I’ve been thinking a lot about memories lately. I have a friend who can totally tell me about happenings from 20 years ago as if it were yesterday, while I sit there with a vaguely confused look on my face.
It’s not that I don’t remember anything from childhood, I totally do. It’s just that I remember the oddest assortment of glimpses into my old life and there is no rhyme or reason to it at all. Add to that the fact that I was an extremely imaginative child and I look back and wonder if some things even happened in the first place.
Back when I was a kid, probably about 10 or 12 years old, I was a part of a theater group called Kid’s Onstage (I can guestimate my age because there was also Teens Onstage for teenagers). We were basically Glee in middle school, but suckier. I was really shy back then, so I ended up in the chorus for pretty much every song and dance number. Which I’m sure was so thrilling for my parents.
Anyway, according to my dodgy memory there was a game of spin-the-bottle one day/night backstage before a show. There was this one boy that ALL the girls liked. I can’t remember why, but it was the mid-80’s so it probably had something to do with a popped collar polo shirt and pegged jeans. I have a memory of my bottle-spin landing on him and me leaning over to give him a peck on the lips. Which is CRAZY (and clues me in to the fact that it might not have happened…) because I’d never really kissed anyone before and he was totally cool. To the max.
What was even crazier is that I remember the kiss being some weird kind of wet kiss. My innocent mind assumed that I had been “French” kissed, since I read A LOT and knew it was different than a regular kiss. This one was weird; therefore it must have been from France.
I remember he snickered a little, probably at giving me the best time of my entire young life, and then the game continued on. I mean, I guess it did, because my memory ends there.
The funny thing is, looking back at it; the kiss WAS NOT a French kiss. The kid had basically just spit on his lips and pressed them to mine. Which is gross. And slobbery. And I wonder now if he THOUGHT that was a French kiss. I mean, was he some mid-80’s baller just giving his weird slobber kisses out like Garbage Pail Kids and Big League Chewing Gum? And what if he NEVER got better at kissing and some poor woman in her 30’s has to endure slobber kisses each day when they leave the house?
Then I get to the most matrix-y part of it all – did it even happen? I mean, in all actually some other kids probably played spin-the-bottle while I watched from the sidelines and daydreamed about being included. If that’s the case, I really should have done more research into kissing and inserted a much sassier kiss in place of the one I (might have) got.
Is it just me with my wonky memory or do you have childhood memories that you’re not quite sure if they ever really happened?