Blog 3443 – 04.07.2025

Viva La France!

If the French had given us nothing more than French Fries and the French Kiss, and they certainly have given us far more, we would nevertheless be forever indebted to them. And I know that there is a certain element in this country who cast dispersions on the French. When France opposed our preemptive invasion of Iraq and refused to let us fly over their country in bombing raids into Iraq, President George W. Bush announced that we would no longer be eating French Fries, but Freedom Fries. I do not recall any rebranding efforts of the famous kiss though. It is always a mistake to mess with perfection.

I fondly recall a scene from my otherwise “misspent youth .” But before I describe the scene let me set the stage: The Bible College that I attended for three years as a young man after three years in the military was founded and supported by what I kindly referred to now as a narrow fundamentalist Christian sect. They do not see themselves as such, but think of themselves as Evangelicals. They are in my opinion one of the “guilt religions” where everything that is fun or pleasurable no matter how innocently other may view those activities is considered sin and will damn the participants’ souls to hell unless they repent, turn away, and cease doing those “unclean” deeds. I am reminded of some words one ole fellow said tongue in cheek I think, “I don’t smoke, and I don’t chew, and I don’t go with girls who do.” The list of their no no’s is long and goes on and on: No, drinking, no smoking, no dancing, no movies…no…no…no…Nanette.

Her name was not Nannette but Latisha and I met her before the second semester classes began in January of 1973. It was my first semester Tish had already completed one semester. She too had also arrived a few days early and was just “hanging out” in the student union building which had a grill called Pop’s place, and a half gym down stairs and a student lounge upstairs, and TV room. The Dean of Student’s office was also upstairs but he was hardly ever there especially during the class break between semesters.

The scene from my otherwise “misspent youth” took place on the carpeted stairs to the student lounge which were located just around the corner from Pop’s Place and the student mail boxes. Trish and I were sitting on the steps talking and started kissing. PDA or Public Display of affection was one of the big No No’s on campus. The Personal Evangelism professor, Brother Howland had an acronym that sounded familiar, PMA, which stood for Positive Mental Attitude. He used to yell out at, Chapel Services, school sporting events, and at the beginning of all his classes, “How’s your PMA?” And we were all expected to yell back, “Boy, am I enthusiast !” One jokester used to yell: “How’s your PDA? Boy, am I enthusiastic !”

Tish and I were quite enthusiastic with our PDA that afternoon and kissed for several hours. She was from Louisiana with Cajun French heritage. Viva France. She certainly was a great kisser and though we never went any farther than deep passionate kissing and never dated nor repeated that performance together, it has remained a memory that warms my heart to this day.

That same first semester, for me, at Bible College, I was introduced to Linda Lee Stokes. She had graduated the previous year but was taking an evening art class and had stopped into Pop’s place for a sandwich before work and a mutual friend introduced us. Twenty-four years later we met again at a college reunion and went out with a group of friends to eat afterwards. A few days later she called one of those friends asking about Larry. We still joke that she got my name wrong. We started dating and I discovered that Linda spoke a little French and was a great kisser too. Not the first kiss for either of us but definitely “a kiss to build a dream on.” And so we have for almost thirty seven years, almost thirty-five years of that married to each other.

Your friend and fellow traveler,

David James White

Louis Armstrong – A Kiss to Build a Dream On

Louis Armstrong – A Kiss to Build a Dream On

A Kiss To Build A Dream On