My First Kiss

I'm going to rewind just a little. I had not yet quit my job at Platt College (but would very soon) and I believe we had just completed our first read through of the Last Meeting of the Knights of the White Magnolia. A few of us decided to go out for a celebratory drink. I had just gotten paid, and I had another reason to celebrate. I had sold some art.

I had two art instructors at Platt College. Both of them had a background as sports illustrators. One was Dayne Duddley and the other Jack Bender. I excelled in the "illustration" aspects of art class and made no secret that my dream was to become a comic book artist. I was originally in Dayne's class, but he knew that Jack had a passion for comic art and recommended that I move to Jack's class, which I did.

Jack and I became good friends and that rekindled his interest in comic book illustration. In fact he told me when he took the job as ghost illustrator for Alley Oop that he probably wouldn't have applied for the job if not for the renewed interest in comic illustration that he had fostered as part of our friendship. Jack taught me so much. He is one of the great influential figures in my life.

Our friendship continued as I moved from student to staff at Platt College. He recommended me for a job for a greeting card company that was looking for illustrations for seasonal greeting cards. I did a watercolor painting of a cartoon Easter bunny painting Easter eggs. It was super colorful with lots of pastels. They bought the painting for $400.

At this time, I did all of my banking via ATM. I would deposit my check and pull out the cash. I carried cash because we had not yet reached the point where businesses were expected to accept plastic. This brings me back to our night out at the bar. I had just been to the ATM and I had cashed not only my paycheck from work but also the $400 check from the greeting card company. My wallet was fat with twenty dollar bills.

Four of us had gone out. There was myself and George the director. There was another actor named Ken and the stage manager named Claire. I was high on my success and bought the first round, loudly declaring my triumph as I displayed way too much cash at the bar when I ordered the drinks.

Seven And Seven

Ken, Claire and George had beers. I ordered a Seven And Seven which was my drink of choice for years. Because of Chuck it was a long time before I could drink beer, and even now I will only drink dark stouts, not the nasty yellow stuff that Chuck drank. Anyway, I sat down to drink with my friends, when a beer (the kind I just said I won't drink) arrived at my table courtesy of two attractive young women across the bar.

Some girls had bought me a drink. This had never happened before in my life (and never will again - until the "Bless you, Jeff" girls, but that's another story.) I was thrilled. I excused myself from the table with my friends to go talk to the two women. I took the beer with me, and I thanked them. They asked me to sit down and introduced themselves. I honestly don't remember their names, but they seemed like nice wholesome girls that my mother would like.

They told me that they were both student nurses. We made small talk. They asked if I liked scary movies, stating that it was fun to get scared and then grab onto someone for protection. I admitted that I didn't like scary movies at all, and that my favorite movie was The Little Mermaid. Despite my obvious faux pas the girls seemed to like me. They asked why I wasn't drinking my beer. I admitted that I didn't like it.

I was doing everything wrong. I was just being myself and being oblivious. Then, one of the girls leaned over and kissed me. This was my first kiss. I was flustered. The girl's friend slid over closer to me as well, and they asked me if I wanted to go home with them. I was beyond flustered.

I explained that I was with some friends and that I should really get back to them. I didn't want to be rude, and I was super flattered, but I really needed to go. The girl who had kissed me gave me her phone number and they said goodbye. The two girls got up and walked out, and I went back to the table with my friends.

Ken welcomed me back and admitted that he was just about to come over to intervene.

"Why?" I had asked him.

"I wasn't going to let you leave with those two prostitutes." He responded firmly.

Sigh, that did make sense. I threw away the phone number when I got home. I was a romantic. I wanted true love. I began to wonder if that was even possible for someone "like me." I couldn't believe that my first kiss was with a prostitute. 

At least it was a free sample.