by S. Bates

Created on: November 13, 2008

My very first, and still my best, girlfriend and I began our long adolescent struggle together on the first day of the first grade. I lived in the country, no kids around and not many neighbors. My boy' cousins would come around a couple times a week. Other than that, I did not have any other kids to play with. Now if you want to count my mamaw's chickens, a stray cat, my uncle's dog, papaw's rabbits and his only cow, then I was blessed with things to "play" with. At that time, it was just as good, and I did not know any other wayonly city kids lived close enough to play together.

So, to me, it is only understandable why I got in trouble the first week of school in the first grade. I had a new friend and she wanted me to go to her house to play. So I did. When she asked me to go home with her, I was so thrilled! I could not say anything except "YES!" I was so excited, all day we hugged and giggled, and I knew something different was about to happen. I was going to go play with a friend! At Her house! What more could I ask for. So when the bell rang at 3 o'clock that afternoon, we ran to her school bus. It was awesome. It was so different, the scenery was different; I had no idea where she lived, what her parent's names were, I had not even told my parents about her. All I knew was she was my first friend, I wanted to play with her, and I was going to her house.

Needless to say, about 7 p.m., her mother told me that my mother was on her way to pick me up. I hated to go but I knew I would be back. Little did I know how much trouble I was in. After tracking down my teacher, finding out whom I played with at school, and trying to find phone numbers for the parents of all the kids, they finally found me. It never crossed my little mind that I should have let someone know what I was doing. Why I did not think about it at that time, the good Lord only knows. When my mother finished with me, I think she was just so relieved to find me, we both were wondering what my daddy was going to do. I found out as soon as I got through the door and was herded to my bedroom, daddy grabbing a leather strap hanging in the hall, and began to properly give me a whipping I will never, ever, forget. I waited until she came home with me the next time. And we have been the best and closest of friends for the past 51 years.

Now, getting around to my little story. My friend's mother was kind of an extravagant, different kind of person than I was used to. She had grown up very poor, but around

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