Crushes (in honor of Valentines Day)

(pictures from left to right - Miss Elizabeth, Mary Decket (in the lead), Jacklyn Smith, Dawn Wells (with Bob Denver)

In a couple of weeks it'll be Valentine's Day. A day that has traditionally depressed me. So far I've managed to avoid the pre-Valentine's day funk I normally go into at this period of time. I get told by friends and family that it is nothing more than a manufactured holiday which granted is true but when you work in a place where so many people talk about what they'll do on that night. To see all the cards and letters that come through the post office it is difficult not to get crabby about not having a girlfriend.

I recently started thinking about about the types of women that I've had crushes on over the years. It seems they are quite varied in physical attributes. The closest thing that most of them have in common is they are in the field of athletics, or at least look quite athletic.

It is said that one never forgets their first crush. For me that crush was of Dawn Well's (picture #1) best known to legions of fan's as Mary Ann from Gilligan's Island. I was first attracted to the character that she portrayed then years later I became enchanted with the women who played her. The character appealed to me because of the relationship she had with Gilligan (Bob Denver). No matter how badly he loused up a rescue. No matter what manner of stupidity he committed she still cared deeply for him. Year's later I had the honor of meeting Ms. Wells at a book signing. As I waited for her to sign "The Mary Ann-Gilligan's Island Cookbook" I had bought I blurted out that she was my first crush and that she still was. She got up and gave me a peck kiss on the cheek. For a moment I swore my knee's were going to buckle. She is one of only three crushes who I ever meet, and the only one I ever got to talk to.

It wasn't until I became an adult that I found another women who I had fallen head over heels for. Her name was Jacklyn Smith who played Kelly Garrett in the show Charlie's Angel's. Back then Farrah Fawcett was considered the prettiest of the angel's but there was something about Ms. Smith that appealed to me. The more I learned about the actress the more it charmed me. For example she had studied to be a ballerina but something about her legs (I think it was a trick knee) ended that career for her.

Around the same time I was also falling for certain athlete's as well. Middle distance runner Mary Decker, who in an era where a lot of female runners seemed to look more manly then the men looked very feminine and lady-like. Around the same time I was in the navy and was stationed in Norfolk, Virginia. There I was a regular attendee of basketball games for the Old Dominion Lady Monarch's where I had crushes on two of their players. Center Anne Donovan and Nancy Liebermann (sorry couldn't find any good pictures to post). I would do my best to get my ticket's behind the Lady Monarch bench so I could get a good view of these two even if it was only of their leg's and back's when they weren't on the court.

Other crushes over the year's include people from professional wrestling Rockin' Robin, Miss Elizabeth, Kimberly Page and Dark Journey. In the case of Rockin' Robin, Kimberly Page and Dark Journey the crush was for physical reason's only. In the case of Miss Elizabeth it was a case of the persona of her character that got to me first. The "Damsel in distress." she often played with her then husband Randy 'Macho Man" Savage turned out to be very close to her real life as I learned much later . When she died it actually hurt a bit. That may sound silly but it is still true. Especially when I heard of the way she died, from a mixture of alcohol and pain medications she was taking due to injuries she had received during her wrestling era.

I'm sure some psychiatrist could have fun trying to map the mind of a person who has these ladies for crushes and what they might mean. Currently there is no well known personality who I have a crush on at this time. Though there are some women at work who I do feel quite strongly about. Only problem is they're all married or involved. I won't mention their names to prevent them from any embarassment but my family knows who two of them are quite well.

With that my first blog on my own site is done. "The Lip" has nothing more to say today.