Hearts Can Be That Way

August 15, 2008

“Hearts can break and never mend together…”

“Hearts” by Marty Balin was popular a few months earlier, during that spring of 1981.

Like I said, I was 14 and coming of age. After church services one cool April evening, my sister Elaine and Andy’s sister Debra planned a picnic atop Fort Mountain. The state park was a popular spot for picnicking and hanging out with friends or family. The mountain lies at the foot of the Appalachians, resting within the Chattahoochee National Forest in northwest Georgia. Tall Georgia pines surround the calm lake. As a bonus, it was still early enough in the season that we nearly had the park to ourselves.

I wasn’t a stranger to Fort Mountain; I’d been there many times as a child, when my dad would take us on family picnics. After we ate our sandwiches and chips or whatever Mom packed for us, my sisters and I would gleefully raid the playground. We’d slide down that metal slide that must have been a mile high. We’d swing on the swings high enough to touch the sky. And we’d spin round-and-round on that wooden merry-go-round so much and so fast (if we could get a grown-up to push us around!) that we’d get merrily dizzy and the world seemed to revolve around our heads.

Yes, Fort Mountain was like an old family friend.

“Love can fade away.”

Of course, Elaine’s fiancé Frank, and Debra’s sometime-boyfriend Thomas, came along, that April evening in ‘81. So did I… and so did Andy. I guess they all thought it would be cute to pair off Andy and me. Debra was most likely the instigator of that match-up; she was the oldest of 7 kids and was bossy and thought she knew everything.

In all honesty I felt “grown up,” having been included on a triple-date with the older kids. It was probably my first “real” date, although I generally considered my first official date to be Andy’s high school Sports Banquet (he ran on the cross country team). It was May 18, I think, about a month later, shortly before school let out for the summer.

“Hearts can cry when love won't stay forever…”

I even remember the dress and shoes I wore to that banquet. I found the dress at JCPenney in Bry-Man’s Plaza: a green-and-blue floral design was set against a cream-colored background; inch-wide straps covered the shoulders, and the full skirt draped to mid-calf. I found summery-green sandals to match, at Cannon’s downtown. I felt so pretty, and so ladylike, dressing up for my first date.

Paula went with us to the banquet. I was nervous, this being my first real date where I was actually asked out by a boy, so I was secretly glad Paula was there. She, Andy, and I sat together in church often, and as far as I was concerned, we were all just good friends.

"Hearts can be that way."

We were like one big happy family. Frank and Andy played on the church softball team, and once or twice a month our team would play in invitational tournaments against neighboring teams at Dellinger Park an hour away in Cartersville. Six or eight teams from around Georgia would meet at Dellinger, and I remember so vividly spending entire Sundays roasting, my pale skin literally burning, under the hot Georgia sun, cheering our boys on.

Andy gave me my first “thinking of you” card there. Being good friends, we grew very fond of each other, and we became an item. I guess Debra’s matchmaking did its trick. The card was so sweet. I would bet I still have it, somewhere. Maybe.

It’s a tender time in a young girl’s life, that of her first love. A fragile time.