It was Friday in the third week of June in 1969 and it was a day I was looking forward to like I had never done before. Little did I know, that this day would end up changing my life in an awful way.
To understand why I felt this great anticipation and excitement, I will first need to backtrack 6 weeks. I was 12 years old, in 8th grade and there was a birthday party for a girl (lets call her Janice) that was in a couple of my classes. The party took place sometime in April of the same year. Unlike today, birthday parties back then were not in Madison Square Garden or roller skating rinks or even in bowling alleys. They were in the home of the person whose was celebrating their birthday. The party was about a 20 minute walk from my house so I met a few friends and we walked to the party. It started off like every other party did those days, all of us just hanging out, eating junk and talking junk. Janice's parents were home when we first got there, but about an hour into the party when her older sister got home, her parents left. That's when everything in mine and all of my friends lives changed forever. To that point in my life (and most of my friends lives) I had never kissed a girl in any way. The party, thanks to older sis, was turned into a full blown make out party. I think I ended up making out with at least 12 different girls that day. I can remember the walk home with my friends like it was yesterday. We were in a daze and couldn't comprehend the feelings rushing through our bodies. I remember one of my friends saying this must be what it feels like to do heroin.
Now it is 6 weeks later and Janice is having an end of the school year party at her house. My friends and I have been counting the days since her birthday party in anticipation of this. All we talked about was who we were going to make out with and who might be invited that was not at the birthday party (new lips to kiss). All the girls talked about was how we kissed. I don't remember what everyone said about me, however, I do remember 2 comments. The birthday girl thought I kissed like a "hoover vaccuum" and another girl liked the way I kissed.
On the walk to the party, I started to feel a little weird, kind of light headed. I just thought it was that same feeling that I had, had walking home from the birthday party and didn't think anything of it. Once I got to the party, I knew something was wrong because it was 80 degrees outside and I was freezing. My stomach began to cramp badly and I was basically in the bathroom every 10 minutes. As much as I was looking forward to the party, I was feeling miserable and asked Janice's parents if I could call my parents to come and get me to take me home. Back then, there were obviously no cell phones or even voice mail. Nobody answered at my house, my parents had gone out. I ended up laying on a couch in Janice's living room, wrapped up in a blanket just wanting to go home. A couple of hours later, I called and my parents had gotten home and came and got me. As we pulled away, I remember looking in the backyard seeing the entire party making out. I didn't even care, I just wanted to feel better. What I didn't know at the time, was that I would never get better. Years later it was explained to me that the stomach flu I had gotten the day of the party is typically attacked by the bodies immune system. In my case, my immune system had destroyed a layer of my intestines, which, in turn, caused me to get Crohn's Disease. Some "party" that was.
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