One of my favorite albums of 1983 was “Cuts Like a Knife” by Bryan Adams. In addition to the title cut (pun intended), the album also included great songs such as “This Time”, “Straight from the Heart”, and “The Best Was Yet To Come”. I’m fairly certain this album appealed to me because it was about discovering love and at this age, every teenager was feeling new and electric emotions for the first time. Bryan Adams wasn’t the only belting out music that spoke to the tender, flowering souls of youth. You also had “Owner of Lonely Heart” by Yes, “Faithfully” by Journey, and “King of Pain” by the Poice to name a few. It was a perfect storm of great music mixed with off-the-scales puberty.

I went from caring only about sports, dirtbikes, and hanging with my buddies to combing my hair, wearing deodorant, and noticing how pretty girls I went to school with were. I found one of these girls, Jan McGarrahan, to be very pretty and sweet. Jan was already my friend whom I spoke to regularly but the day I came to realize I liked her, I found that I was struggling to overcome the knot in my stomach and lump in my throat. I had absolutely no clue what I was doing and couldn’t understand why my normal functioning voice no longer worked. Luckily, in those days, we were all friends so I’m sure one of our mutual friends whispered to her that I thought she was pretty to gauge her interest. Then the friend would come back and report to me their findings and I would pass along another message until finally, Jan would become my girlfriend. Looking back it was all innocent, fun, and simple but boy, did it feel real at the time. This was the day and age of corded phones, which I had no interest in until I got a girlfriend and we would spend the evening chatting about anything and everything. It was a great year until I got the news Jan wold be moving to Conroe at the end of the school year. It was a crushing blow. The original feeling I had of a “knot in the stomach” when I was first approaching her to be my girlfriend quickly reappeared. Hearing the song “Cuts Like a Knife” took on new meaning and at 13 years old I no interpersonal skill set to deal with the flood of emotions I was feeling.

It was all innocent, young love at the time and I may have some revisionist history going on here but I do remember feeling my eyes were opening up. This wave of emotions was just a natural part of growing up. I had already come to realize that life wasn’t all “rainbows and unicorns” with all the trials and tribulations I dealt with in the the 70s. However, this was the first time I was feeling loss for someone I cherished. I didn’t realize it then but it was a valuable lesson about appreciating the friendships you build. As you get older, friendship don’t come quite as easy and we shouldn’t take it for granted when one does come along.

The silver lining is that Jan is still a friend to this day and just as sweet, kind, and pretty as she was back when were kids strolling around Livingston Jr. High. The universe has a funny way of making sure we all find our true partners in life and just as I found mine, Jan found hers. It was a bitter pill to swallow back in the early 80s but in the end, it all worked out. The best part of all is that I still dig listening to “Cuts Like a Knife” and I’m happy to report that I can do so with no lingering pangs of a broken heart.

Click HERE to enjoy this awesome tune!

15 of 50 - 1983

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