Greetings from Hannibal, MO, Mark Twain's boyhood hometown, my theme for this year's AtoZ Challenge.
#WCW or Woman Crush Wednesday is a popular hashtag on Instagram. #MCM stands for Man Crush Monday. Pretend today is Wednesday. I wanted to feature Becky Thatcher, Tom Sawyer's crush in Twain's
book
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Mark Twain's sweetheart lived across the street from him and became the inspiration for his classic novel. As a young boy, Twain walked Laura Hawkins to school, gave her sweets, and showed off, performing death-defying stunts and somersaults. (Maybe he knew parkour?) Twain always adored Laura. Even at the age of eighteen, he was still crazy in love with his "Becky Thatcher."
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| Becky Thatcher house |
Do you remember your first crush? Grade school, middle school, high school? In the eighth grade, I had a friend. We shared a love of baseball and sat next to each other in class. I don't think you ever forget your first crush. I was a scrawny runt, an eighth grader who looked more like an eight year old, well, maybe more like a ten year old. Anyway, his older sister and my older sister were bff's, so we were really good friends.
I shouldn't have been surprised one day when he turned around in his desk, forgot what he was going to say, regained his composure and asked me to his football banquet. My insides were giggling with excitement. Of course, I said yes! At that moment, I think I was more nervous than he was. The boy who asked me to my first formal event and bought me a wrist corsage will forever be my first real crush. No, I didn't marry him, but I did marry my college sweetheart.
Do you remember your first crush? Do you ever write personal experiences and feelings in to your novels like Twain did?
My first crush was high school and a good friend who was absolutely gorgeous. I knew she was way out of my league, so I never asked her out.
ReplyDeleteCrushes tend to start out as friends!
DeleteVery clever post with #WCW.
ReplyDeleteI do remember my first crush. Fifth grade and it continued to tenth grade. It's a bit of a sad story...
I used to teach fifth grade. It was cute to see kids crush on each other!
DeleteI was too shy and embarrassed by my first crush to act on it, at 8 years old. Still miss him.
ReplyDeleteEight? Yep, I would've been too shy too. Not so much when I got older:-)
DeleteVery sweet love story and he made it quite famous with his classic tale, didn't he? Yes, I remember my first crush very well. How can you forget something so tender and yet so angst producing? I'm noting the j #WCW!
ReplyDeleteIt's sad that he never married Laura.
DeleteInteresting! Very often I use personal experiences.
ReplyDeleteMe too. I write personal experiences and feelings in to every story I write. I think it would be hard not to.
DeleteI can't help it, when I saw "WCW" I thought you mean "World Championship Wrestling," popular pro wrestling promotion based out of Atlanta in the late 90s. Ric Flair, Sting, Hulk Hogan, Bill Goldberg... anybody?
ReplyDeleteI married my high school sweetheart. Fittingly, we met on the first day we rode the bus in grade 1 and she followed me home. I didn't see her much for ten years after that, but it was meant to be from the beginning.
Haha! Yes, I remember the Hulk and Jake the Snake:) That's so sweet that you've known your wife for a very long time!
DeleteMy first crush turned out to be gay...not a good start for me, although I didn't know he was gay for about 30 years after that!
ReplyDeleteWell, I'm sure you probably had a lot of crushes. They changed from day to day;-) Teenagers!
DeleteSweet that Becky had a real life inspiration, I didn't know that! My first crush in primary school spurned my advances and went out with the guy considered the most handsome in class. I think I'm over it now.
ReplyDeleteHa! Yes, I did have a tiny crush on a kid in 6th grade, but he continually liked some one I was not very fond of, so I moved on. I'm over it now too. :)
DeleteYour town is rich with history. I love a romance of any kind and totally remember several crushes, though not sure of my first. It might have been this bad boy in kindergarten that wore a black leather jacket. I always liked those kind of guys :) And I bet Tom Sawyer would totally do parkour if he knew what it was.
ReplyDeleteMy very very first crush was on my teacher when I was five ;-) After that I had a succession of crushes as a teenager but I was so nervous and awkward that I went out of my way to make sure they didn't realise. I later found out that some of them had had crushes on me back but were convinced I wasn't interested because I was so aloof. Such a shame!
ReplyDeleteI married my college sweetheart too :) My first crush was one of my neighbors!
ReplyDeleteKatie @TheCyborgMom
No, I don't remember my first crush. I think I blanked it out. For my sanity.
ReplyDeleteI do remember my first crush--the boy who was in love with my sister. Sigh.
ReplyDeleteI remember all my crushes. Real and fictional.
ReplyDeleteHeather