Some 18 years ago, I gave birth to a bouncing baby boy. Big blue eyes, lots of blond hair, cuter than the dickens. And, so it went. He continued to grown and still be cute, tho in different ways.
He went through various stages of preferred dress (there was a period of time for example, that his hair might be green or red, cut in odd ways, sometimes wore goth style make up, black tshirts etc.), and shot up about a foot within a year or so at one point. Wore glasses from age 4 to age 14 (doesn’t need them anymore).
At any rate, for the last couple of years, he’s gone pretty main stream in appearance, kept his hair (now a dark blond/light brown), still has enormous blue eyes.
I’ve always told people he’s handsome. And, he is. But lately, well -
I was at the video store. As I was opening my wallet to pay, the clerk noticed a picture that I carry of me & Snookie (in an American Gothic style photo), and she chuckled. So, I turned to the next photo, (a fav of mine of Ben when he was 3 months old), and showed her that, then commented, ‘well, he’s still good looking but he’s much older now’.
The clerk said “I know. You’re right, he’s really good looking”.
She remembered him from being w/me in previous visits.
Then, the other day, he roller bladed over to my office. And came in.
Now, he’s been a life guard all summer, so his hair’s gotten blonder, and he’s got a deep tan. It was hot, so he’d taken his shirt off.
So there he was: blue eyed blond, classic features, nearly 6 foot 2, about 170 lbs, big broad shoulders, barrel chest, strong arms, deep tan, slightly sweaty, big smile w/ nearly perfect teeth…
and I suddenly had this clear picture that people would be scoping him out.
I’m not sure I’m ok with that.
It’s pretty clear he is, though.
