AND THEY CALL IT PUPPY LOVE

Did you ever have something pop into your mind for no good reason?  Something that happened long ago, that you hadn’t thought of in years, if not decades?  Well, that happened to me yesterday morning, and I don’t know why.  I woke up from sleeping, tried to get back to sleep and BAM, for no real reason, I started thinking about an event in my life that happened way back in the summer of 1980, 31 years ago.  It was so obscure, that I didn’t even think about it when it was the 30th anniversary of this event, or the 25th, or even the 20th.  I’m speaking of my 8th grade school field trip to Washington, D.C.

Now I should warn you sports fans….this entire blog has very little to do with sports, so if you came here for a strong take on a sports topic, you might want to back out and go about your day.  Thing is, I have had a lot of people tell me that they like reading my blog sometimes when it’s NOT about sports.  So to keep those people happy, I wanted to share my memories about this story.  If you liked the TV show, the Wonder Years, keep on reading.

31 years ago this past June, I graduated from 8th grade and the hallowed halls of Rogers middle school.  Our social studies teacher, Mr (Mike) Seeley had planned a school field trip to Washington D.C. for the graduating 8th graders.  My parents saved up some coin and paid for me to go.

Now that I am an adult, I still am amazed that Mr Seeley and the school took on this monstrous task.  Can you imagine how hard it had to be to organize something like this.  Getting permission slips signed, money collected, reservations made with hotels, tour bus company’s and restaurants.  Truly a monumental task, and I tip my hat to Mr. Seeley and company 31 years too late for taking it on.

The first thing about the trip was that this was going to be the first time I had ever actually ridden in an airplane.  I remember the apprehension about that.  Wondering if I was going to get sick.  If I needed to take Dramamine.  How scary it was going to be.  It helped that I had my good friends Chris Bole and John Kalb with me for the trip, and I calmed myself down enough, telling myself it was going to be an exciting adventure and I would enjoy it.

As the plane taxi’d down the runway and built up speed, I remember thinking and maybe even saying out loud, “Wow, this is cool…lets just stay this speed and stay on the ground.  We’ll get there in no time!”  But the plane did indeed take off, and I was lucky enough to have the window seat.  My thoughts have always been, “if we are going down, at least I want to see it.”

I remember the amazement of seeing houses and large buildings and cars getting smaller and smaller.  Going through the cloud cover for the first time and then reaching altitude, seeing the curvature of the earth, and realizing I was not going to be sick.  I actually loved flying!  What a relief that was.

We flew into Philadelphia, and as we descended, the plane banked right and I remember being very excited flying right over Veterans stadium, and seeing that huge, empty stadium below me on a sunny day.  It was breathtaking.  Then of course seeing all the other tall buildings in the heart of downtown of the city of brotherly love, realizing how small Rochester actually was compared to other large metropolitan cities.

We got to D.C. after changing planes and immediately started the historical tour of the city.  The 40 or so of us kids and teachers all piled onto a tour bus and got comfortable.  Chris Bole and I sat strategically across the aisle from Lauren Cessna and Karen Bamann.

Karen, Lauren and Rita Glossner were like the “Charlies Angels” of the trip.  They hung out together just like John, Chris and I, and were the cutest chicks on the whole field trip.  I had had a crush on Karen since 7th grade, but of course I kept it to myself.  Crushes were meant to be things you talked about with your guy friends in my world, never to really be actually ACTED UPON.

I have had six crushes my whole life.  Kindergarten through 2nd grade it was Caroline Gentile.  I never even talked to her.  It was just puppy love from afar.  From 3rd to 5th or 6th grade, I had a crush on Donna Walkowicz.  Donna was the cute tomboy in my class.  Whenever I see the movie Bad News Bears and Tatum O’Neal’s character, I think of Donna.  We hung out with the same crowd…the Ackerman boys, Mark Kowalski, Joe Micali and so on, but of course I never let on.  In fact, we recently caught up on Facebook and I think she reads my blog regularly, so this will probably be news to her.  All throughout high school, it was Kim Briddon, a beautiful cheerleader who I’m sure didn’t even know I existed.  After high school, when I was in college, my crush was on Sandy Butwid, who I actually talked to and became my first serious girlfriend.  And finally, my final crush was on my lovely wife Michelle.  But in 8th grade, it was Karen Bamann.

On the tour bus riding to see Ford’s theater, Lauren Cessna leans across the aisle and whispers to me, “Craig….Craig…hey do you like Karen?”  To this day I still have no idea how they knew.  I’m guessing my buddy Chris must have said something sometime, but I have never found out.  Maybe they caught me making too many glances at her, I don’t know, but I was flabbergasted!  The girls all giggled at my reaction and my face must have turned as red as an old fire hydrant.

Karen was a beautiful girl, with sandy blond hair and quite precocious for an eighth grader, and yeah I thought she was hot.  She was kind of a “bad girl” though, at least I thought.  Ee-gads, I think she even SMOKED!  But I would have LOVED to get to know her better, so when Lauren asked me that and my face started returning to a semi-normal color, I stammered, “Uhhh, I dunno”.

This of course made them giggle even more, but eventually Lauren said, “well, she likes you.  Do you wanna switch seats so you can sit next to her?”  Are you kidding?!  I wanted to sit under her, on her, above her, below her next to her, sure any of those would do, so of course I said, “ummm, welllll….I guess”.

That would be the beginning of the most exciting two days in my young life until that point.  A girl I actually had a crush on for two years actually liked me and wanted me to sit next to her!  My wildest dreams come true!  It was unreal.  It was dreamlike.  We sat next to each other on that tour bus the rest of the time, and I wished the tour bus would drive from D.C. to Gettysburg and then to Philadelphia and then Boston and every other historical site in the country for the next few months.  Alas, it would only be those two days.

We walked around the historical sites together.  I think Karen and I even held hands a couple of times.  The electricity of that touch was so thrilling.  Once my heartbeat got back down under 200 beats a minute and I calmed down and was able to be myself, I actually thought I was quite charming and funny with her.

At the hotel, Chris, John and I were in our room that night after the touring was done.  I remember amazing them that I could look out our 15th story window and tell them what businesses were miles down the street.  “That’s a KFC.  That’s an Arby’s” and so on.  It’s amazing I am legally blind now, because then I had fighter pilot-like vision.  Oh. how things have changed.

I remember Chris telling me, “dude, go to her room!”  I would tell him I don’t even know what room she’s in, but he would say, “c’mon, you will never have another chance like this!”.  There was a security guard right in our hallway though–I could see him right out of our peephole, so I would tell Chris, “Chris, how the hell am I supposed to find her room and evade the security guard standing ten feet away???”  What, am I going to attempt to bribe him with some bubblicious?  No, wasn’t going to happen, and Chris would be proven right eventually.  I would never again get a chance like that.

We would go to bed.  I had to share a double bed with Chris, who wasn’t happy with me.  I still remember him yelling, “Jeez Craig c’mon…you’re taking up half the damn bed!”  I said, “well how much of it do you WANT me to take up?  I thought half was about right!”, which made John laugh.  After this trip, John and I would see less and less of each other.  When we got to high school the next year, we would each take on a different set of friends, and our paths would rarely cross.  Sadly, we would lose John Kalb suddenly, to a brain aneurysm just last fall at age 44.

Anyways, the next and final day, Karen and I would again sit next to each other and continue the romance, touring the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial and seeing the capitol and the halls of congress.  I remember our state senator, Frank Horton, meeting the group of us to give us a personal tour.

It was a great trip, but would eventually come to an end.  We would fly back to Rochester, and I would not get to sit next to Karen on the plane.  We landed and rode a bus back to Rogers school, where all of our parents would meet us.  I got a chance to say a quick goodbye to Karen, telling her “I had a great time, thanks.  Umm, I guess I will see you this fall”.  Yeah, I know.  I didn’t even think to ask her for her number or if she wanted to go out again.  We were in EIGHTH GRADE!!!  I had baseball games, and cookouts to attend, and swimming in my friends pools to do. 

I don’t think I even thought about dating back then.  It was never even a consideration.  I always wondered if I disappointed her, that I didn’t do more or pursue her or even ask if she wanted to go out again.  We would get to high school and I don’t think Karen and I even talked to each other again.  Maybe a cursory “hi” as we passed each other in the halls, but that was about it.  Our lives went on without each other, and sometimes I wonder whatever happened to her.  Either way, the one thing I can say about that trip is that it surely was a magical couple of days, and a real nice memory.