“Dean and I had both arranged to go to an Easter youth camp near Pt Lincoln with a group of youth from Adelaide. Dean was driving his car and had arranged to pick me up in the city near where I worked so we first met outside his car with me carrying my luggage. A couple of friends came too including Dean’s brother Ross.
At the camp I hooked up with a guy I knew from Pt Lincoln. I remember going for a drive to Pt Lincoln (bench seats in those days) with me sandwiched in between Dean and the other guy but whenever we went around a corner where I would lean into Dean he seemed to take those corners faster! Hmmmm…
When we returned to Adelaide Dean and I continued to go out with a group of friends. The romance with the other guy petered out so when another trip to Pt Lincoln was suggested a group of us decided to go again… this time it was the Tunarama Festival in January.
I had arranged for Dean to drop me off at my grandma’s place in Quorn on my way home so I could stay there for a few days. As time got closer a heat wave struck Adelaide so some friends pulled out but I was keen to get to see my grandma so decided to go…
I remember being on the wharf with a group of friends one night when Dean put his arm around me… then held my hand. I remember looking at the dark murky water and remembered I couldn’t swim and didn’t like deep water… I felt safe in his arms and have felt the same way since.
I can’t remember where our first kiss took place but there were plenty more of them..We were engaged on my 21st birthday and married 6 months later. This year we will celebrate our 40th wedding anniversary and have decided to go back to where it all started!!!”
“In a separate room of self, away from my social rebellious expression, I was in constant repentance at church for what I didn’t yet recognise as my multiplicity.
Our pentecostal church was having a revival and there’s no way I wanted to miss out on that. Many new young people were coming to our services from all walks of life and though their conversions were a matter of celebration I was far more interested in the fragrance of the lives they had previously led.
Despite the chronic self-conscious teenager I felt and was personally ruled by, I had an extremely contradictory gregarious nature when it come to the meeting and celebrating of others. (has all that much changed?)
During those early teenage years I had several ‘sort-of’ girlfriends, all platonic, juvenile and Christian based. Robyn was my first and I loved taking her photograph.
We fast became close friends rather than an ongoing couple and she remains one of my closest friends to this day.
In those early days, a girlfriend was someone I could add to my list of people I could be companions with and lavish with gifts.
Simple things like easter show kewpie dolls in lavish wee satin frocks with fluff around the skirts.
Before I had girlfriends and even during and after, i would always bring mum and my sister a kewpie doll home from the show.
Yes, I had an appreciation for things regarded as feminine but i never felt was something I needed to lavish on myself nor be in denial of.
I’d buy mother’s day cards for not only mum, foster mums but also most of the neighbours and church folk, well into my teenage years.”
How You First Met 