Your first kiss: a special moment

Can you remember your first kiss? It’s a magical moment in most people’s lives, and one that imprints itself, sealed forever in that little bank of particularly special memories.

We reminisced with three over-60s who recalled, with hazy smiles, their first kiss…

Sandra is 62 and lives in Albany, Western Australia. She has been happily married for 35 years (“and I love [my husband] Pete very much, by the way!”) but that doesn’t mean the memory of that special day 46 years ago hasn’t lingered.

“His name was Eric and he was in my class at school. He’d asked me to go to the cinema with him that Saturday evening, and I just knew that Saturday was going to be ‘the night’.

“I was really nervous getting ready for my date – all of my friends had already had their first kiss, so I was a bit of a late starter.

“At the cinema I think I smelled him before I saw him, his aftershave was so strong! We got our tickets and went inside, just sitting there, with this air of expectation and tension between us.

“Then the lights went down… and the magic happened. Eric leaned over to whisper in my ear, but he didn’t move his face away…

“I remember there was an advertisement playing on the screen when it happened. It was for Cadbury’s Roses and the tagline was ‘When you get Roses, you’ve got yourself a man’.

“I have loved Cadbury’s Roses to this day!”

Derek is 66 and hails from Adelaide.

“I had my first kiss was at the age of about 17, I think.

“Her name was Linda and she was the prettiest girl in town – this beautiful blonde hair with bright blue eyes.

“I’d liked Linda for ages, but didn’t think she was interested. But at the dance one Saturday, Linda was there and just kept smiling over.

“So I asked her to dance, as you do, as we were dancing we started chatting and found out we got on really well.

“At the end of the evening I walked her home, as you do, and managed to slip my hand into hers.

“When we got to her house, even though I didn’t have a clue what I was doing, it just seemed to happen really smoothly!

“I could hear a Rolling Stones song playing inside one of the neighbour’s houses, and it became our song after that.

“We were boyfriend and girlfriend for a year before it petered out.

“It was definitely a very special moment.”

Karen is 69, lives in Geelong, Victoria, and has been married to her husband Bob for 48 years. She can remember her first kiss like it was yesterday…

“I grew up near the coast, and summer was spent at the beach every single day, that’s just what we did.

“I’d been courting Don for a few weeks, and it was clearly coming to the time when he was going to want to kiss me.

“I can tell you, I was terrified!

“It happened one afternoon at the beach. We were sat on some large rocks, and we went for a little walk, away from the others.

“Then he took me in his arms, and we had a wonderful, long kiss!

“I can remember the sun beating down on my face and the way he tucked my long hair behind my ears. I was in heaven!”

Beautiful stories of a wonderful moment in time. Can you remember your first kiss? Where were you and is there something – like a song, perhaps, or a smell – that takes you straight back to that moment? Tell us your stories in the comments below…