In the fall of 1958, a romantic and life altering
event occurred while I was seated in the Duke Hall auditorium during Freshmen Orientation at
Lincoln Memorial University. After dictating his
campus rules and dress code, the Dean of Students
shuffled his notes to view his next agenda item.
Suddenly…out of the corner of my right eye…I
glimpsed the fluttering of delicate, wispy wings
and instantly my head swiveled toward them. Lo
and behold, I saw that Cupid was hovering near-by
but, in that beautiful moment, the Dean spoke again.
“Two LMU cheerleaders will now teach you freshmen
the school alma mater and game cheers.”
On cue… two petite, cute and bubbly cheerleaders
ran onto stage, and, after staring at both, I began
to swoon over the dark haired one. As I did, my
heart began to thump wildly. “Is she the one for
me,” I wondered?
Suddenly, I again glimpsed movement to my right
and I turned to see that Cupid was now much closer…
and, I could actually see his face. In one swift motion,
and without a word of warning, Cupid smiled…drew
an arrow from its quiver…and drew back his bow.
Zing…. An arrow was soaring toward me.
I froze…unable to react…and Cupid’s arrow pierced
my heart with a slight thud. But, all I felt was “love”.
My eyes were fixed on the dark haired cheerleader
and I was totally mesmerized by her smile…her
perky demeanor…and, her apparent zest for life.
So…unconscious of others around me…I began
whispering, “She will soon be mine… forever.”
Days…weeks…agonizing months passed as I timidly
tried to meet her. I passed her often on campus but
she was always with a male upperclassman and I
was too shy to approach her while she was with
some one else. But…I attended every basketball
game with my eyes transfixed on her every movement
while she led cheers. When the game’s final buzzer
sounded, I would hustle to the gym floor with a
burning desire to speak to her but invariably another
guy would beat me to her side and I would shy away
at the last moment. So…My freshman year ended
and I still had not met her but I had learned that her
name was Shirley Jean Garrett, from Kingsport,
Tennessee.
I meekly pursued the girl of my dreams for over a year,
but finally luck, or destiny, intervened my sophomore
year. I had a class with one of Shirley’s closest friends.
Nancy Dooley, from Carterton, Virginia, and she took
pity on a shy boy from West Virginia and befriended
me. I seized the first opportunity to ask her to play matchmaker.
“Please introduce me to Shirley”, I pleaded.
Nancy did so in late September and I could quickly
tell that Shirley wasn’t too excited about dating me,
but Nancy explained that Shirley was leery of dating
anyone because of a recent split with another guy.
My love didn’t falter though but, try as we might,
neither Nancy nor I could gain Shirley’s consent
until mid-November.
On our first date, I escorted Shirley to the annual
Delta Sorority “Gypsy Violins” formal dance in the
old gym at LMU. As I held her lightly in my arms
during our first waltz, I thought, “This is the lady
for me.”
As she settled in bed that night, Shirley wrote that
day’s entry in her diary which was thick with many
pages on which she had religiously recorded her
impression of all her previous dates with other boys.
Many were quite lengthy….
“Had first date with Kenny Fields…Had a really
great time….”
That short entry was the first and last one Shirley
ever wrote about me, but it also was the final entry
in her diary---forever. There was no need to…no
other boys to write about…and after one long,
agonizing year and a few more dates, I was finally,
“going steady with Shirley.”
I have an inkling about the exact moment when
Shirley started loving me. I personally think that
she knew in her heart as she made her last diary
entry that I would be the love of her life. But, she
won’t admit that…
As for me, I’m 100 per cent sure that my love started
that very moment when Cupid pierced my heart with
his arrow, and I have never, ever, considered pulling
it out. I love Shirley even more now, if that is possible,
so…Cupid’s arrow is still in my heart…48 years later.
Kenny Wayne Fields is the award winning author of, “The Rescue of Streetcar 304”---A Navy Pilot’s Forty Hours on the Run in Laos,” and in October 2008, he was inducted into the LMU “Literary Hall of Fame.” He and Shirley live in Mooresville, NC. Kenny’s website is www.kennywaynefields.com .