Training Wheels For The Heart

I just remembered this Youtube clip. You might remember the song. But what is really important is that about half-way through there are a few seconds of video of Gino Vannelli’s three back-up singers. And the gold-skinned, gold-haired one in the middle, seen in several brief shots, was my first girlfriend, “Mandy.” I got a rush and a smile watching her, remembering her. I owe her so much.

Gino Vannelli — I just wanna stop (video/audio edited & remastered) HQ.mpg

She was my training wheels.

We all have early relationships that didn’t work out for one reason or another. My very first girlfriend was in high school, and her name was Belita. She was a semester older than me, and after she graduated, I never saw her again.

I was nineteen when I lost my virginity to a family friend who had basically said “I’m a nympho, Steve. Come over any time.” I did, she wasn’t bluffing, and that brief event ushered me into the world of the Real Men. Sort of.

But my first real girlfriend was lovely girl “Mandy”. I’d met her at a friend’s house, a girl my best friend described as a “typical Radcliff sister” whatever THAT meant, with skin a little darker than my mother’s, and a golden afro I found beautiful. She was hip and funny and sexy, and as often happens, I was surprised when she was attracted to me. For the first time in my life, I looked at a grown young woman, ripe with the power of her life, and every chakra from my heart down went BOOM. And…apparently she felt the same.