JIM “PAPPY” MOORE: My First Real Kiss

I was getting in my two miles of walking at the park when that voice in the back of my head said “you’ve never written about your first kiss.” That got me thinking about that first real kiss and it made me realize I had to distinguish it from earlier, more frivolous, not-so-romantic kisses. They were more like quick smooches which either made a girl “like” me or not.

From age 5 to 9 I liked girls more than most boys do, and it was not unusual for me to have a “girlfriend” in my class. It would be a girl I took a shine to, a girl that was pretty to me, and had a nice personality. There would not be much kissing going on, if any, but there might be a peck on the lips or cheek. If a relationship developed it was most likely to entail some innocent hand holding and walking her to her home after school.

After a girl in the fourth grade slapped me when I kissed her unexpectedly, I decided to evaluate my approach and back off the uninvited kiss. I would not kiss a girl again until I was fourteen and nearing fifteen.

My parents didn’t believe in kids dating until they were fifteen. Late my 9th grade year, when I was still fourteen, one of my friends directed me to a girl in the choir he thought would be receptive to kissing. We were going to a choir contest at a city an hour and half drive away, and it was not a group thing, but a contest for singers who were appearing solo or in a group, like a quartet. My buddy’s girlfriend was friends with the other girl, and my friend told me “she’s a good kisser!” I thought “great, but what does that mean?” Soon, I would find out.

In between times when we would sing in the contests, we had much time to wait in a school auditorium. This girl got me back in the area behind the auditorium and proceeded to kiss me aggressively. Before long, she said she would be right back. Soon, my buddy appeared and gave me a message. It was about my kissing. “You have to open up your mouth some!” he told me.  When she returned, I did as told and opened my mouth some. Immediately we began sucking face something fierce, far beyond what I’d ever imagined. I had never done that before and had no idea what I was doing. She started telling me exactly what to do, and I did it.

I was completely blown away. We started up a hot romance, but I couldn’t date yet because I was only fourteen. My buddy’s girlfriend would pick my new girlfriend up at her house and meet up with me and my buddy somewhere. With two cars, we couples split off into them, and each couple had hot kissing sessions. We were all supposed to be at the school library studying. I was studying, alright. Studying how to get a raging heart beat.

That went on a few weeks until her dad got wise to what was going on. He put a stop to it, and as the school year came to an end, I had confidence and skills I lacked weeks earlier. That girl could kiss. She was aggressive. My little boy years were behind me.

Turns out her dad was a preacher, just as my dad was a preacher, but in different faiths, on different sides of town. Her dad did not want his daughter in a relationship with the son of a preacher from another faith.  You’d have thought we were Romeo and Juliet.

They moved from town not long after that. It was about the time a young man from Lufkin had a huge rock and roll hit on all the radio stations. The name of the song was Last Kiss. I had my last kiss with her, but many more kisses to come with other girls, once I knew what I was doing.

In the boy/girl and man/woman relationship the kiss should never be undersold. If it makes your eyes roll back in your head, you’re doing it right!

——————————————————————–

For you, the late, great J. Frank Wilson of Lufkin, Texas. 1964’s big hit Last Kiss.