My first crush occurred when I was nine years old. In fourth grade I sat beside Patti, the prettiest girl in the class. She was smart and talented and popular and funny and charming.

One day, the teacher assigned an exercise which tested our abilities to compose a letter. After they were graded and edited accordingly, we sent them off to a Chamber of Commerce of our choice, asking for information about their town. I chose Tuscon, Arizona.

When the return mail started coming in from all over the country, everyone had such fun opening and sharing their treasures with the class. Most of the envelopes contained pamphlets describing the location and the city’s unique qualities. Finally, I received my package which was bigger than the others. Inside were all kinds of goodies including stamps, pens, literature, maps and pictures.

This was my chance. I decided to share some of my things with Patti. I nervously reached across the aisle to give her some stamps and dropped a few on the floor. The teacher asked with annoyance, ‘what is going on there?’. I turned red and couldn’t think of anything to say, but Patti jumped in and bailed me out. ‘He was sharing some stamps with me’, she calmly replied.

Hmmmm … ‘honesty’, why didn’t I think of that. The teacher, with a knowing smile, let me off the hook and continued addressinclass. Patti and I eventually became good friends (did I mention how pretty she was?)

Our family moved away that winter and I never saw Patti again, but somewhere I read that she had become the homecoming queen and valedictorian of her senior class . Ten years have passed since our ‘stamp’ episode, but I think of it once in a while.

It’s nice to be able to look her in her in her eyes as she lays next to me, she is now my wife and mother of my children.