After my freshman year at Hogwarts, I went back to Fort Wayne for the summer. That summer I would meet Cedar Point, REO Speedwagon and a girl named Dawn all at the same time. Dawn was a couple years older than me. She drove a sharp looking 1971 Camaro that was red with black racing stripes.
It was a church trip to Cedar Point amusement park that brought us together. I had been to Mt Tom and rode a roller coaster before. The one at the now closed Mountain Park didn’t have restraining devices of any kind but that is another story.
At first, I was just looking forward to a day of rides at a real roller coaster park. I don’t recall how many kids actually wnet on that trip but Dawn and I found ourselves hanging out together for the entire day. So what do you do when you are stuck in a fantastic park with a pretty girl when you are 15? You crush. REO Speedwagon had recently released Hi Infidelity and she was crazy about it. I heard plenty of songs from that album all summer long. I had to buy this album. It was our album.
I can place this in the summer of 1980 because I bought it on vinyl. I had yet to make my temporarily significant cassette mistake. She was my girlfriend for one day. We took the park hand in hand. I inhaled deeply the scent of her hair as it whipped my face on the Witch’s Wheel. We leaned against each other on the three hour bus ride home. Back in the Fort we walked aimlessly up and down Broadway waiting for our parents to come pick us up. We didn’t want the day to end but it did.
I would listen to Hi Infidelity and think of her. That fall she sent me a letter with her senior picture and a picture of her car. By then, my mind was so far away that it was like it never happened. I think I saw her once in passing five or six years later. She was married and I had moved on.
Keep On Loving You
Follow My Heart
Take It On The Run
Out Of Season
Someone Tonight