We would take peeks at each other’s junk through the open legs of our baggy Umbro shorts at soccer practice. Later that summer, my soccer buddy Robbie, who was a dreamy blue eyed sexy muscled-bodied young man, and I got to know each other a little more intimately too. We made out full tongues for the remainder of the movie.
We both were smacking on spearmint gum and about halfway through the movie, I leaned for the kiss.
My girlfriend, Hailey, and I had our first kiss after I doused myself with Obsession and met her at the dollar-theater, where the movie was The Bodyguard. This was a summer of several life firsts for me. I was 14 years of age and full of hormones. I want to take you to a pivotal summer of my youth, circa 1994. Everyone left their doors unlocked at all times, and children played through the day and into the night without a care in the world. I could ride my bike to school in 10 minutes and leave it unlocked as bike theft wasn’t prevalent back then.
This was a deeply Christian community that did not tolerate people outside the white Christian box of small-town America.Īlthough I didn’t fit in this box, I did really enjoy most aspects of my childhood there. Canyon was the heart of a dry county, which means alcohol was illegal to sell or consume in public. My parents and I lived in a small town of maybe 1,000 people called Canyon (just south of Amarillo) through my middle, junior, and beginning of high school days. I was average in popularity and got along with most people. But that gained me zero notoriety as soccer was a “pussy sport.” This is ‘Friday Night Lights’ territory where only football and basketball mattered. In fact, I played in Europe twice as a youth and once on the national youth team. I was a skinny fringe alternative kid with blonde hair that played a lot of soccer.