For me it was a young lady by the name of Bridget. I was 10. We had just moved to Columbus Ohio. I was the new kid in school and I had an unhitable curve ball. Could it get better? Bridget was smitten with me from day one of school. You got me, must of been the accent. We moved back south after nine months and I never saw her again. I was depressed with the loss of Bridget. (I am pretty sure we just kissed once) and I was put on a baseball team that was so bad that in one game I threw a no hitter and we lost. I had the only two hits of the game. The other team could not hit it out of the infield. I lost count at twelve errors my teammates made. My life was turned completely around. I was miserable. School started and I was the new kid in school again. Things rolled along at a soured pace until Christmas that is. The thing about this is I never asked them for a Telescope because I knew we could not afford such a luxury and yet there it was under the tree, a 60mm gleaming white Focal refractor with slow motion control!! Joy of joys I had never seen a more beautiful object in all my days. Sorry Bridget. I knew right then I had the coolest parents on the planet or at least on the top 25. It came with two eyepieces a barlow, and a moon filter. I couldn't wait for a clear sky. Every evening I would race to the door look out and rats! Clouds again. Even back then the Curse of the new scope was alive and well. I was going over the scope every day learning the controls. I was ready. The weather man said it was going to clear up after midnight. My parents watched me go to the window every hour only to see clouds and more clouds. This went on past twelve then one. At two o'clock I looked out and saw the wall of clouds move east right over my head. The heavens opened up in glorious detail. It was crystal clear and it was bitter cold. I never gave it a thought as I took the scope outside. I could see Canis Major, and Orion to the south-southwest. I decided to take a peak over there. I sighted in on Sirius to get focused yep there it was bright and glorious. I decided to look at the Orion nebula next. I had seen it before but not with MY scope. I was bowled over by its beauty. I spent at least two hours that first light night looking at stuff in the night sky. My mom came out and gently told me I should probably come in and get warm. She had no idea how warm I was that bitterly cold night sitting in front of my new first love.
