mon, you can only have one first crush. And, I’m quite certain that mine isn’t reading my blog! Though it would be a trip if he were!
I had two first ‘kiddie’ crushes simultaneously. Their names were Darren and Nicholas. I actually had a little sandbox proposal from Darren and I was planning to marry Nicholas. I was 4/5 (pre kindergarten) at the time.
Dante Prince is a name dripping with heartbreak, romance, crush etc.
Sandbox proposals are serious stuff! Do you ever wonder what happened to them?
I’m wondering how many hearts Dante broke over the years. There’s probably a support group, I should google it!
Have a great week!
Haha, actually the my husband is friends with Darren’s brother so I meet him as a grown-up! The brother was in our wedding party!
Keds and Tretorns!! Wow, that brought back memories! My friend and I were just talking about Outback Red and Forenza sweaters. Oh wait, this was a story about first crushes…lol!
OH MY GOSH! I’d forgotten about Outback Red! Thanks for the reminder.
I have to agree that Dante Prince would make a great character name in a book.
This cracked me up this morning, Emily! The silly things we did as young girls “in love”. I remember covering my notebook in doodles. 😉
Just wait until your girls start doing it, then the memories will really come flooding back!
I remember my first crush. His name was Jimmy. His dad worked for an ice cream company and on the way home from school everyday my sister and I would get some kind of ice cream treat from him. He live just up the street from us. We moved and I didn’t see him again until after high school. He was still a nice guy. 🙂
That’s a sweet story! It’s nice to hear that he was still a nice guy, too!
That’s too funny! My first real crush was in 5th grade. I had a crush on a boy named Wayne. He was so nice to me. He wasn’t popular, but neither was I. We ended up going to different jr. highs and high schools and we lost track of each other. But I will never forget my first crush!
Do you ever wonder what happened to Wayne?
No, not really. Bigger and better things happened to me and for me. I think that it would have been a mistake to ever look him up. His family seemed a little “strange”. No looking back now…. 🙂