She Did It (Part 1)
[First of a two-part post.]
It was supposed to be a big deal.
All those crazy teenage years spent in anxious anticipation. All the pent-up horniness. Making out on dates, only to go home with blue balls. The Playboy centerfolds. The daydreams and fantasies … the mystery.
What was it really like to go all the way with a girl?
Friday, April 25, 1980. There’s no journal entry (in fact, my journal-writing habit doesn’t pick up again until late summer 1981). However, there is the calendar-planner. In ballpoint pen, I’d written: “Meredith and Robyn come out for weekend swimming @ Canterbury.”
The entry for Saturday: “Party @ 61 Pine!”
And Sunday: “7:00 walk to Stillwater See Mary about 1:00.”
There’s another pocket-sized calendar-planner that also has an entry: “Meredith and Robyn come over for the weekend. Softball practice. Baseball game. I go to Stillwater for the day; visit Mary.”
While the whole point of this blog is relying on primary source material about the Family Project and my life within it, we’re just going to have to wing it from memory here, based on those sparse notes.
The photos shown are from that time, taken for my Lakewood Community College Photography class. The above selfie was in my rented bedroom at 61 Pine Street that winter and spring of 1980. I had just turned 20 and was about to solve the mystery—the one that all heterosexual males obsess over.
…And also feel the crash and burn of its aftermath.
***
My Lakewood college roommate, Dave LaGue, had a girlfriend named Meredith. I recall next to nothing about her looks or personality. Meredith attended the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. Dave often dragged our one phone—cord and all—into his bedroom, where he shut the door so they could privately coo at each other. He tied up the line for hours on end.
Meredith drove up to White Bear Lake to stay with Dave that last weekend in April. I recall there was some build-up to the weekend plan from Dave earlier in the week.
“Hey, Mikey! Mere’s coming to stay with me next weekend. What d’ya say we invite her roommate Robyn, too? Get some beer and have a party? Huh? Whad’ya say, Mikey?”
Was Robyn single? Yup.
Was she attractive? Meredith seemed to think so.
Okay, okay. Let’s invite some people over Saturday and have a big blowout!
What did we have to lose?
So, around dinnertime that Friday—with butterflies in my stomach as I cooked spaghetti and meatballs in the kitchen—the girls arrived at 61 Pine Street.
Robyn Baumgartner, from Bemidji, Minn. She walked through the door and I immediately thought, “Wow. She’s a stunner.” Soft, shoulder-length blondish-brown hair. Pretty face with a sassy smile. I clearly recall the force of her personality—locked, loaded and ready for anything.
She made a beeline for the kitchen to see what I was cooking. We were introduced. Then we all ate, cracked some beers and tried to make a plan for the evening. Dave had invited another college friend to join us, some guy whose name I’ve since forgotten, but who drove a boss car. Muscle Car Kid knew of a party that night at an apartment in Little Canada. Did we want to crash it?
Wish I could remember who sat where when we piled into his car, but pile in we did, probably taking beers with us. Once we got to the Canterbury apartments, Muscle Car Kid got confused and couldn’t remember where the party was, as the place was sprawling.
We checked out the resident directory by the apartment buzzers. Then we saw the pool area door was ajar, so we snuck inside.
I’m pretty sure it was Robyn who came up with the idea.
“We should,” she said, right then and there, “…go swimming.”
Muscle Car Kid was dead-set against it. Dave had a sloppy grin on his face and shot me a quizzical look, to which I probably shrugged. Robyn’s excitement was so irresistible we started peeling off tennis shoes, socks and shirts. She stripped down to her bra and—jeans and all—was the first to jump in the pool.
We were laughing our asses off.
While we never found the party, Muscle Car Kid pissed and moaned—while we cackled, dripping wet in the backseat of his car—all the way back to 61 Pine Street. He was more than happy to just drop us off.
It was probably after midnight when Meredith and Dave used the main bathroom to change, while Robyn got out of her wet clothes in my bedroom’s tiny bathroom. After she emerged, and I did the same, I discovered she’d crawled into my bed.
“Uh, Robyn? That’s my bed. I want to sleep there.”
“I don’t care.”
Uh-huh.
So, for the first time ever, I jumped into bed with a girl.
It was a pretty big deal.
Completely in the Dark 