Innocent Times and so Pleasant to Reminisce -

     Blue and I were about eleven years old, and the occasion was the Hollywood Christmas Parade in 1962. We went to the parade specifically to see Johnny Crawford, hoping to get a glimpse of him riding in one of the cars. Johnny was in a car in the parade with his little brother. We wasted no time! We pushed our way through the crowd to get a better look, and to our amazement, his driver stopped the car so Johnny could sign autographs!
     We could not get pass the crowd full of girls that were surrounding his car, so the parade continued on and Johnny's car began to move again. Blue and I were so disappointed that we missed out on an autograph so she yelled, "Johnny, don't go! Please don't go!" Blue began to cry and said to me, "Oh no, Sandy, we didn't get an autograph." She took a picture of him riding away and yelled one more time, "Johnny, stop, please, shake my hand!" Johnny heard her cry and asked his driver to stop the car. He made eye contact with Blue and instead of a hand shake, Johnny kissed Blue's hand.
     Now I was feeling left out, but the car behind Johnny's had Tony Dow and Tony shook my hand. We went home floating on a cloud. Blue was crying all the way home and kissing her hand. She did not wash her hand for a week. Even when she took a shower, she would extend her arm out so her hand would not get wet. Finally, her mother made her wash her hand.
     When The Rifleman ended, we thought we were going to die! (laughing) This crush lasted for years until we were about eighteen years old. Actually, we still do get a little giddy. When we recently saw Johnny's present day picture, we still had that wonderful childhood first love feeling. I have to admit, Johnny still does put a spark in our hearts.

Sandy and Blue