Mortified: Human Stories

I was 13. The first time I asked a girl for a date, I got rejected.
(Some decades later, she told me that her father did not let her date for 3 more years.)

It was and is the happiest moment in my life.
I put together the courage (defeating an approach-avoidance reaction) to ask.
I stopped chickening out.

A few weeks later, I asked her again; got rejected again.
It was easier to ask.
I was thrilled again, but no where near as much.

Several months later, I asked her again; got rejected again.
It was much easier to ask.
I was thrilled again, but much, much less than before.





David

When I was 19, all of my teeth had to be pulled. The dentist did a terrible job making my dentures. I was at a large gathering in a auditorium when something funny happened and I laughed. My bottom dentures shot out of my mouth and fell to the floor. Without a word, my friends gathered around me to block the view as I restored it to my mouth.

Several years later, I got new dentures made by an excellent dentist. Now I'm age 81, they don't fall out.

BBB

David, she didn't tell you then that her dad wouldn't allow it?

BBB - was it common for dentists to pull ALL of someone's teeth at the young age of 19?

It happened a very long time ago. For several years in my teens, I went to the dentist several times each month as the dentist tried to save my teeth until my jaw was old enough to make permanent dentures. At age 19, my poor abused teeth started crumbling and they had to be pulled.

Some of you know my life history and the difficulties I lived with. I won't repeat them here, but it didn't help my teeth.

BBB

She said that she was busy, each time.
She had begun the process by previously making social overtures to me.
I had been half asleep, minding my own business, trudging to class, not bothering anyone.

Maybe she had been embarrassed by the limitation on her personal freedom,
reflecting negatively on her paternally perceived maturity.





David