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rtirman-blog · 7 years

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16 Friends, Romance and Roses

I realize I have not talked about my relationship with girls since telling you about my second “romantic” encounter. That was the day I almost got hit by that bus, across the street from my school. Truthfully, I cannot remember a girl from that moment all the way until entering Mrs. Dow’s 5th grade class at Seaman Avenue.

By this time, you might have a good idea of what I was self- conscious about in relating to girls. Probably, it was being the smallest boy in the class. Add to that, me being scared of girls and it is plain to see why I avoided them…but that doesn’t mean

I didn’t like them. Secretly, I had a crush on Sally Dumper, who happened to be one of the tallest girls in 5th grade, and probably the smartest. She lived on Randall Avenue, which was one block south of our house. Then there was Susan Hart, another tall girl. You know, maybe the girls weren’t so tall. But in comparison to me, I would have seen most of them that way.

It was in sixth grade, when the number of my romantic encounters jumped from two to three. We were to have a dance. As I recall, it was the end of the year dance, celebrating our transitioning from elementary school to junior high school. If our grades were okay, we were to leave Seaman Avenue Elementary School in June, and enter 7th grade at the Freeport Junior-Senior High School, which was downtown.

My two best friends lived on Randall Avenue. We lived on Lena Avenue, the first street north, and parallel to, Randall. My first best friend at home, and at school, was Roger Walters. He was short, just like me. I think he was taking B-12 shots to help him grow. Roger was in my class in both 5th and 6th grades. Not only that, we were in the same homerooms until we graduated from high school.

As for my other friend, John Murray, he was a year younger than me, but two school grades behind me. When John was around 7 years old, dressed as a cowboy, he jumped over the embers of a leaf fire, an ember popped, and a spark hit his furry chaps. The chaps went up in flames, severely burning his legs. The end result- John lost a year of school and had the ugliest legs in the neighborhood. He quickly came to terms with his condition. I don’t recall him ever being self-conscious about them. John was so good looking and such a great guy, his legs proved he was not infallible.

Back to Roger! It was Roger who became my “wingman” for my third romantic encounter. He already had his date for the Sixth Grade Dance. He told me I should ask Carol Lee Gill. Believe it or not, Carol Lee lived on Randall Avenue (or was it Pearsall?). Whatever, Randall Avenue should have been called the Avenue of Friends. As I recall, Alan Donnheiser, Sally Dumper, Donald Bretzger, Richard Darcy, Tommy Wolf, and Arty Reichert, all lived on Randall. There may have been more, but I can’t think of any. Also, I’m not sure if I’m spelling them all correctly.

Back to my wingman- Roger. He wanted me to ask Carol Lee, perhaps the shortest and best looking girl in our class. I couldn’t imagine her saying yes, to me. I could not even imagine calling her. It scared the living bejesus out of me. I had no choice. With Roger standing by me, I called her.

Ring, ring…”hello”

“Hello”, I squeaked, “Is this Carol Lee?”

“Yes, who is this?”

“It’s Richie”, I mumbled. “I want to know if you would go to the school dance with me?”

“I would like that very much, thank you for asking me.”

Yippee!! I had a date for the dance, and she was one of the prettiest and nicest girls in the class. I’m sure Roger had something to do with her saying yes. He was very popular. But I wonder if Carol Lee was now wondering if I was going to get cleaned up for the dance. I had no idea what to do to prepare for this date! Maybe Roger’s mother will help me.

Lo and behold! My own mother came to the fore. I really am not sure of this, I think she had shown up on some Saturdays before that time, but it is not clear in my memory. Anyway, she showed up, and bought me a new suit, shoes, shirt, and tie. She also told me she would return the day of the dance to help me get ready. And she did just as she promised. I can’t remember ever being in a suit. I had a corsage of sweet peas and carnations to give to Carol Lee. I can’t remember presenting the corsage to her, or even how we got to school.

At the dance, we each were given a dance card on which you would write the name of a partner for each of the ten dances. We were encouraged to fill our dance card with different partners. Naturally, I would dance with Carol Lee for the first and last dance. Somehow, I made it through the first nine dances. I don’t know how this happened, but both Carol Lee and Roberta Feinberg had me down on their dance card as their Dance #10 partner. What a mess! The best dance of the night, the Virginia Reel, and two cute girls were fighting over me. The truth be known, they each wanted to do the Virginia Reel, an I was the best Virginia Reeler in the school.

I apologize, I just lied to you. I was not the best Virginia Reeler.

I can’t remember how it was resolved, but I had two girls fighting over me. I suppose I can’t count that as a romantic interlude, but it had never happened to me before, or since. Also, I don’t think I kissed Carol Lee. Even so, I’ll count her as a romantic interlude because I really did like her . I can’t count Roberta…I don’t even know how I got on her dance card.

When I came back to school on the Monday following the dance, in front of the entire class, Mrs. Sturmer told me how handsome and how well dressed I was for the dance. I was very proud of myself. I think there wasn’t a person who was at that dance who wasn’t amazed by how clean I looked.

I was thankful Mother showed up to help me. After that, she came home to see us more often. I can’t speak for Al or Mickey, but as for myself I looked forward to Mother coming to be with us on Saturdays. I never asked her where she had been or why she left home. On the Saturdays before she would get there, Mickey and I would straighten the house so she didn’t have to spend time cleaning it. No adults with three boys made for a pretty messy place. The three of us knew how to clean. Daddy’s GI parties were exactly that! We always had a good supply of brown soap to wash dishes and scrub floors. The trouble with us was we were lazy, and we didn’t mind a messy house.

On one of Mother’s visits, I started on the attic level, and swept all the floors and down the steps until I reached the living room. There was a huge pile of paper, junk, dirt, and dust. We threw it all out. We then dusted and vacuumed, and cleaned the kitchen. The whole house was ready for Mother’s visit. I looked out the dining room window. In the lot across the street, I noticed beautiful roses. I went across the street to cut some of them for Mother. As I was cutting the roses, the woman who lived next to the lot came out of her front door and started yelling at me to get out of her flower garden. As loud as I could, I told her my Mother was coming, and wanted the roses for her. I was crying when I told her about me wanting the roses for Mother. I ran back across the street…without roses.

After Mother showed up, she was very happy to see the house so clean. She said that my aunt and grandmother would be there would be there soon, so I could go to the movies with Mickey. They were going to fix a nice supper for us.

When we came home from the movies, I walked into the door, and there on the dining room buffet was a huge bouquet of roses. Mother said that the woman across the street brought them over. After I yelled to our neighbor, through my tears, why I wanted the flowers, she felt horrible. So while we were at the movie, she cut two dozen roses off her bushes and made that beautiful bouquet. Mother asked that I go across the street and apologize for cutting her flowers and thank our her for the wonderful gift. Unlike the tulip incident years before, my mother received the flowers and I didn’t get a bloody nose.

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