It's difficult to pick a movie, but I grew up at a time when Westerns were very popular. I used to love those reruns of Rawhide and that led to a desire to see very Clint Eastwood movie made. The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly was my childhood favorite. My sister used to play the soundtrack constantly on my dad's old stereo. The gritty story set in the horror of the Civil War and the peeks into man's greed and cruelty made this a wonderful movie I can still watch again and again.
For a few years in college I listened to The Cars a lot but the album I played over and over again was Meatloaf's Bat Out of Hell. I think I knew the words to every song. Now that I've thought about this I'm going to put some of those songs on my iPod.
Reading books has always been like breathing air to me. I borrowed every book from the school library I could. I had some wonderful teachers who let me visit the library at times it was closed to everyone else. But the book I first loved and that I still have was the very first book I owned. I grew up in a family of seven children and my parents worked hard to clothe and feed us. There was little money for toys or extras, like books. When I was about seven, my parents bought me a large Golden Book for middle readers. The True Story of Smokey the Bear. I slept with it for weeks and read it every day. It was very precious.
At first I thought of my high school sweet heart as the first person I loved but then I decided I had to go back further. We lived on a farm and our closest neighbor was another farm. That farmer had a son the same age as me. Raymond was friendly, funny and he had a pony. He would sometimes ride over and let us ride that little spotted pony. He gave me a Valentine every year through elementary school. Everyone knew we were boyfriend and girlfriend. But Raymond struggled in school and he was held back a year. We grew apart and seldom saw each other when we entered junior high school. Later I went to college and he went into the travel business. I understand he became pretty successful though his two marriages didn't work out. He must be still longing for me.
Now I'm heading out to try and learn about the first in more people's lives. Visit more first loves with me.
