This song was provided the music for Psalm 17. Even though I wrote this song a long time ago, for someone I don’t remember who, I like it. I have not had really had that many relationships or desired relationships with girls. When I was in college I remember asking 32 different girls out for a date to a Phi Sigma Kappa Fraternity Party, and I remember being turned down 32 times. To be fair, in those days I had really bad zits, more like boils, all over the sides of my face. I’m sure I did not ask with confidence, and so my fears were achieved. Happens to all of us: what we fear is what happens to us.
I think my first crush was Marilyn Reese. She was born on the same day I was. We did a tap dance together in green sparkly outfits. Somehow, I knew she came with someone to the Meat Packing Plant, and I walked my bicycle down to the back of Grandma’s house through the fields so she wouldn’t see me ride down the road and think I was spying on her. This had to have been before fifth grade, when I got glasses, because I could not see that far. Dad asked me why I walked my bike through the fields and some of the guys working for him gave me a bad time because they put 2 and 2 together.
I remember having a crush on Danielle Blake. I put a pencil in her locker in 6th grade, with what I would now call a bobble-head on top of it to tell her I liked her. Do not think I ever told her. She later married Dale Hatch, who was the piano player in The Keynotes (see Song 103 – I Wanna Hold Your Hand).
I remember Marnie Sorenson, of Gunnison, Utah, liked me a lot. She was on the Board of the Utah Junior Hereford Association with me. I remember visiting her with Uncle Glenn at her Dad’s place in Gunnison. She was always with me. I had to run off into a corn field to take a pee. Was too embarrassed to tell her I needed to go. We went to Kansas City to the National Convention together with Uncle Glenn. He was not a very good chaperone.
I always considered Jill Leonard to be my first girlfriend. She broke my heart in 9th grade when she went to a dance with someone older, and I realized she did not like me like I liked her. Her Mom was a nurse, and gave me allergy shots in my butt once a week all through Junior High School and High School. The last time I saw Mrs. Platt (she remarried after her husband died), she made a comment about how beautiful of children Jill and I would have made.
I definitely had a crush on Heidi Hanson. I remember Dad driving down to the big field to the northeast of the Lower Plant, the east side of where the pivot is now, to ask me what I was doing. I was writing H H + R N with the plow, before plowing the field, so it could be seen from Hughs Airwest flights overhead. I do not think I ever went on a date with Heidi. We did stay with her and her family on one of our trips across Texas. Andrea and I became friends with her brother Todd Hansen, who was the Mission President in Houston, and later a 70 General Authority.
I had a crush on Brenda Waters. We went see “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad World” at Cedar Theater. One of the few movies I’ve ever gone to twice. Brenda had a brother who had epileptic fits and would get in whistling competitions with others. She was so embarrassed by this, and decided she could not go out with me because of her brother. Never understood her logic.
I dated Ellen Green (Sharon’s sister, who is now my cousin Paul Winters Nelson’s wife) in High School. Once I needed to pick up something which I thought was down in back of the Lower Plant. I did not think anything about the smell and the carcasses and the bleached skulls and the broken-down building. As I looked over at Ellen, I thought she was going to throw up. She did not want to go on dates with me after that.
In Corvallis, I met Linda Hill from Ponca City, Oklahoma. I left my allergy medicine at her relative’s place in Corvallis, and she sent it back to me in the mail. The Post Office took their time to deliver it, along with a note saying they had checked it out to make sure it was really allergy medicine. Once when I drove Mom across the U.S. we stopped in Ponca City and Linda and I went out for an evening. This was well before e-mail, and we never connected after this.
One of my Fraternity Brothers was Ken Iowami. His sister, Judy, was a cheerleader at the U. We went on a couple of dates. I took her to Roice Nelson Krueger’s party when he returned from his mission to Japan. I remember Roice asked her something in Japanese, and she could not answer him. She only spoke English.
I also met Robyn Baker in Corvallis. She went to the University of Utah, and we dated steadily during my second year at the University. Ray Gardner and I shared a room in the basement at the Fraternity House, and when Robyn and I were down there we could hear Frat Brothers sneak down the stairs to spy on us. I wrote her a note and told her to scream and say something like get away, to punk whoever was listening. Robyn wrote me a “Dear Roice” letter telling me she was engaged when I was on my mission.
Riley Skeen and I spent time with some girls when we were roommates in Denver. I sent Christmas Cards to one of these girls up until a couple of years ago. I think she lived in Minnesota. I remember jumping over parking meters an entire block in downtown Denver one night when we were with these girls.
I met Marti (Martha Ellyn Sharp) working nights at The Red Barn in downtown Denver the summer of 1970 (see Song 064 – Forever and Song 012 – A Lullaby). She was the only girl I went on a date with after my mission. The rest of this story is described throughout these Psalms & Songs (see Song 065 – Celestial Kingdom or Bust).
Andrea was our only groupie when we had The Keynotes and The Mydnight Hour from 1964-1968. I distinctly remember quickly turning the corner to come up the steps from the TV room at the Shirts house on 580 West and finding myself staring into Andrea’s eyes. She is 5 years younger than me, and so there was never a consideration of dating her. However, when we re-met the evening of Randy and my 30th High School Class Reunion, I recalled the connection, and I’m sure it was part of why I called to ask if she wanted to go on a date with me. The rest is history. And I find it interesting how I am still attempting to answer the questions in this song, which was certainly written for one of the twelve girls named above. The photo to the left shows Andrea and I at Cove Fort, Utah. The extended version of this image shows Chris and Jennifer Singfield and Andrea and myself were posing for this photo. We spent several days with the Singfields looking at Southern Utah sites when they came to visit us. As I look back I think Chris and I were attempting to answer the questions posed by this song. And this is at least 35 years after the words were first written down. And neither Chris nor I, nor our girlfriends looked like we did 35 years earlier. Oh well! The more thing change, the more they stay the same.
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