Show F 3rd Place by Mark The moment I remember most vividly was slow dancing with Debbie Stevens in junior high back in Cedar City r One day in art class she started telling me how much I l looked ked like her her old ld boy boy- friend I was very naive then still getting over the traditional disillusionment about Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy She worked in the lunchroom and one day she asked me if I was going to the dance later that day I said I might My heart was pounding as I talked to her under the glare of the fluorescent lights She asked me if I would ask her to dance I said I might Nervousness turned to something like numb terror later at the dance as I actually considered crossing that crowded gymnasium floor and asking her to dance My friend and I II talked it over shifting from foot to foot like pigeons on a telephone line Finally the moment seemed right I asked her and she said yes I felt a nervous twinge of excitement We danced a few fast ones and then came a low one We looked into each others other's eyes uncertainly I put my arms around her and we d danced The song was My MyLove MyLove MyLove Love by Paul McCartney and Wings It seemed like a beautiful ete eternity ty feeling the warmth of her body close to mine swaying gently to the music It was the soft warmth of sUI sunlight ight after a rainstorm In IIi th the days to come we would sit together on the bus or hold hands in class during a film She gave me her phone number and Id I'd call her and we wed we'd d talk for hours about nothing at all Winter came and the big Christmas dance was on everybody's mind She and I sat i on n the grass in front of the school She began talking abo about t her old boyfriend how he was such a jerk never asking her to dance When the Christmas dance came she was there therein in a checked dress she had made in Home EC The band played and I asked her to dance but she he said she she didn't feel like dan dancing ing She said she was embarrassed about her dr dress ss I had complimented her on it at least a hun hundred e times Meanwhile her friend was out trying to coax her hex old boyfriend into asking her to dance He finally did and she danced with him Its It's hard to describe how I felt that night I was hurt and confused I was bewildered that what we had done together had meant so little to her How quickly it all had M J ended That night my brother was camping out in a tent on the lawn I slept there too and didn't didn t say much about the Christmas dance I had a lump in my throat but I r I didn't cry It was the manly thing to do Looking back it all seems so long ago but it was only ohly yesterday really I think abo about t the best P port part of li life e which which is the fact fact- that we seem to remember the good feelings s so much more vividly than the bad feelings Somewhere in mind my My MV Love Lov plays forever an and autumn leaves cover the and Im I'm grass u- u dancing u s with wun her ner again in the warmth of first loves love's embers |