Tuesday 13 April 2010

That Long Hot Summer

My lovely blogger friend, Ian published a post a while back that reminded me of the long, hot summer I had between leaving high school and starting university.

Just two days after I finished school I took a selection of clothes round to my friend's house for her to borrow on her family trip to Austrialia. She lived on the same road as Mr Delaney. I said goodbye and left her at exactly the same moment that my gorgeous economics teacher was leaving his house. He greeted me very warmly and asked what I was off to do. When I said nothing he asked me if I wanted to go to the pub with him. Of course I said yes! And that was the start of a relationship that lasted the whole of that summer.

Of course, as my teacher (I was 18, he was 28) he probably should have steered clear. But technically, I was no longer his student. We both knew it was something to keep quiet though. He never asked me to but I instinctively knew it was likely to cause trouble and so it was my big secret!

But it wasn't as seedy as maybe it sounds. He was such lovely company and I think he saw me as his very own "Pygmalion" project. He took me to art galleries and exhibitions and the theatre and he even introduced me to opera. We did "La Traviata" long before it was a famous scene in "Pretty Woman". And we went for long romantic walks and picnics. He was a great cook and he made me some fantastic meals on the nights I stayed over. He also introduced me to fantastic sex and taught me just how to make a man happy…. and said that I was a very good student !! Sometimes we just spent days in bed.

I loved the time I spent with him but he was clever enough to make me look forward to university and all the opportunities I would have there to continue to broaden my mind. So, when it was time for him to go back to school I was ready to say goodbye without any tears or angst (well, not much!)

I never saw him again. I heard a few years later that he had been out with my friend's sister for a short time, so he clearly had a thing for young girls but then, a few years after that, I heard he had married one of the games teachers at the school. I was totally shocked because she didn't seem to be his type at all. She was from New Zealand, was at least the same age as him (if not older), had a crazy, mad perm and looked and sounded like a man! The last I heard, about five or six years ago was that he'd had a heart attack and a friend told me that she saw him in town once, looking very old. He can only be in his fifties so that didn't sound good.

I wonder if he ever thinks of me. I'd like to see him again - just to say thank you. He was gorgeous and made a woman of me and gave my confidence a huge boost.

Whatever anyone else may think, I really do treasure those memories.

7 comments:

  1. You never forget your first proper milestone relationship. I wish my chemistry teacher had made a play for me but sadly she was not into speccy boys with bowl haircuts. It was over a decade before I got my first girlfriend. I was a slow starter.

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  2. Wow, you started young didn't you, ha ha. Yes another interesting and honest story. The teacher-student attraction thing is interesting - I admit I've sometimes looked at some of my students and thought "you're attractive" but know of course that nothing could transpire, for several reasons, the chief ones being: a) the age gap b) the fact that I am married. But technically, as you said, you did nothing wrong. Glad you both had such a healthy attitude towards the relationship and got something good out of it.

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  3. I must confess that I, a number of years after she'd graduated, spent a blissful interlude of 'quality time' with an exotically beautiful and amazingly intelligent former student. It was quite special. It wasn't going anywhere and we both knew that, but it was one of those moments-in-time things that your reminiscence stirred thoughts of in me. I still keep in touch with her periodically. She is now a (much too young) grandmother.

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  4. Oooh, what was HER name? NZ is so small I might even know her!! (Don't laugh, for the rest of the world 6 degrees of seperation might count but here it's only about 2 degrees!!)

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  5. insightful,
    everyone has something similar..
    Hope that you enjoy beautiful Saturday!

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  6. Haha, every guy has a thing for youth, same as every guy has a thing for beauty, but there's some internal process of adding up all the pros and cons of a relationship and sometimes the result pops out that you want to marry the mannish gym-teacher.

    I always liked overtly sexy girls with hourglass figures, but the girl I was most in love with was a thin androgynous bisexual with thick glasses - there's any number of factors feeding into it; some psychological or even spiritual, and I think that many of them are truly intangible. Hard-wired biological responses to a particular body-odour could even make or break it.

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  7. What a story.

    I can't imagine being with a 28-year-old at 18 (or, to be honest, even now).

    I want to find it wrong that he came onto you like that, but because of how you responded I just can't. It sounds like it was a sincerely rewarding experience that didn't leave you hurt at all.

    I do wish you'd upload pictures!

    I'd love to see what you look like now and what you looked like then.

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