HE NOTICED ME!!

FINALLY!  A boy taller than me – and he was 16 years old (I was only 14) – and he actually noticed me (at least I think he did).  It was so exciting!

It was on a Sunday night after our weekly youth group meeting and church service at Valley Baptist Church in early April, 1961.  All of us teenagers were goofing around in the church kitchen when someone opened the drawer containing the knives.  It sounds worse than it was (and when I told Mom, she freaked out), but we started a fun, playful knife fight.  There was one boy, Bill.  He was about 6 feet tall and was kind of cute – and he was actually playing knives with me (not with the pointed end, but with the smooth side – don’t worry, it was very innocent).  We were laughing together and having a great time.

The next week I was on Cloud 9 and was anticipating our next youth group outing on Friday night to Pacific Ocean Park.  If only … if only … if only I could hang out at the park with Bill.  And so I prayed that God would make it happen – an awkward teenager’s simple, heartfelt, faith-filled prayer.

As soon as I got home from school on Friday, I got ready, trying to look as pretty as I could.  My mom drove me to the church, picking up my best friend on the way (her name was Donna too – I was Donna P. and she was Donna M.)  She was a beautiful blond and had been going steady with a guy named Tim for quite a while.  However, they were having a fight at the time so I knew I could at least have one friend that would hang out with me.

We arrived at the church and waited for everyone to arrive.  Sure enough, Bill showed up – by himself.  This was looking good.  Unbeknownst to me, however, he had asked one of the really cute girls (Eileen) to go with him but when he went to her house to pick her up, she wasn’t able to go after all, so he came by himself.  Donna and I were standing by the church bus and Bill came sauntering over.  My heart beat a little faster.  But instead of talking to me, he started talking with Donna.  My heart fell.  But it was time to load up the church bus.  Maybe there was still hope.

An Old Church Bus

Now this church bus was, let’s just say, unique.  In this day and age, it certainly would not be allowed to transport kids, let alone drive on city streets and even worse, LA freeways!  Its old blue paint was flaking off between the rust spots, and was interspersed with dents from various mishaps during its many years of youth group outings.  It kind of leaned to one side, making us wonder if it would ever make it to our destination.  But, it always did (by the grace of God).

The inside of the bus was even better.  It was missing several seats and some of the remaining seats weren’t totally attached to the floor.  If the bus came to a sudden stop, those seats would shift.  The best thing about the bus was the hole in the wheel well.  We could actually see the road beneath us and it was a perfect place to drop trash through, right onto the freeway.  The bus must have been blessed by God because it miraculously arrived at our desired destination every time.

The most enjoyable thing about riding in our bus was the songs we would sing along the way.  Besides the normal “100 Bottles of Coke on the Wall” (NOT beer – we were Baptists, for goodness sake), we sang praise songs to Jesus and harmonized at the top of our lungs.  Sometimes I would feel so happy, my heart felt like it would burst.

A Dream Come True

…and so our journey began to Pacific Ocean Park (or, P.O.P. as it was more commonly known).  Donna and I were sitting in the back of the bus and Tim was in the front.  They weren’t saying one word to each other.  I never did find out what their fight was all about.

Bill and his friend, Dick sat across from Donna and me and there was another guy, Paul, that sat in front of us.  By the time we got to P.O.P. Paul and Donna were getting to be pretty good friends.  So the five of us started going on rides together.  After a few rides, Bill got the hint that Donna was more interested in Paul than him so, shrugging his shoulders, he looked at me and figured I was better than nothing.  After a couple more rides, Dick got the hint and went off to join his other friends.

Yes, I was third choice that night.  God did answer my prayer – in a strange kind of way.

By the end of the evening, Bill had asked me out on a date the next Friday night.  YES!!!

Our First Date

Why on earth my parents let me single-date at 14 years old is beyond me.  I think that they just really liked Bill.  They knew his parents from church and they knew that Bill was a good guy.  He really was responsible and, in retrospect, he did keep me out of a lot of trouble.

Our date consisted of going to dinner at the Bob’s Big Boy car hop service.  As we ate our Big Boy hamburgers and fries, we got to know each other just a little bit and discovered that we really did like each other.  And so the seeds of a lifelong friendship and romance were sown.  By the end of the evening, he asked me to “go steady” with him, presenting me with a huge silver ring that I faithfully wore every day for years.  Because the ring was so big there was no way it would fit on my finger, so I wrapped it with wads of adhesive tape on the bottom so it would stay on.  (Actually, that was a pretty common thing to do in those days – a kind of fashion statement/status symbol.)  After a week or so, I would have to replace the tape because by then it would be kind of gross.  I went through so much tape I had to include it in my weekly allowance budget.

And so began my future – my life as the answer to a prayer uttered by a too-tall, awkward 14 year old girl.  God knew … he always does.  It’s amazing to realize how one small, heartfelt prayer set the course of the rest of my life.