This event marks the very beginning of my KISStory timeline and is stranger than fiction …but true.
It was Valentine’s Day 1977 and I was in 4th grade. In hindsight, a funny thing happened on the way to school that day. I didn’t take the bus for some reason or it would not have happened but on the way in to school that day I heard KISS for the first time on the car radio,
It was “Dr. Love”. I can even remember where on the ride exactly I heard the opening riff. The cowbell clank, the simple urgent heavy guitar riff and the voice of the demon were like nothing I had ever heard on my mom & dad’s Beatles, Stones, Kinks or Dylan records. I then and there declared it mine and was advised / rebuffed by mom that “one purchases such things by saving their allowances and going to the record store”.
Flash forward to the end of the school day and we are all lining up to leave the building in “single file” to the buses. One of my best friends had a “girlfriend” named Michelle and I was secretly in love with her. As he and I waited in line in the dark while our teacher Mrs. Loving (who was Marlon Brando’s sister) waited for “total silence before you can leave” I must have realized it would be my last chance to let Michelle know how I felt about her on that special day. I asked my pal quietly if it would “be okay if I KISSed Michelle also … for Valentine’s Day?”
He said, without hesitation, “yeah, sure, why not?”. Pretty cool for a forth grader people.
As we walked down the hall towards the buses I called out to Michelle …….she was like “yeah … what?” I said “I have to tell you a secret” and she was like “yeah…. What?” ……I leaned in clumsily and whispered quite literally “pppsss –ppppssss—pppsssss”” and then KISSed her on the cheek.
It was exhilarating but it didn’t go well. She screamed Yuck!”. Everyone heard it and looked over to see. On the ride home I sat alone on the bus in anguish and tears.
When I got home, my mom had bought me a Valentine’s Day gift. It was a Ronco Presents hits record called ‘Superstars’ that included “Dr. Love” by KISS but, given the gravity of the situation, I was still inconsolable, This was especially so when the weepy Bay City Rollers “The Way I Feel Tonight” came on and reduced a love sick 4th grader to a puddle.
Today Michelle and I are Facebook friends and I would tell her she is on my KISStory timeline but fear it would be a step backwards. Sometimes mom knows best.
KISStorian 