Beware Musicians

Have I mentioned that I flunked out of college? Flunked out... do they still use that term? I've done so many stupid things in my life (usually over men), that this one seems miniscule. My first year was such a wild combination of lonely, scary, exciting, new... that from this distance it seems to have passed in a heartbeat. (Maybe time is like that for God. I'm sixty solar years old. God is a gazillion solar system years old. He/she blinks and another thousand species have gone extinct.) But I digress...

In my second semester of college I met a guy who asked me out. He was a musician, who, on the first date asked if I was a virgin. Excuse me? Of course. (Hey, this was the early sixties, and up until then my only boyfriend had been a total prude.) Well that opening conversation led to my requesting a written description of me in twenty-five words or less. He complied with a thoughtful (hand-written) note in twenty-three words, that ended with "even though you are a virgin."

Many hand-written notes followed. We dated and corresponded this way throughout the spring. (First class postage was five cents then.) I was in heaven... finally, mail in my mailbox. My abandonment issues with the older boyfriend were forgotten, as I diverted all my energy to this new crush.

His talent was obvious... He played both piano and organ and sang in the choir. Often, on Sunday afternoons, he would take me to choral evensong at the Episcopal boys school across the river where he had a part-time job as organist and choir master. I met his musician friends, his priest friends. We were an item.

But my virginity was such an issue. (In retrospect, it may have been a dark hobby of his, seducing young women. I can't speak to his motivations, only to the fact that I wasn't the first, nor would I be the last, to finally comply, only to be dumped.)

But I'm jumping to the end of the story. That's another chapter...