Puppy Love - First Childhood Crush

"Like an old photograph, time can make a feeling fade.

But the memory of a first love, never fades away."

When I was 5 years old, I met a kid in the neighborhood named David. We would play outside with other kids from the houses around us...there were girls and boys of all ages and we would play ball, run, hide and seek, play "red light, green light" and just have fun outdoors. I had such a crush on David from the time I was 5 until I was 12. I just loved him...he was my first love. When he was 13, he moved away and we had no idea where he went.

I kept in touch with one girl from the neighborhood. She was my best girlfriend, named Patrice. Over the years, off and on, I would ask her, "I wonder what happened to David?" I told her that it would be so cool to see him and we wondered what he was up to. So, years and years passed and he was tucked away in the back of my mind.

A few months ago, a friend from Arizona invited me to join Facebook. It is a way to connect with friends, find old friends, post pictures, etc. I joined but never bothered with it much and in 2 weeks or so went back on and noticed a box at the top that said "reconnect with old friends." I found myself typing in David's name and I found a match in Houston. I emailed him and asked if he grew up in my hometown. He responded back with the name of his street and I knew instantly it was him.

I excitedly wrote back to see if he remembered me. He did and told me he was going to be in Philly for a job interview and did I want to get together. I was thrilled and tried to contain myself as I dialed my mother to tell her the news. Right away the Italian mother in her asked me if he was married, what did he look like.....I stopped her right there and told her that I did not care if he was married or what he looked like. I was not meeting him for that purpose. I did not care about his looks or marital status. All I cared about was coming face to face with the man, who as a child, was my first crush, my first love.

I cannot tell you how I felt when I saw him. We hugged, I was teary eyed and we talked about the neighborhood and playing ball in the street. I told him that he could not ever imagine what it meant to me to see him after 43 years, that he was my first love, my first childhood crush. I think he turned all shades of red as he did not have a clue. After all, we were kids and girls had cooties.

The amazing thing about this was the timing. He was living in Texas and just happened to be in Philly around the time he recieved my email. Another weird twist is that the day we met just happened to be my best friend Patrice's birthday.

It has been a year now since we met and we have become good friends. It was a dream of mine that I never in a million years thought would come true and here we are 43 years later, a 12 year old's dream come true. Something like this only happens once in a lifetime. I feel so blessed that we have become good friends and I never in my wildest dreams thought I would ever see him again. This was truly the work of a higher power!!!!!