I receive e-mails on a regular basis from a woman I met when I was 13 years-old. Her name is Linda. She's quite special. I met Linda when I was a Newsday paper-boy in Seaford. My route included Hickory Street, where Linda and her friends used to play. My friend Danny Tobin delivered the Post on the same block, and we would stop (on purpose) to chat, hopefully to connect with the "Hickory Street Cuties."
Linda ran up to me one day and gave me a letter which read "Dear paper-boy, do you like me? I like you. Please check "yes" or "no." Love, Brenda." The girls didn't know my name. I didn't know theirs. Mary (the most mature one of the group) came up to me and said "So what's it gonna be, paper-boy?" Do you like her, or not? She pointed out Brenda, who ran and hid). I told Mary her younger sister Joan was cute. Mary assisted to getting one shy boy enough courage to ask out one shy girl. Joan and I dated for a year. A boy in my class named Alan asked if I'd let him know when Joan and I broke up because he was interested in dating her. Al and I never spoke again until a fateful graduation party of a mutual friend named Jim, about 4 years later. Our first conversation at Jim's party was triggered by the "Joan" incident. Al has been one of my closest friends ever since. I was the best man at his wedding and if I ever marry again, he will be mine.
I gave Joan a gold ring with my initials, on our one-month anniversary. She gave me a bracelet with "Tommy" inscribed on it. The relationship was pure "puppy love." Joan and I were often alone thanks to Mary rounding up the other girls saying "C'mon, let's chase some rabbits." My friend Wesley from Staten Island had much influence on me, but not in the world of " wine, woman and song ."
Mary and I had the same classes, and stayed close friends after Joan and I broke up. I took Mary (platonically) to the prom, and when I went to their house for the big night, Joan looked at Mary and I and said "I think I'm gonna throw up," and ran away, crying. I was completely traumatized. I realized what a fool I was, as I could have (and should have) asked Joan to the prom.
Joan became a nurse, and by coincidence we worked at the same hospital some 12 years after our first date. We had lunch together a few times at the Winthrop Hospital cafeteria where I rotated for an infectious disease externship.
Linda still sends e-mails and is an avid scribbler on my facebook wall. Many years have passed since those days on Hickory Street, but I'll never forget the butterflies in my stomach when everyone but Joan and I were chasing rabbits.
