Couples talk about their first experiences
Hesitant, clumsy, uncertain, accidental, tender, risky — all can describe that first kiss. It can be unforgettable too.
“I remember it being at a party,” said Shirley McCandless of Renfrew. “I think it was eighth grade. The party was at a friend's house and there were approximately 10 or 12 of us there and they were playing Spin the Bottle, and so the bottle landed on me.”
“We went into a separate room. I was a little nervous,” Shirley said. “That was my first kiss.”
“It was just a quick kiss on the lips and that was it,” Shirley said.
More significant than that peck at the party was her first kiss with Robert McCandless, who later became her husband. They have been married 55 years.
“I won the best prize in the whole world: my husband,” she said.
Their first date was near Chicora when she was almost 16.
“We went to a drive-in with another couple and we just got along perfectly. We just matched perfectly,” said Shirley.
Her brother knew Robert from school.
For 18-year-old Robert, that kiss at the drive-in was his first. He didn't hesitate at all. He wasn't nervous. He wasn't surprised that it happened.
Was it romantic? “Yes, yes,” they said.
Even after 55 years of marriage, they spend a lot of time doing things together. They've enjoyed bowling together most of their marriage. They travel a lot. She especially liked St. Thomas and Aruba.
“His favorite place is just with me,” Shirley said.
“The biggest thing is that you have to respect each other,” Shirley said. “We always talk things out, always.”
Bruce McLafferty's first kiss was in eighth or ninth grade when he played a game of Spin the Bottle at a friend's party. A girl was there that he liked, and everyone else knew it, so his friends fixed the game. He didn't know what to expect of that kiss but he thought it was romantic at the time.
“We were actually outside. It was like a little bonfire-wiener roast,” Bruce said. “ It was dark by the fire. It was one of those nervous, exciting moments, both together.”
In high school, Bruce met Traci Risch at the Saxonburg Fireman's Carnival. Traci, a contestant for Saxonburg Carnival Queen, sold raffle tickets for a car at a fire company stand. Her reward was even better; she got Bruce.Now living in Cabot, they will celebrate their 37th anniversary this year.“My husband was a junior fireman at the car stand,” Traci said. “They needed him to help.”She and her husband knew each other less than a month and were on her family's front porch saying good night when Bruce asked if he could kiss her.“I said, 'On the cheek,'” Traci said. “Bruce was my first kiss.”“I was a very shy person around guys but with Bruce I felt comfortable from the first time I met him,” Traci said. “I was excited.”“It became serious quick,” Bruce said.“We met in July during the carnival. On Christmas Eve that same year he asked me to marry him,” Traci said.It was her sophomore year in high school and his senior year. She said yes immediately. Their engagement lasted four years.“After we got engaged, we spent a lot of time with both parents,” Traci said. “We never gave them a reason to not trust us before that.”“My mom has always said because we were so young, Bruce is like a son,” Traci said. “We grew up together.”Their parents became such good friends that the families traveled together on vacations and are still close.“I look back at it now and say, 'Oh, my goodness. I was 16.' When I met Bruce I just knew,” Traci said.The potential for romance started early for Frank Batoha.“I didn't like the girls chasing me around. There was one girl that was always offering me her Fritos,” Frank said. “It was really hard because I loved Fritos. I think that was fourth grade. I was torn. I was walking home and I was hungry. But I would have had to be her boyfriend.”He declined her offer.“Of course it would be all over the playground at recess. If I could have kept it quiet I would have said, 'OK,'” he said.A newspaper route delivered Frank's first kiss. He was barely a teenager and the girl lived at the end of his daily route. Both were from large families that knew each other. Her family would invite him into the house when it was cold.
They were alone one day when Cupid intervened.“Next thing you know, we were necking on the couch. That was the first time. She smelled like a girl,” Frank said. “I have no clue how it came about.”“It was fairly innocent,” Frank said.They were friends but never really dated given their height difference.“She was really tall and skinny. I was kind of short,” he said.That was in Hanover, long before he married his wife, Beth, and moved to Freeport.The Batohas, who will celebrate their 32nd anniversary in August, met at a potluck dinner.“There was this rigatoni,” Frank said. “She knew how to make one dish and she made it pretty ding dang good. Little did I know at the time that that was the only thing she could make.”The first kiss Beth remembers was when she was a sophomore in high school. She was hoping for it. The lucky guy went to the same school but they were not yet dating.“I wasn't surprised,” Beth said. “I think I was a little nervous.”“(It was) as romantic as you can be when you're a sophomore in high school,” she said.Despite that awkward first kiss, they dated on and off until graduation.She said, “He was my first love and you never forget your first love.”
