First Kiss

We were raised in a home where the female members did not mix with the male members, like two worlds side by side. Schooling was at home. At 18 you were supposed to get married and start your family. Girls did not go to college, go to the Army, work outside the home. Everyone lived the same so no one was different.

I was sent to town with my older sister to buy supplies. At the store a boy talked to me and told me he was in a band and going on tour. We talked and I told him I had never been as far as Dallas, I had never seen the ocean. He said they had one more seat and I should go with them, I could play tambourine. I told my sister, she told my mother, my mother told my father and I was taken to stay with some family members. The punishment for talking to a boy.

My sister came to see me and told me that if I didn't tell anyone she would take me to see the ocean. Her husband gave her permission and we drove to South Padre Island where her husband's sister lived with her family. We went to the beach, saw people in all kinds of dress.
My sister let me buy a two piece suit and go to the beach. A boy in the water talked to me, we got pushed around in the waves, he touched me to stand up. Out of the water he talked to me and my sister let him stay. One day soon I was going to be married and I should know how to talk to a boy. Before we left the beach my sister gave me permission to invite him to her inlaw's house.

I got a kiss that night. I turned 15 at the end of the summer. Unlike many of the girls in our community I had been kissed.