Unlike the old movie, it wasn't the Summer of 42', but it might as well have been.
I had just turned eighteen, looking forward to Graduation, which was just a few month's away. I wasn't looking forward to the draft however, Vietnam still very much apart of the American way of life at that time. It was a period of self-discovery, decisions, and a very uncertain and somewhat frightening future.
I had being going 'steady' as was the term then, and perhaps still is. My High School sweetheart and I had known each other off and on since Grade-School, on into Junior High, which is now called Middle School in most places. And then of course, finally on into High School. But it wasn't until High School that we finally got serious about our relationship.
But of all the time we knew each other, after all the dates, flirtations, and everything else that went along with it, Tracy had remained a 'chaste' albeit very flirtatious virgin. We'd spent more evenings together than you could even begin to possibly imagine, with my never getting off "first-base". Another one of those ageless terms. Some might think, "Why bother?" Especially since most, if not all of my buddies back then were obviously having sex with their girlfriends, so why wasn't I? God knows I tried. Even to the point sometimes of threatening to break up with her if she didn't relent. Then we would breakup, and then I'd relent, and we'd start the whole damn process all over again.
There were several reasons we stayed together, even after short periodic weeks apart from one another. We honestly enjoyed being together, number one. Number two, Tracy and I both felt that after all these years, we were "meant" to be together, and God help us, that meant getting married one day too. Three...and this was mainly my reason more than hers of course, was that she had a fantastic body. True, I'd never actually seen it...but she had enormous breasts, and a shapely figure that the guys were always drooling over, and teasing me about constantly as I'd never actually seen it.
Perhaps it had something to do with that final year. The "war", talk about future plans, including the possibility of marriage (someday) or what. But whatever the reason, Tracy suddenly began to loosen up. Not all at once, but gradually. But like all typically horny teenage boys, even finally getting to second base wasn't good enough, or nearly fast enough.
Tracy and I had spent many evenings together like I said. Sometimes at the Drive-Inn, or sometimes simply sitting in my car overlooking the city. "Watching the submarine races" as we called parking back then. We had some pretty hot sessions together too. A lot of kissing, hugging, but never much more than that, though Tracy did enjoy hinting at wonderful things to come if I simply remained patient with her, and so on and so on.
Each time I was about to throw in the towel however, she'd do something to surprise me. And not without a lot of back and forth arguing and manipulating in between. We'd been up at the local 'Lovers-Lane' watching the twinkling lights of the city. I had recently had another girl at school begin to pay particular attention to me, and more importantly, I did know a guy who she had dated for a while, who had bragged about how good she was in bed. So this sudden outside interest, and the possibility of finally going to bed with a girl was more than a little tempting. I'd basically decided to (once again) break things off with Tracy, and do a little exploratory research on my own. Sitting there in the car, it was obvious to both of us that something was in the air. Neither one of us spoke initially, and as I soon discovered, it was because we both had several things weighing heavily on our minds.
"David? Do you really love me?" She asked.
It was perhaps the worse possible question she could have asked me at that moment. True, I did love her, or at least I honestly believed I did then. And here I was, considering breaking up with her long enough to at least finally get some girl into bed for no better reason than to finally lose my virginity, after all I was eighteen I had argued with myself.
"Yes Tracy. I do love you." And then suddenly realizing this was an opening for me to lead into what had always been a constant tug of war between us, I added.
"And that's one of the reasons I have wanted to be with you, now, not later, not (if) and when I go into the Navy, or somehow make it into College. A point that wasn't missed on her at all as my folks didn't have the means financially to support me in school, and so to do so would pretty much mean doing it myself. And at the moment, the odds of my being able to do that looked pretty slim. I worked a part-time job, but the meager wages I earned barely kept me in gas and insurance money on my car, let alone the few extra dollars I still had for dates.