My Adolescent Crushes

Blogging, humor, lessons learned, rankings 3 Minutes

I don’t know how the idea for this post came to be, but when it did I immediately sent myself an email so that I would not forget.

I can’t remember what order these crushes happened in, but the ones I remember the most are Mary from fourth grade, and Elizabeth Montgomery from the TV show Bewitched.

The image above is one I’ve used before and comes from a memory book that was signed by my fellow eighth-grade students as we got closer to graduation. In that original post I noted that what I would really remember Mary for happened four years prior to that, in fourth grade. Here is what I wrote:

It was Valentine’s Day in fourth grade, and at least back then, the guys just gave the other guys Valentines’ Day cards, and it would be highly unusual to give one to a girl. Well, I decided to be brave, and give a card to not only all the boys, but also to one girl, Mary. Naturally, I wanted to keep this a secret, and I thought once Mary got the card, she would keep our secret. Well as it turned out, I hadn’t thought things through completely. Everyone put all of the cards in a big box, and then the teacher took them all out, read the person’s name on the envelope, and the person came up and took the card. At some point, the teacher eventually pulled my card for Mary out of the box, and lo and behold,  I forgot there were two Marys in our class. So the teacher had to ask who wrote the card, and which Mary it was for. After a few seconds of awkward silence, during which I could feel my face turning bright red (Lobster Man!), I sheepishly raised my hand and said it was from me, and meant for Mary S. Now the whole class knew that I had sent a card to Mary, and that she was the only girl I had sent one to. If only I knew some magic and could have made myself disappear for a while…

I don’t think I ever saw Mary again after eighth grade, since we went to different high schools.

And speaking of magic, that leads me to Bewitched, starring Elizabeth Montgomery. I must say I looked forward to that show each week, not only for its plotline, but the chance to see Samantha Stephens. I have to admit I also found her mischievous cousin, Serena, attractive as well. Not surprising, since Montgomery played both roles 🙂 And in a strange coincidence, Montgomery later played famous ax murderer Lizzie Borden in a made-for-TV movie.

Other crushes included:

  • Jan Brady (Eve Plumb) from the Brady Bunch. My guess is that most boys my age preferred “Marcia, Marcia, Marcia”, but I found her younger sister more attractive.
  • Laurie Partridge (Susan Dey) from the TV show The Partridge Family.
  • Mary Ann Summers (Dawn Wells) from the TV comedy Gilligan’s Island. I just read that Dawn Wells was a former Miss Nevada, and one of the people she beat out for the role was Raquel Welch. On the show, there seemed to be some romantic chemistry between the Professor and Mary Ann, and in quite the coincidence, my wife’s name is Mary Ann…
  • my next-door neighbor. She was a couple of years older than me, and I think every guy I knew had a crush on her. She went on to become a successful DJ on local Philadelphia radio stations.

If you go by the estimate that adolescence is from the ages of 10-19, then I had two final crushes at the age of 19:

  • Kate Jackson, from the TV show Charlie’s Angels. I think everyone had their favorite Angel, and I guess for the majority of people it was Farah Fawcett, but my favorite angel was Kate Jackson.
  • Jessica Beal from the TV show 7th Heaven. Beal is married to Justin Timberlake.

As my adolescence ended, I was lucky to find a real-life angel during my junior year in college, and we have now been married for 40 years. I know that sounds corny, but I thought it was a clever transition 🙂

I guess all those previous crushes gave me an idea of what I found attractive in a woman…

P.S. I don’t think it counts, but I also found Betty more attractive than Veronica from the Archie comic-book series. She was the classic girl-next-door…

Published by Jim Borden

A 60-something guy trying to figure out the world, and his place in it. Happily married for 40-plus years, three wonderful sons. Accounting teacher, fitness enthusiast, blogger, reader.

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122 thoughts on “My Adolescent Crushes”

      2. I think I watched the first episode just out of curiosity. It was way too different from the comic books and the cartoon show, and so I never watched another episode…

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      1. “and when she saw what she had done, she gave her father 41.” I read somewhere that the actual number was more like 11, but that would not have worked nearly as well in the rhyme. 🙂

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  4. When I was in grade four, we gave valentines cards to everyone. We all received cards from both boys and girls. Nice that you found the perfect crush in your wife. I had three brothers and my objective was to not end up with someone like any of them. Luckily my husband came along. He was totally different before I met him I was planning on staying single.

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    1. in hindsight, it does seem odds that the boys just gave to the boys and the girls just gave ot the girls. maybe it was a catholic school thing 🙂

      Sounds like you knew what you were looking for in a husband, and you found him!

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  5. Ooh the years of young crushes!
    I remember those Valentine’s parties and picking out the special valentines to give to the special guys.
    Patrick Swayzee was my teen crush, won’t say how many times I watched Dirty Dancing. ☺

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  7. How funny! I was just on Mary’s blog, and she was blogging about you.😊 I think our rule when I was a kid was we had to bring everyone in the class (boys and girls) a valentine if you decided to bring any.

    That must have been quite a moment of embarrassment, having to raise your hand. Hopefully, you earned a few points with Mary by being so brave. Your story made me think of The Wonder Years’ TV show, where I always rooted for Kevin and Winnie to find romance.

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    1. was Mary talking about some nerdy looking kid in fourth grade? That was me…

      that’s a much better rule to bring cards for everyone; you get to avoid situations like mine.

      I do remember Mary thanking me, and I am sure I was too tongue-tied to respond.

      What a great show Wonder Years was…

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      1. Speaking of actresses who must have been the crush of many a guy—Winnie. She was too young for guys like you and me. I’m glad that you went with Mary Ann over Ginger on Gilligan’s Island.

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    1. We’ve all had our share of embarrassing stories, and you are right, they are fun to share in hindsight.

      And we’ve been lucky to have such a great marriage…

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  9. I vaguely remember sending valentines cards in my early years of school, needless to say the woman I ended up marrying was not the one I gave a card to at 5.

    First crushes include Geri from the Spice Girls, Courtney Cox and all three of the girls from the Irish band The Corrs!

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    1. but all those Valentines cards were part of the process that led you to your wife 🙂

      I know Courtney Cox, but not any of the other ones. And now you’ve piqued my interest when you mentioned an Irish band!

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  10. As your post started me down memory lane about my early crushes, I realized I had too many to even list. Although, like you, I did seem to lean toward the lesser roles, the very “girl next door” vibe you describe. Dark hair also seems to be a theme for me.

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  11. I went to a single sex grammar school, so sending each other Valentine’s cards would have seemed weird! The crushes I remember are Barbara Anderson, who played Eve Whitfield in the tv show Ironside, and pop singers Lulu and Clodagh Rodgers. I bet no one else mentions them!

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    1. that would have been odd, but then we only gave to the other boys, at least up through fourth grade. My guess it changed soon after that, and it could be that I went to a catholic school.

      I just looked up the three you mention – seems like you were attracted to blondes!

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      1. My primary school was mixed but as it was a Church of England school I guess they didn’t encourage such racy pastimes.

        I realised that after I left my comment. Odd, really, as I always thought that petite brunettes were my type!

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      1. I can just about quote Back to the Future from end-to-end I have seen it so many times. That was a fun movie to watch and rewatch. I suppose my kids have their movies like that.

        In high school I had a crush on the girl that had her locker next to mine. Her name was Cami, I think, and we had no classes together so I only saw her when we were both at the lockers at the same time. Nothing ever became of that and I started dating someone else anyway. Not that any of that worked out.

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      2. So you have movies that you can quote too. 😉
        Can you quote all 3 of them from end to end?
        Yes, our kids have their movies. I remember how often my daughter watched the High School Musical movies. I memorized them whether I wanted to or not!

        Oh, highschool memories. Did she ever know that you had a crush on her?

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      4. I am pretty sure that I can too. They actually were pretty good movies. A step up from watching Cinderella and Prinxess movies all the time. Then came the Gossip Girl series. Did your daughter’s watch that show?

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      6. Understand. You didn’t miss anything. Brad couldn’t stomach Gossip Girl.
        He much preferred Spirit, which was my son’s favorite movie. About a wild stallion that broke free from his captors and freed the Indian too. All the music in it was by Phil Collins. My son was not a big movie person when younger, still isn’t. But that movie was watched more than 100x. He still talks about it.

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      25. I think you would. Granted I may not have wanted to see it as often as I did but they did do a good job with it! Put it down on your list, along with Spirit of the Cinnaron. I tried to post video clips but they didn’t post. Its on YouTube. To answer your question of how many times I saw it. I lost count!

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  14. Elizabeth Montgomery was hot, and I’m sure Mary S. was quite fetching as well. Regardless of the ribbing I’m sure you received, all those other guys were definitely thinking Dang, I wish *I* gave Mary S. a valentine. Jaclyn Smith all the way.

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    1. that may have been the case, or it’s also possible that those other guys may have been thinking “I’m glad that wasn’t me”.

      All three were quite attractive…

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  16. What a great walk down Memory Lane. I remember every TV show and can see why you had crushes. And the Mary Valentine fiasco…pretty awful. My biggest crush was on Paul McCartney, like every other girl in America.

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  18. Oh, I remember all of mine. But a beautiful blue-eyed blondie had a crush on me, and ran out into the street one day in the early 1980s. No, I didn’t invite her to dinner. I saved her much trouble, the way my life turned out, and her husband told me about his awesome wife. He doesn’t know I knew her and I won’t tell. Let him be her king and she his queen. I still married the very best 34 years ago.

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  19. That IS an incredibly sweet transition about your love for your wife. It’s amazing how all those little things shaped your tastes in your ideal woman and you’ve now been married for 40 years what a feat!! Congratulations

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  21. I remember a lot of my adolescent crushes, too, celebrity and otherwise. They continued all the way through college and into my first career. I’m wondering, though, if you, as a heterosexual male, had the raw material (i.e. teen celebrity magazines) to plaster the walls of your room with their pictures like I did?

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