Strange things happen in every life and sometimes those events encroach on others lives too. Any such event doesn't have to be an earth shattering one. It can be just one of the little things that happen every second of our lives. Except that any one particular happening can have life altering consequences for each one of us ... and ... as I said ... unalterably affect the life of others!

The event I'm referring to happened a very long time ago. Very long ago, back when I thought I knew a lot. What teen or young adult, full of themselves, doesn't think they "Know It All!" As every late term adult realizes, fledglings don't really know what they think they know.

What person has not said, "If I only knew back then what I know now" when musing over their past life. I know for me things would have been so different for me if there had been just a little change in events when I dated Kathy or even earlier, Jackie. Definitely if I'd known what I know now either one of those relationships would have been greatly different.

One little change in what happened with each of them would have made all the difference. One little thing would not have let either of them slide from my fingers. With either of them, just a slight change would have been a life changing event for both of us.

Clouded memories excepted, just a slight change in position when Jackie and I were having a fun afternoon in my bedroom would have made her my first. Kathy was my first a few years after that. But think of the fun I missed along the way. I guess, that slight change let me miss a lot and of course, eventually Jackie slid from my life.

Yes, I think of sex as fun. Isn't it supposed to be that way. We're supposed to have sex. Our bodies are built that way. Boys bodies dent out just where girls bodies dent in. What else could have been part of the master plan.

Yeah, sex has to be learned. For humans that is. It hurts to be member of a higher order group of living organisms. Insects have it so easy. I don't think that sex has to be learned for them. Like with fish, it comes naturally. No pun intended there.

So, learning the how of sex is a life changing event for each of us. That's why I think why we feel our first time is so important. Like I said, for me, that happened with Kathy. Four decades, plus a myriad of additional years have not dimmed my memory of that first time or the feelings that went along with it.

I could go on about that one life changing event that happened to me with a stroke by stroke recant. But that's not really the reason behind my telling this story. I only mention it to underscore how a single event can change our life and that of others.

You see, I'm not really talking about "MY" first time here but about the time it didn't happen. Jackie is who I'm thinking about and have thought about for all of this time. Yeah, I guess you'd say I'm lamenting not over what didn't but could have happened.

With Jackie, as I mentioned, it was not what happened but didn't because of our body parts not meeting where our dent's in and out. I think of her often, more often than Kathy. I wonder how it might have been and actually, still dream about how it might have been. It's one of those 'If Only" moments in my life.

But I only mention my first and not so first times as background to my moving into the more adult realm. And of course to emphasize how powerful a life changing event can be.

In addition to that, what about the life changing events that affect our lives but we just don't have any knowledge about. They happen. Our lives change but we don't know what the event was or even ultimately even know about them. They just go on and perhaps we never know.

This story is about just one such event that happened to me, way back when. A long time ago and in a life that ... well ... was so different. You know, back before I knew what I know now and really didn't know back then.

Teens think they control the world and as I already confirmed, think they know everything. I was one of those typical teens as I passed through that tumultuous part of a normal lifetime. I was the immortal. I knew it all. Just like all of my peers. Collectively we were the "It!" of our world.

Like all of us back then, we did odd jobs to get a few bucks to buy a record or see a movie with a date. Being a good or not so good Protestant tyke, I did odd jobs at our church like mowing the lawn or in the winter, shoveling snow. It didn't make me rich, but the five dollars I usually got went a long way back then.