Remembering Deb

My High School Crush

Photo by Taylor Deas-Melesh on Unsplash

The names in this story have all been changed….

Wow! Talk about flashbacks. I had completely forgotten about Karen. The memory of our interactions after high school, and her connection to Debbie Bloom suddenly filled my brain. I had heard through the grapevine, that Deb Bloom had recently died. Now, the memories of both women all came back to me, in a flood of memories.

Around 1996 I had a crew of people doing chair massage with me on the corner of 73rd Street and Columbus Avenue at 2:00 am. A wild time it was. Me and a bunch of undocumented Chinese immigrants, busking on the streets of the upper west side of Manhattan “Massage, a dollar a minute”.

One evening, Debbie Blum, a woman, I had a major crush on in high school, bounced by…actually floated by with her new husband. She was still quite beautiful, and incredibly happy. I said “hi” and experienced chills go up my spine when she responded. I told her we had gone to high school together.

“Debbie Blum! Wow!” I thought to myself.

Seeing her with her new husband broke my old teenage heart. She was married. That meant “there was no hope for me”, as my high school mind took over my brain.