It was horrible!

There I was on the playground minding my own business when out of the corner of my eye I see a "gang" of  roving third grade girls..Peggy W. was in the lead and I could tell she had me in her sights.

I ran toward the swings but they broke into two groups.  They were surrounding me so I ran toward the monkey bars but they were cutting off all my escape routes.  One of the faster girls made a grab for me but I broke free and made a mad dash toward the merry-go-round.  That turned out to be my fatal mistake.
They were on me like ants on a pie at a picnic. 

There were too many of them and soon they had wrestled me to the ground...there I was, a scared and frightened third grader being man-handled by a gang of roving playground kissers. 

Would I ever be able to live down the embarrassment? I looked up through tear filled eyes and there was Peggy W. hovering above me. Her pigtails glistening in the afternoon light..Wiping her mouth on the sleeve of her blouse.  I could see that she was kneeling down to pin my arms.  Her boney knees digging in, while she took my face into her hands to kiss my pouty lips.

It wasn't my first kiss, but it was my most memorable.

I didn't know at the time that he was the one I'd marry but there was a connection between us right from the beginning and when he offered to walk me home from school, I jumped at the chance.
He pulled me into the middle of a weeping willow tree and kissed me softly for what seemed like hours.
My second most memorable kiss was the first time my lips touched the forehead of my newborn son.

I was 10 and walking in the park. Three boyscouts in full uniform leapt off their bikes and surrounded me. Two of them held my arms and one kissed me.

It took me a long time to try kissing again...
10 minutes in heaven was my next foray into kissing. A dark closet and a boy chosen by a spin of a bottle. He turned out to be the perfect boy and the kiss was sweet enough to erase the sting of my first.

Tina ..... 32

The day was all summer and warm sunshine and the tall grass was too alluring for me to resist. Wading in, skinned knees and angles, a colt in girls clothing.

He was golden and so quiet when I dropped down beside him with my usual shy "hi". I waited the agonizing few minutes it would take to know if he'd wander down the path, kicking up dirt and tugging twigs from the velvet-leafed bushes or if he'd stay, stretched out in the sweet grass beside me.

He stayed and soon was pointing out drifting clouds and waving a lazy arm up against the buzzing wanderers invading our oasis.

I don't know how long it took for me to be aware of the warmth of him beside me, or the thud of my heart with every accidental touch of his skin against mine. We lay there for hours, not speaking, just breathing in the sweet short summer and listening for the voices of friends who might discover us.
It was the sound of laughter, familiar and all too close that began to break the fragile silence. He rolled onto his side and looked down at me for a long moment before dipping his head and brushing his lips over the curve of my dappled shoulder.

I lingered there, filled with a longing I didn't understand and an effervescent joy that soared through my body.

It was my first kiss and my only kiss from him, and I can feel the warmth and smell the sweet grass every time I brush my fingers across that spot on my shoulder.