Most men have a pretty clearly defined "type" when it comes to women that stays with them the rest of their life. I think what happens is they imprint on somebody when they're young, and it stays locked in that way for good. In my case, it was Angela Cartwright from Lost In Space. She had brown hair and brown eyes, and that pattern was set for me for the rest of my life.
Cartwright is eleven years older than I am, but through the miracle of television syndication, I was convinced she was only two years older. I had all sorts of plans of exploring the galaxy with her and the robot by my side on the Jupiter two. By the time I actually met Angela, she had mostly white hair, but that doesn't matter. The pattern was set.
After Angela went off the air and I moved into middle school, I graduated to Valerie Bertinelli. It broke my heart when she ran off with that guitar player. It's ok, though; by then, I'd moved on to Susanna Hoffs, the Egyptian lead singer of The Bangles, who coincidentally had a hit song called "Walk Like An Egyptian." Funny how that works.
By the time Hoffs came along, I was getting ready for college and began noticing that there were all these girls in the real world that fit that model. By the time I got to Millsaps, there was no secret that there were a set of girls who had me on a short leash and I followed them around and did whatever they said, and it worked out ok for everybody. Except for one outlier who was blonde, you could line them up with Angela Cartwright and Susanna Hoffs and call them sisters because they all looked so much alike.
There were five Chi-O's, two KD's, one independent, and one Tri Delta. Some people are sinking in their chairs reading this right now, hoping I won't mention their names. I won't. If you were there in those days, I don't have to because you already know them. One dyes her hair blonde now if that's any help. (I hate it. Don't tell her I said that.)
What's cool is that, even though I was completely at the mercy of these girls, and they knew it, and EVERYBODY knew it, it was never a problem. Nobody ever stepped out of bounds. Nobody ever tried to press the advantage and use my devotion for anything other than what was good for everybody. They were, exactly what their mothers raised them to be: ladies.
When I got out of college, life became considerably more difficult, and there were some new girls who would use my nature against me. I've written about that before. I don't like to write about it. Life in your twenties can be brutal, so I hold no grudges.
I think about these things when I see younger guys now, guys I know who are just starting out. Men are ruled by their heart. It will ever be so. At the last theater lunch, I mentioned some friends who are a couple years older than I and who have always had a special fondness for each other. Apparently, nobody had told the kids they were an item, so there was some satisfaction when I confirmed that they had "shipped" them correctly. I don't know how you could have missed it.
Later today, after I do my exercises and other work for the day, an old friend will come to visit his wife, who lives in the hall near me. She, too, once had raven hair and chocolate eyes. In his heart, I'm sure she still does. Sometimes, when people get older, their mind begins to leave them. I hate it when that happens. A gentleman's heart is constant, though. He'll be coming here every day to remind her of who she is from now on, long after I've moved back to Jackson. I understand that on a deep level. A man is ruled by his heart. There's a reason for that.
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