A girl I knew
On my visit last week to Anytown, I noticed that my first girlfriend's house is for sale. I took a trip back in time, thanks to the wonder of Realtor.com, and took a virtual tour of a house in which I spent many, many hours during the summer of 1979.

The house looks pretty much the same as I remember it, on the inside. A big, old house, lots of original woodwork and light fixtures, really very well-preserved. Somebody had installed vinyl siding since '79. Overall, the house is in pretty good shape, and will be a bargain for somebody at $69,000.

The girl's name was Kim, and we "went steady" from April to October of 1979 -- quite a long time for a couple of 11-year-olds, when you think about it. It's probably a stretch to say she was my first true love, but that summer, all I wanted to do was spend time with her. After we "graduated" from elementary school in 1980, she moved to Wyoming. Her grandmother stayed in the house in Anytown, and a few years later, Kim and the family moved back.

I didn't keep up with Kim much in high school. We talked a little bit right after she moved back, and I got the idea things didn't go very well out west. She had changed quite a bit; me, not so much. We were very much running in different circles by then. She dropped out midway through our junior year. I didn't see her again until 1989, when for some reason, I got an urge to see her. I called the old number I remembered, and she was there. She invited me to drop by the old house, where she still lived with her mom.

At first glance, I remember being struck by how much the same everything was. Her mom still drove the same Chevy Malibu station wagon they'd bought new in '79, and it still looked new. The house was almost exactly as I remembered it. I went upstairs with Kim and we caught up with each other a little bit.

I remember the conversation being interrupted by a phone call. A connection of Kim's, I gathered. Don't know what they were connecting on, and I didn't ask. Kim seemed mildly embarrassed. I told her not to be, that everything was cool. She seemed comforted by that, sort of.

I gave her my number and told her to call me sometime. She never did. I didn't expect her to.

I thought about her not at all for nearly 13 years, until I saw that For Sale sign in her yard. I wondered what became of her, and her mom, and her grandma. Like so many other things I see when I go to Anytown, it made me both a bit wistful for the past and so incredibly grateful I found my way out.