The Rat Tail Comb

She was a very good basketball player. We had more or less grown up together and our houses were only two or three miles apart, but, I had never even talked to her. I grew up the oldest of 3 sons born to my parents and had never associated with females very much. I don't think it was shyness, just more or less ignorance about the opposite sex. Shoot! When Mama would say your cousins Jane, Donna, or Lynne and Sybil were coming for a visit, we would hit the woods or fields and get out of the way till Mama called us and made us visit with them. It wasn't that we didn't like them, again, we just didn't know how to act or react!

The school that we both attended was a small rural school that housed at most 250 students in grades 1-12, all on one site, and surrounded by cornfields to the north, hay field to the west, woods to the south and teacher's homes to the east. Sports was a big part of growing up for us. For her it was basketball and for me football, basketball, and baseball (there was no one sport specialists in those days). Her girls team that year was having much success, having won most of their games and tournaments. The boys team was a little better than 50-50 on the season as I recall. Anyway, our school was hosting a basketball tournament in our little cracker box gym one weekend.

They say "birds of a feather flock together" and while two visiting teams were playing, our girls and boys teams would sit in the stands and watch, congregated in the same general area of the bleachers. We were in that part of our lives where the opposite sex begins to appeal to us and as is the case with young people, the boys would try to get the girls to notice them. Sly comments, wittiness, aggravation, smiling, actually talking, and silly pranks were a few of the "techniques" a boy would use to try to get noticed.

As we were watching the game, she laid a little silver rat tailed comb down beside her on the bleacher seat. One of my buddies reached down and slipped it off the bench, and it was then slipped behind some backs down to me. The poor girl knew that someone was playing a prank, and to her credit, she politely asked for it to be returned. Of course, the response was "We haven"t seen it...know nothing about it!" She simply turned around, watched the game and acted like nothing had happened. I thought "Wow! I'm impressed! She's not only the most beautiful thing I've ever seen, she's a smart cookie too!"

I kept that comb in my pocket till the next Monday. I wanted to be the one to give it back to her and maybe talk to her a while. To make a long story short, 42 years later, I still think she's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen and I know for sure she's a smart cookie! Thanks to a rat tailed comb, I met and married the perfect girl for me. Thank you Lord for rat tailed combs! *smile*