1986. A year of bad fashion, Aids, thatcherism
I was an outwardly confident inwardly less so eighteen year old. Girls were still a bit of a mystery although I pretended I was a bit of a stud I'd never had a relationship longer than a couple of weeks.
Simon, a friend I met at the gym spending more time talking than training, did arrange a couple of blind dates for me. One was a moody punk with a vicious teenage attitude and the other was a huge sweaty ugly monster of a woman. The problem with the sumo was it was a double date and as a favour to Simon I spent the night tolerating her without giving her the slightest hint I was interested.
I can't remember why but I decided to get a CB radio. A little note to younger readers, it was a an old version of MSN messenger where you could meet and talk to people but only a couple of miles away. Amongst all of the "14 a roger" and "breaker break" I met a few people. There were some no so good things about the CB radio. It attracted strange and even scary people and anyone could listen to your conversations.
There was one voice I could talk to all night, her handle was "Scarlet Angel". She was the sister of someone I had met. A fifteen year old local girl who's voice was sweet as ..... Everytime I had a chance to get on the CB I was calling "14 scarlet angel" or heard her shouting "14 rainbow quest". I never tried to imagine what she may look like just enjoyed talking and hoped to meet her one day.
A couple of weeks passed and her brother persuaded her to "eyeball" me. It was great timing as I'd just invested huge amounts of my hard earned money in a Ford Fiesta Mk1. It was diamond white but only the basic model as insurance companies wouldn't touch an eighteen year old with a proper engine. I thought I looked the business in it though.
We met at her local shop, I found out later that she wasn't going to bother as Coronation Street started at the same time. Her brother was either her chaperone or virtually dragged her there. I pulled up and looked across at this plainly dressed shy looking girl. She was petite with a big coat on and the unmissable feature were her gorgeous big blue eyes.
I didn't fall massively head over heels it was more a case of just wanting to get to know her more. She wasn't the usual tarted up barbie doll that most teenage boys, including me, lusted after but there was just something about her.
The meeting was brief as she had strict instructions not to get into the car with a hormonally challenged teenager who may be a rebel. I found out her name and I absolutely needed to meet her again.
Fantastic news, she still wants to talk to me. We chatted on the CB for a few more days and then I met her again when a few of us decided to meet up and go for a ride. We stopped at a pub but she looked uncomfortable. I didn't really understand as I had been drinking from the age of 14, by the age of 15 I'd perfected the art of looking sober for just long enough to walk in the front door, say "I'm off the bed" and walk upstairs. I was regularly getting regularly very drunk at 16 and 17. I was the original binge drinker for a couple of years. The theory was that if I couldn't get layed I'd get plastered and I was useless at chatting up girls. As the youngest of three sons I was the first bad boy. My other two brothers had never bothered partying in town so I made up for it. After a little while my parents decided to just hope I'd grow out of it. At 18 I had a car and the excitement of maybe being caught underage drinking had passed so I stopped and became a one pint man sensible driver.
Another evening we were out with CB friend again and I was allowed to drive one of their cars as I was covered by my insurance.
I wouldn't have let me drive! The first night I drove my first car I was trying to impress a girl, Michelle, and was stopped by the police and given a few words and a speeding fine. A few weeks later I was trying to impress Michelle again and as I was showing her how to use the gears I crashed. She never came in my car again!
We were out enjoying just riding around and I was probably showing off a bit again. I lost the car on a roundabout bumped over a kerb and landed in a bus stop. Luckily it had just blown one tyre, which may have caused the accident as it all happened a bit quickly, and we were not too far from my house. The shocked passengers and owner of the car stayed with the car and I used it as an excuse to walk with my new lady to fetch some tools.
I didn't want her to be too shocked when she met the dog so I warned her about our alsation as we walked and talked. We arrived and mum was in the kitchen as I looked in the shed. The shed was one of those concrete outbuildings directly opposite the kitchen door with the outside toilet at the side of the house. She raised her eyebrows in that embarrasing that parents do when they see you with a potential suitor. I saw her relief to see that our Alsation had shrunk as a Yorkshire Terrier greeted us. As we walked back to the car, not in a particular hurry, I started to realise that I really liked this girl.
It's a fantastic feeling when you look into the eyes and deep into the soul of someone special.
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