THE FIRST SNOG

WHEN I WAS ABOUT 16 YEARS OLD

I remember it well, but damned if I can remember her name(s).

I'd been invited to a party by friend Dave Siddle. The party was somewhere down near Falsgrave, in Scarborough, in a private house. Now up to that time, the only parties I'd been to were birthday parties and I hadn't been to one of those for many years. So my mind was filled with the boring prospects of playing games and eating lots of stuff piled up on tables and generally making lots of noise. Boy was I wrong.

When I arrived, Dave introduced me to about a dozen people my age who had already arrived. There was alcohol, and soft drinks and a bit of grub, from memory, and people stood around, and sat around talking in groups, either on lounge chairs, the sofa or sat around on the floor. Very sociable! Very pleasant!

Suddenly someone (it could have been Dave) shouted out "Let's play Postman's Knock!" Well I'd heard the term postman's knock before, but hadn't a clue what it was. Even today, I can't remember exactly how it goes. I just know that on that particular evening I ended up outside the main room where everyone else was, in a darkened corridor of the house with quite an attractive young lady asking me "Well, when are we going to start?" and I didn't know what she was talking about. I must have had a blank look on my face, so she grabbed me and our lips slid together like two slugs mating on a rainy day. I remember thinking that it was pretty good.

For the next hour or so, I think each person at the party got to snog each other person at the party of the opposite sex, and then the lights went low and everyone paired off. I ended up laying behind the settee in the dark with a blonde lady and lips were stuck together for the next several hours. All the other couples found their own places under tables, behind chairs, on chairs, in the corridor, etc.

Dave was a great host and kept wandering around filling people glasses. He obviously knew that snogging for hours on end tends to give one a dry mouth. I don't remember much more of the party or the evening, except being dragged out from behind the settee by Dave about 2am and told it was time to go home.

Extracted from College Photo 1965