Seattlest Roundtable: Our First Kiss
It's not only the anniversary of Mt. St. Helens exploding, it's also the event of a much more unexpected event: On May 18, 1992, for the very first time, a girl allowed 15-year-old Seattlest Seth to kiss her. If that isn't a shameless excuse for a Seattlest roundtable, what is? And so we present...Seattlest's first kiss:
Seattlest Seth
It was a high school bike trip to Lopez Island. The girl and I and some of our friends were sitting around a campfire, and everyone else went to bed, and--I'm ashamed to say that she made the first move. We kissed for a few minutes, and I remember thinking how glad I was that my braces had come off a month before. As I walked back to my tent I think I may have done a fist pump or two. She's married with a kid now and lives in Seattle.
Seattlest Jeremy
My first kiss was in the house of my girlfriend's best friend's house. Her friend's parents' lax supervision made the house a popular hangout. Not only was it extremely nerve-wracking and unromantic, but in fact the girl was (a) bad at it and (b) a chronic sufferer of haliotosis. Yet the throbbing hormones kept me convinced I was in love for all of three months.
Seattlest Clint
My first kiss was in a Wal-Mart parking lot. Well, in the adjacent Taco Bell lot. I was in high school, and she, being 23 and more “experienced”—and having more confidence, for sure—made the first move. We both worked at Wal-Mart—just one indication of all that was wrong with the blossoming relationship—and we’d gone to The Bell after work for a romantic dinner. Standing behind my baby blue Ford Courier, she grabbed me and we kissed longer than I thought people typically did the first time. My legs shook. My fear of having stuff stuck in my teeth was born at that moment. Tortillas are especially bad.
Seattlest Kim
I used to meet up with a boy in my pre-school class to kiss in the sandbox. We had contrasting one-piece sailor suits -- mine was blue with white stripes, his was white with blue. We were four, but we were going to spend the rest of our lives together. I have no idea what happened to him. I don't think I ever saw him again after preschool. That, or I was over him by kindergarten.
Seattlest David S.
Right outside the old Downtown Seattle Public Library (my second kiss would come a month after the new library opened), the girl I was working with on a class project turned and kissed me on the mouth. I tried my best to keep up, but had no idea what was going on. The whole experience was quite confusing and fun--a wonderful harbinger.
Seattlest Michael
I've always thought of this as my first kiss because I had a crush on the girl and being in grade school I thought it meant we were going to have to get married. It was third or fourth grade, and she and I were a "thing" in my mind because we both were going to need orthodontic work later on -- life throws people together like that. One day we were sitting next to each other at the lunchtable; I was teasing her about something and she was "pretending" to ignore me by looking away. Then simultaneously we spun around, sticking our tongues out at each other, and our tongues touched. "Holy shit!" I thought, shades of Alvy Singer, before we both said, "GROSS!" and avoided each other for the rest of the day. For my next kiss, years later, I was drunk.
Seattlest Jack
High school, freshman year. Dating a sweet girl named named Amanda -- back when dating meant watching movies and holding sweaty hands. We'd just finished watching some sugary romantic comedy and were in her basement with some friends, her younger sister and younger brother. We'd been dating for weeks so our friends were taunting us to just get it over with and kiss already. Her younger brother proclaimed he'd destroy me if I tried. Unruffled, but terrified nonetheless, I made my way across the room to Amanda and gave her a kiss on the lips. It didn't last more than a second, as her brother had jumped on my back, apparently to destroy me. My friend James knocked him to the ground and we fled the house as quickly as we could before Amanda's father could investigate the mayhem downstairs. Her father was a large man who rode a motorcycle and wore leather. Who knew what he was capable of.
Seattlest Audrey
I'm not going to count all those kisses born of junior high kissing games and truth or dare. Nor am I going to count the lame high school boys I kissed just to do some kissing. My first Kiss That Meant Something was a couple weeks before junior prom, with my best friend/prom date Rick Coppola, who I had been seriously crushing on for about a year. It was at his parents' place after we had done some prom shopping and he had seen me in my gown. He got a goofy look on his face and moved in for the kiss, which was tender and brief (much like my time with Rick). Later that night, I had butterflies in my stomach for hours just thinking of that moment. It still ranks amongst the best kisses I've ever had, primarily because of the year-long anticipation.
Seattlest Courtney
Mine was junior high, but not a product of spin the bottle or “seven hours in the closet” or whatever that game was. Randy Fravel was my first boyfriend but it sure took us a couple months to even get around to the kiss. We were running around our school late in the day, in fact it was pushing evening as we’d been there for some after-school event. I remember that the halls were all very dark and we were not supposed to be off running around them. We were hiding around the corner listening to a group of teachers go the other way down the hall, our hearts already racing and full of adrenaline, which I guess finally gave both of us the nerve. It started as a turn and bonk heads thing almost, and then we both just stuck with it. I also recall that it still was a very innocent kiss, we didn’t swap tongues until at least a few more kisses later. Randy turned out to be a real piece of work (dumping me for a gal who was my frenemy, and teasing me for the rest of junior high for being flat as a board). I last heard he was working in a gas station in Salt Lake City.
[ED NOTE: Anyone who writes for Seattlest but isn't included on this post has ...
