re: #143 Targetpractice

Good God, 40 years ago was 1977, not 1877. Even in Alabama, that shit was not tolerated by 1977. Yes, people got married young…to other young people. A middle-aged man cruising for pre-teen girls in 1977 was every bit as creepy and perverted as it is today. Which is why he was banned from a shopping mall.

I’ll open up a bit about myself and say that this Roy Moore stuff brings back some memories that I’ve forgotten over the years. In the mid 80’s I was a single guy who was living the good life; long hair, single, good job, a nice car and motorcycle, money to spend and playing guitar in a local band for fun. All of the ladies I had dated up to then were in my age group (+- 3 years) and I was enjoying my dating life. Then I met the person that I would be marrying two years later.

Long story short, at the time I was 25 and she was 17. We briefly met at a friend’s house and after that, her mind was made up but I had no idea what I was in for. She looked a hell of a lot older than the 17 years of age she was and I never thought to ask her age right away because she was hanging around peeps in my age group. After talking to her a few times, my Spidey sense started tingling so I asked her age and just about crapped my pants when she told me. A few more questions quickly established that she was sweet 17 and never been -ahem-… anything. By this time it was clear that she was very interested in me and let me just say that I would have been a fool not to have been interested in her. If she had been in my age group.

I thought about this for about two seconds and then told her “I’m the guy that your Mom warned you about. I smoke weed, I have long hair, I play guitar in a band, I ride a motorcycle and drive a hot car. I also have left a long trail of ex-girlfriends in my wake and even if you were old enough, I wouldn’t want you to become another one.” I didn’t see or hear from her until two weeks later when she showed up at my job and dropped off a note for me. I won’t go in to what the note said but I will say that it did lead to us eventually becoming friends. That later led to meeting her Mother (her Dad had passed away from cancer two years before we met) when her Mom was having transmission problems with her Olds. I replaced the trans with a junkyard unit that I rebuilt, saved her a lot of money and unknowingly scored some future Mother in law points.

My point in telling this is that at that time I had to do some things that made me feel real creepy. The first was taking my future wife to her Junior prom. She didn’t have a date and she asked me to take her. I think her problem with guys her age was that she is tall (5’ 10”) and either looked other guys in the eye or looked down at them, because it sure wasn’t her looks. Either way, I told her that I would as long as it was OK with her mom. For some reason her mom was OK with it as long as she was home afterward, which I had no problem with at all.

That prom was something I will never forget. Damn was I ever out of place. I’ll never forget the discomfort I felt but I did my part and made sure that she had a nice evening. I felt better after a bit but I was glad when it was over. I took her home right afterward, as promised. I also took her to her Senior prom but by that time we knew that we had a future together, so that one went much better. Especially since it was the last one!

After she graduated she told her Mom that we were going to get married. Her Mom said “NO!” and asked if she was pregnant (NO!). My (now) wife told her that we were planning to get married the following spring and that it was her choice to make. My wife was 19 when we were married and I would guess that it took about eight years of marriage before her mom decided that I was good enough for her daughter. Her Mom passed in our 13th year of marriage and we are now in our 31st. I am happy to say that we were the best of friends when she passed and I dearly miss her friendship.

So I know what it’s like to have that creep factor feeling, it’s what drove me away from my future wife. It took her time to convince me to get me talking to her again and to knock down that barrier I had. That Roy was actively and repeatedly breaking that barrier makes it clear that he never saw it. Men in their 30’s chasing teenage girls wasn’t appropriate in the 80’s, nor the 70’s. Hell, I was creeped out by a 17 year old when I was 25 because it wasn’t the norm.

Roy had no problem pursuing teens while in his 30’s because he is a creep.

Some interesting family notes: My wife had her Mom over a barrel regarding our age difference; her Mom and Dad were nine years apart in age and we are “only” eight. Her Mom lost the argument after that. One thing that attracted me to my wife was that she i ‘old school’, like she was from my age group or even earlier. I think this was because her Dad was born in 1919, her Mom in 1928 and she was born in 1967. My Dad was born in 1934, my Mom in 1939 and myself in 1959. Our birthdays are a week apart and we turn 50 and 58 this month.