DIMPS' SPRING

The mountains 50 miles south of Ashville, NC are much like upstate NY. Geologically speaking I guess they would be considered the foothills of the Smokies. Cullowhee was no more than a post office and coffee shop engulfed by a college campus. WCC was what was known as a "suitcase school". It was a place where the parents of Chapel Hill, Hickory and Greensboro could send their kids who weren't bright enough to get into Duke or UNC. On the weekends everyone packed their bags and went home to mommy and daddy. Mommy and daddy were 1000 miles away for me, so when i could pin down Sweets I headed for the stateline and crossed the mountains into Tenn.
From the beginning Sweets and I had this propensity to periodically break up. It was always a mystery to me. Like I said I followed her lead. Recently she told me it was a seasonal thing, that she always broke up with me in the winter and we got back together in the spring. I have a hard time believing i was just a victim of lack of sunlight. But I don't have a better theory.
UT was a sea of orange cowboy hats and umbrellas and Sweets shined there. She pledged at Phi-Mu and was some fraternity's "sweetheart". The whole scene gave me the creeps but I tried to hide my disgust. "GO VOLS!" Football was a religion and I went to a different church. During the week in NC I went to class, smoked pot, hung with what few "freaks' i could find and worked very hard at getting rid of my virgin status. My hair grew. My politics shifted farther to the left as Nixon hammered Cambodia. I ate way too much LSD one night and pissed myself, laying against a propane heater in a shack up in the hills. When I hit that dog with my car and brought that girl back to the trailer I busted my cherry. Romantic, huh?
Since high school Sweets had called me "Dimps". She still does. I hated that nickname coming from anyone's lips but hers. Still do. The love we had for each other couldn't overcome the obstacles and different directions our paths were taking but you couldn't tell me that.. Nonetheless we remained in touch (through that winter break up) and in the spring i applied to UT. I went back north for springbreak, left my VW on the side of the road in Va., got in a car wreck with Milawyer (then just Mifriend), and like clockwork Sweets and I got back together in April. In the summer I bought a 1951 Ford pickup and an engagement ring for my love and we headed for Knoxville together. Big mistake.