Longing for the days of old fashioned romance...5th grade style.

When I was in 5th grade, my "boyfriend" was my teacher's (Mr. B) son. He was a year older than me and didn't even attend the same elementary school. We met at band practice. Once a week, all the kids from the smaller schools were bussed to the largest to have practice together. Even after I realized that he was Mr. B's son; it did not stop my adolescent lust. Even though friends told me that he was a nerd at his school and being his girlfriend would be considered social suicide; I was still in love.
Now don't get me wrong; even though we were boyfriend/girlfriend...we didn't really speak. I think I may have talked to him on the phone once over the course of our 3-4 month 'romance'. What we did do was pass notes to one another via his dad/my teacher.
I had come a long way from the days of peeing my pants on the carpet in Kindergarten; or even from my 4th grade era of wearing my then boyfriend's stolen mom's diamond earrings. I had embarked on a timeless love affair of the written word. Things like "You looked cute at band today." or "I wonder if your dad reads these before he gives them to you?" were scrawled on the pages with such passion...(sigh)
Were am I going with this? Fast forward some 18 years later...
Last night I sat perched on a bar stool at Al's wondering where all the innocent romance had gone. I was looking around at men wearing wedding rings flirting with women who were not their wives. I was even blessed enough to have a 40 something man next to me sneeze on my leg, ask the bartender for a napkin, blow into it and they proceed to examine what came out. He then went on to talk to anyone who would listen about his "arsenal at home" and kept saying something about an assassination I couldn't quite figure out. Not to mention the fact that every time he said something he thought was funny, he would clap exactly like that old women in her bed on The Clapper commercial. Although I was in the good company of friends; I could not pull myself out of the longing for the old days.
Someday I hope to find myself relishing again in the simple things in life. Hopefully it won't entail passing a note to a love interest through his father, but it would be great to stumble upon the refuge of innocent, untainted love.
To all the other singletons out there...good luck. You'll need it if you go to Al's.