My Gold Hot Pants, era 1971

My best friend from high school, Karin, and I are in the process of planning a 35th reunion for our class of 1973. UGH, you read it right.

As I go through the list of names and yearbook photos, memories come flooding back. I have to be careful, remember what happened here when I reconnected with an old heart throb last year. But I digress.

I was thinking about Dave Bess(name shortened) the other day. I was a sophomore he was a senior. We had one class together, but just for 10 short weeks.

During the 5 minutes between classes changing, all the guys would sit along the window ledge in the main hall. I'll bet it was like that in most high schools, and if they can get away with it, I'm sure it's still like that.

Every time I walked pass "gawking guys alley", I'd see Dave sitting there. I'd get all flustered. I could feel my armpits getting sweaty. My mouth would get dry. My clammy hands could barely hold my books, surprisingly I never dropped them.

One spring day, I was feeling pretty darn good about how I looked. I had just got a new pair of "hot pants". Yeah, in the 70's you couldn't wear shorts to school, but with brilliant marketing, the fashion industry renamed short shorts, hot pants, and we got away with it.

I was wearing gold sateen hot pants, similar to those in the photo on the left. A tight white lace-up top, and some strappy white sandals with the unsightly big chunky heel.

I was making my way down "gawking guys alley" and there he was. This time was different. He was looking at me. ME. His eyes were on me the whole time as I continued my strut walk. Funny, I wasn't even sweaty or nervous. I just knew I looked the bomb and now I had his attention.

Just as I was about to step in front of him, his hand went up and he smiled. His finger curled towards me. WHAT! He was actually giving me the "come hither" sign? I stopped and leaned down, my long blond hair flowing just in front of his face. His finger beckoned me closer. Whoa, he was going to whisper in my ear!

My heart all aflutter, I lent my ear to his lips and he began to speak. Softly he said to me, "Your zipper is down." Accccck! I think I died a thousand deaths right there. I remained composed, stood up and thanked him for letting me know. As I started walking away he smiled and I knew he still would be alright in my book.

A couple weeks later, I was in home-economics class. (yeah, back then, they tried to teach us how to cook and sew, but we accepted it as an easy credit) One of the girls came in late for class, crying. As we all clucked around her like mother hens, she announced she was pregnant. By Dave Bess! I was crushed. Then she proceeded to say he was going to marry her, but also join the service because he knew he couldn't afford a family or college. I sincerely hope they made it.


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Please go over to Mrs. Fussypants and vote for my submission to her "caption the photo" contest. I submitted:

"Since losing all his super powers, he hasn't been able to hail a cab in a coon's age"

Voting continues through through Saturday ::hint hint :::