Kenneth Larsen:  

School Turn to page 108 in the 1973 Fenton H.S. yearbook. At the top of the page are photos of Sybil Sparks and Diane Weiss. Sybil was my girl friend who sat next to me at my first grade birthday party. I remember our bus stop at the corner of Foster and Spruce. We placed our lunch boxes down to show what position we had in line. Sybil was first quite often. When the school bus came, we shouted "Here comes the big yellow banana!" In second grade at school, Sybil looped her jump rope around me and I pulled her -- I was her horsey. We played together for years, at school and on the street where she lived. At school, she kissed my left forearm. I didn't wash it for two weeks when my mom caught me not washing properly. We played together until the end of fourth grade when she was transferred from Wood Dale schools to Bensenville. It was there, she became a good friend of Diane Weiss. Only Sybil, myself and our siblings knew about the innocent adoration we held for each other from first grade till our freshman year in high school. In 1970, Sybil and I met again, we felt ecstatic towards each other when we enjoyed a Ferris wheel ride at the Bensenville carnival. In high school, Sybil rose to the top academically, I was not in any of her classes. It was then, I met Diane Weiss. I still hold Sybil in high esteem. I enjoyed high school. Diane Weiss was in love with me and I loved her with all of my heart. I'll never forget the first time I ever met Diane Weiss. I was about to turn 15 and she was still 14. My older brother and his friends came to our house after school. His friend Don Kero brought Diane with him, she was his steady date. Yet, I knew when Diane was not with him. Don had a steady date named Katie. Don hit Diane often and left small bruises on her arms. That day Don took her into my bedroom and on my bed tried to seduce her, they came out fairly quick. When Larry Morler held a party, I was not yet dating Dee. Sue Brandt and I French kissed for a full hour on the couch there. Another weekend, I had a date with Marla Marti, we went to Sheryl Szczygiel's party where Marla and I French kissed for about an hour. At that party, Marla introduced me to her girlfriend Diane Weiss. The moment I met her I fell in love with her, I had empathy for her. I remember her wearing an off-white fall jacket that night. I had study hall B with Diane and she sat alone much of the time. I began to sit with her and soon we were dating. My dad drove and dropped us off in downtown Elmhurst, where we walked together looking in the store windows. In the basement of a drugstore there was a photo booth, we had a black and white photo taken of us. We went to a pizza shop where each of us drank a soda and ate a piece of pizza. We went to the York Theater and later my dad returned to pick us up in his car. From then on, every Saturday night we rode our bikes to see each other.Like true puppy love, we licked each others ears for hours, and we blew warm breath into them -- giving us goosebumps. I remember it used to make her toes curl up. We cooed like two pigeons. We gave each other a hickey on the neck, a teenage right of passage. Dee was the treasurer of our school class, sweet sixteen, homecoming queen and cheerleader for our football team. During winter, we skated together on a round and frozen pond at night, in Fischer Woods under bright moonlight. Nearby, a church bell rang out a sentimental Christmas song every hour. Later, we snuggled up together at home, under a warm blanket that had just been taken out of the dryer machine. I remember the first time I felt up her blouse. I cupped her entire breast in the palm of my hand, that's how young she was. She helped me learn how to unhook her bra without seeing it. At sixteen, we cried together, we begged each other not to leave one another, and we promised each other to stay together. Dee was prescribed the birth control pill without parental consent by the Planned Parenthood association. At 16, we made love everyday for 2 or 3 hours after school. On my bed in the daylight eye to eye, telling one another that we loved each other. We made love everyday for 2 years. On Senior Prom Day we held hands and walked on a sandy beach, then up a hill of trees where we made love on a bed of pine needles. Our souls became one. Another time we had intercourse until a pool of sweat from both of us had collected on her breastplate. We did the wild thing for over 3 hours until she passed out. We did it when she had her period and we had her blood mixed with my seamen all over us. One time, I saw Dee sniffing my arm-pit -- the pheromones were flying. We had intercourse and I went down on her, for several hours everyday. She went down on me and I came in her mouth. I sucked her and I swallowed. I rubbed my face from her one inside thigh, across in between to her other inside thigh, back and forth. I licked and kissed her entire body. I can tell you the shape of her toes and teeth till this day. I remember all the little things about her, like the scar on her left knee, and the funny twitch in her tummy. Then there is the beauty mark on her upper arm. and her crayon brown eyes. I have smelled and tasted her sweat, and I have tasted her tears -- and blood. I have seen Dee pee and squat to squirt out my seamen. I pumped more than a gallon inside of Dee without a condom. Her hair was turning red. We were like husband and wife, I should have been saving for our wedding. We made love over 1,500 times. We made love one misty day in the mud, on a tree farm after having sneaked through the fence at O'Hare airport. We made love outside at night in somebody's back yard at their party. We made love in our cars, and on her brother's bedroom floor. We made love in her back yard pool while we waved to her mom in the kitchen window. I remember being with Dee after school. She was dressed in her blue and orange plaid cheerleader uniform. I had my hands up her dress feeling her pantyhose which she unrolled and unhooked her pleated skirt -- we made love on the floor. We showered together, I remember Dee with a shower cap on, her breasts had grown and I could see the blood vessels in them. We made love on my kitchen table, now every time I hear the Eric Clapton song "Badge" I think of Dee. At age 17 and 18, we spent Saturday nights at the SKY-HI drive-in theater on route 53 in Glen Ellyn. I remember loving Dee, in her Vega hatch-back with fold down seats. Dee and I have the honor of having been caught by our high school principal and his wife in their bed at their house where their son was having a party and his parents came home early. In 1974, Diane gave to me a handmade Valentine's Day card,in it was written the words to the Beatle's song "Here, There and Everywhere." You can read about our love for each other and our tragic separation in my book. I wrote the bulk of it in 1974 and 1975. The book is entitled Before the Dawn, available at Authorhouse.com/bookstore. At that time I also wrote many love songs about Dee, all of which you can hear free samples from my double CD entitled Before the Dawn, available at cdbaby.com/all/masterwerks. Masterwerks entire catalog including my CD is available on all digital download sites such as iTunes, Rhapsody, Sony, Music Net, Napster and Mp3. Even though I have not spoken with Dee since the beginning of 1975, she has been with me everyday as the voice of my conscience -- I'll always love her. During the summer of 1974, Dee could not travel with me, she stayed home to work for college funds. Her parents matched whatever she earned. I spent weeks hiking the wilds of Southwest Missouri, canoeing rivers and exploring caves. I began to write lyrics and melodies. I spent 30 days camping in the upper peninsula of Michigan. In September, I went through an awakening of my conscious. During the next several months I wrote the first 3 chapters of my book. In October, I gave Dee the first hand written drafts of my songs. I gave her one red rose and a necklace with a heart. I told her how much I loved her and this heart is to give you faith when I'm not with you. Yet, on her birthday, I didn't want to give her the wrong message. I still had to travel. I had a compulsion to write but I couldn't do it here in Chicago -- it broke her heart. I remember kissing the hot tears off her cheeks and lips. CONTINUED IN COLLEGE SECTION... College In November, I spent a week camping in the Blue Ridge mountains of Georgia, and one week in Fort Lauderdale and Miami, Florida. In December, I spent 23 days camping on a beach in Grand Cayman island. Sailing around the island I used a snorkel to swim the outer reef spearing fish. On land, I picked breadfruit and mango from the jungle. I returned to Chicago, where Dee and I attended college together, we were both getting A's and B's. I was hitting the text books day and night and I neglected Dee, I'm more than sorry, but Dee never gave me a second chance. In January, we prayed together for the first time. In all our years together, we never said a bad word to each other. In February, she informed me she had a new boyfriend since December, I quickly dropped out of college. I bought 40 textbooks of most major college courses and I read them. In April, 1975, Dee wrote to me a sincere farewell letter, expressing faith that we could continue to share our love with even greater intimacy. So I called her on the phone and asked to see her. She said "Yes," but she didn't show up so I called her again, and she said "I can't." I said "Then give me back my necklace and heart." She put it in my mail box the next evening. It was decades later I figured out that when Dee said "I can't," she meant her dad was standing next to her and she couldn't say yes on the phone. I thought she meant in her heart she could not see me. However, she took offense to my having asked for the necklace back. Yet, I still had her recent positive and loving lette...Expand for more