Back to the Future...

I believe it was the summer of 1979, when my family drove to Lido di Jesolo in Italy, on aour annual camping holiday.  Most summers, when I was a kid, we would drive for two days to either Spain or Italy, and spend 2 weeks on a camp site.  That was just the way we went on holidays back then, and we had so much fun - well, most of the time.

Lido di Jesolo is not too far away from Venice, probably 30 minutes by car to the harbour and then the boat trip.

I was only 7 years old and was fairly short back then.  It would also be known as the ass heigth periode, esepecially for some boys, where they stare at everybody's behinds and are in constant danger of being hit by a sneaky (lethal) fart.  This period is often a very problematic time for us boys, and might also be for girls, because you can no longer squeeze by under the hips, and your head is now pressed between hips in large crowds.

Most boys at that age and heigth would have scratches on their faces, caused by buttons, zippers, pockets stitches and other accessories around the hips.  The worst case would be being stuck among some bikers, in the spikes and leather gear.

But, we were on the way to Venice and were standing in the middle of the boat thingy.  If the boat had been inspected, it would have been fined with overloading.  These boats were made for 120 passengers, but most of them carried easily 200 passengers.  So, it was stuffy and warm around people's asses.

I needed some air and squeezed through the ass jungle, and made it to the back of the boat (aft).  As I got closer to the back, the light got stronger, and the first silhouettes were blurry.  My vision got used to the light and there she was.  She was only 6 back then, but she was sitting on a bench, surrounded by her sisters.  Her hair was pitch black and a smily round face, with a beautiful dark brown tan.  She looked at me and smiled.  That's it, I was in love but also shy, so I legged it back to my parent.

The freaky bit is that my wife had the exact same memory, of this little gorgeous blond haired boy staring at her on the boat to Venice.  Could it have been us looking at each other?

I didn't see her again until almost 20 years later and now I'm not letting her go again.