First Name Initial

 "All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us." That's a quote by J.R.R. Tolkien who was born on this date in 1892. I was an adult before I ever started reading the Tolkien books, but I fell in love with them the same as I would have if I'd read them at a younger age.

I looked up other things that have happened on this date, but none sparked any ideas for a blog post, so I went back to my diaries. Most of what I wrote in my diary for 1960, when I was 16 and a junior in highschool, was the minutiae of everyday life. It was a Sunday. I "got up at 8:45." "I washed the breakfast dishes." "I washed and starched my can cans." "I washed and pinned up my hair." Pretty exciting stuff.

At the end of all my diary entries I would include "Tonight's Song". For January 3, 1960 the song was 'First Name Initial'. The title did not bring anything to mind. I had to look it up to find it was a rock and roll tune sung by Annette Funicello. I still didn't remember it until I listened to it.

But it was my note after the song title that really stumped me: "Still T. for me." Who the heck was T.? I couldn't remember any boy I ever had a crush whose name started with a T. Tom? Tim? Ted? 

I often used just initials in my diaries just in case my sister got snoopy. But when I go back and read some entries now, I'm even stumped myself. I was a junior in highschool. Would I have to dig out the old yearbooks to identify the mysterious T? 

Oh, T. The new boy from California. The one in my English Lit class. The one with the green eyes and shy smile. Maybe his full name began with A? As in Anthony?

"And then her heart changed, or at least she understood it; and the winter passed*, and the sun shone upon her." (Another J.R.R. Tolkien quote.) 

*And Tony went back to California.