CHAPTER 89 1960
Later after that morning incident with Pat, she was nowhere in sight when going home time came. I looked but she did not appear. I wasn’t unhappy; not sure I really wanted to see her that evening. By happenstance I got on a down elevator with the tall girl. We were push together by he crowd. After stepping outside the front doors of the Atlantic Building together, I asked her which way she was going.
“My name is Larry…” I began.
“Yes, I know,” she said.
“Oh”, So she all ready knew ,my name. Maybe Pat had told her.
“Well, I’m sorry, I don’t know yours.”
Her name was Lois Jean Heaney (pronounced Haney), ah yes, another Irish lass. This one was tall. In her low heels she was the same height as I. She was 5 foot 10 1/2 without the heels.
Her family, at least the Heaney side came from County Armagh. Although official listed as part of Northern Ireland, it really sits on the border between North and South and is known as the ecclesiastical capital of Ireland, being the seat of all the counties Primates, both Roman Catholic and the Church of England. It has always sat between the religious squabbles in Ireland.
Hearing her call herself Irish made me thing she was Catholic, but
she was not pure Irish, being part German and part Native American. Her family attended a Lutheran church in Springfield, Delaware County.
I don’t know when the Heaney portion arrived in the States, but her grandfather was a cop in Brooklyn and had married Emma Vance, a Native American woman. (Emma is pictured on the right with a Chief.) We believe she was a Creek. Information was hard to come by because her family never spoke of having a “Savage” in the family. They felt disgraced by it.
We walked a few blocks chatting inconsequently until we reached her subway stop. I walked her down to the turnstile of the platform. Just before she stepped through I said, “Will you go out with me Saturday night?”
“Yes,” she said.
“I’ll talk to you tomorrow at work,” I shouted after her over the arrival of a train.
I waited until that moment to ask for a reason. If she said yes everything would be fine. If she had said no she could have stepped through the turnstile and I could have walked away down the concourse without any embarrassing pauses of silence.
I drove to Lois’ house that Saturday evening with a great deal of trepidation. I wondered what her parents would do when they saw my car. It had taken a beating in the four years I owned it. All those dents still remained from the front fender where I hit the post to the crowbar digs on the back fenders to Richard’s rear-end impressions on the roof. On top of that my hood didn’t fit completely down over the engine, one bent support made one side stick up a couple inches. My door latch was broken. It wouldn’t catch when closed. I had the driver side door held shut by a necktie fastened around the front and back window frames. I got in and out of the car through the window like a stock car driver. Because of the tie I couldn’t even roll my windows up all the way on that side. I figured once her father sees my rambling wreck he’ll forbid her to go with me.
He allowed her to leave with me in that jalopy so perhaps he didn’t get close enough to notice. She and I went to The Family Drive-in Theater along West Baltimore Pike just outside of the town of Clifton Heights. That drive-in is a Giant Supermarket parking lot today.
I have no idea what the movies were. We talked though them both.
Afterward we got something to eat, probably at the Llanerch Diner because it was one of the few places open that late. Maybe we sat in the same booth that Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence would in “Silver Linings Playbook”. The movie was filmed on location there. All I know is no one put a plague on our booth or came requesting where we sat. I took her home. She invited me in. Her family was already in bed and we sat in her kitchen and talked until 6:00 in the morning. Her Grandmother, who lived with them, came downstairs and suggested “[my] family might be getting worried”.
I knew my family wasn’t. They were used to my being out all night, but I left anyway. I wasn’t tired, I was on cloud nine and wide awake. We had made a date again for next Saturday.
Sunday July 10, 1960, the day after my first date with Lois, I bought a new dog to replace Peppy. I drove to the King Kennels in
Concordville with my mom and grandmother. It was a Chihuahua about five months old. It had been born in Shelbyville, Indiana on February 4, 1960. Her father was Villa’s Muir and her mother was Donmary’s Senorita Gomez. In order to register her with the AKA I had to give her at least two names. I considered Synthia Ieanna Rosita Rojos or Lem Marie Cintez. I settled on Cynthia Wilmillar and we called her Cindy for short.
I had begun to use the name Wilmillar as a stand in for Downingtown in my fiction. I now used it as part of this new dog’s name. It was a combination of my parents and I, WILliam, MILdred and LARry.
I was seeing Lois daily now, going to lunch at Lew Tendler’s Restaurant on South Broad Street not far from work. In those early days we were getting separate checks. Three weeks into these lunches, I looked across my Blue Plate Special (which I almost always ordered – hamburger and fries) and said, “You know I’m going to marry you someday.” I think she thought I was kidding.
By July 1960, I had been in Sales Accounting going on eight months. Within that time frame, despite adding several duties to my roster, the job became routine again and I was growing bored. Atlantic Refining had a posting system. Every week Personnel put new job openings on all the bulletin boards. Company policy was to promote from within, at least up to a point. (We will discuss that point in a later chapter.) I checked these postings every week and in July I saw a Level 4 opening in Addressograph for a Graphotype Operator, whatever that was for I had no idea what a Graphotype Operator did or what an Addressograph was. I applied anyway and I got the job.
“You need to understand,” the Hiring Clerk told me, “this is a temporary position. The individual currently holding it is in the Army reserves and will be going to his six-month training requirement. If at the end of his training he chooses to return, we must give him his job back.”
“What happens to me?”
“If he comes back to his old job you will be bumped back to your old job. The person who replaced you will be out.”
The Army reservist never returned and I stayed in Addressograph almost four years. In my haste to promote out of Sales Accounting I had made a tactical mistake. I had taken a job in a “service department”. Nobody told me then, but folks did tell me later when it was too late, that within Headquarters there was a division of labor bias between “clerical departments” and “service departments”. Service departments were anything that provided support to the clerical departments. This would include the printing department, supplies, maintenance, mailroom, etc. With the exception of mailboys and messenger girls in the mailroom, which was the entry point for almost everybody, those in a service department had scant opportunity for advancement outside their own department. Service department employees were in dead-end jobs for the most part. They were the General Course people of the corporation, whereas the clerical staff was the Commercial Course People. I had just chosen to enter Purgatory or maybe just Limbo.
Alfred Hitchcock’s “Psycho” premiered in July and almost ruined
the shower business. Norman Bates wasn’t the only psycho around. My immediate supervisor in Addressograph was an odd dude himself. He was very skinny with a burr haircut. He wore glasses and almost always had a pipe between his lips (you could smoke in offices in those days). He had two thumbs on his one hand. The thumbs each curved inward and joined at the tip. He had been Supervisor in Addressograph for over a decade, the service department curse.
His name was Ron Paul (not the perennial presidential candidate) and he was none too stable.
Around this same time the Ghost of Romances Past appeared. Sonja Kebbe got in touch with me to announce she and Bob had broken up two months earlier. She was going with another Bob, but he was only a minor distraction. He didn’t live up to her other dates.
“I know how you felt,” she said, “if you were as crazy over me as I was over him (Bob Number One).”
I gave her my condolences. She suggested I come visit her sometime and if Ron was home bring him along. When I informed Ronald of her contact ,he suggested I try getting back together with her because, “a heart can’t be broken twice.” He also mentioned he was coming home for Labor Day weekend. I didn’t realize these two events were going to cause some trouble for me.
On the 17th there was no MYF, our meetings were done for the
summer. My puppy had a sore throat. I went to the motorcycle races with Paul Miller, his uncle was the Ray Miller I used to babysit for back as a teenager. His dad and my dad did a lot of work together and the Miller men had been along on our tuna fishing excursion (the Millers are pictured on the left). The two tallest are Paul and Paul Junior.
One of the frustrations I had in life was never knowing what they were going to write in the OJR Yearbook, The Ledger, under my senior photo. This was probably the first place most of us turned when we received our copy. Everyone wanted to read what the biographic blurb said.
There was this quote of Sir Francis Bacon, which seems apropos: “Reading makes a full man, conference a ready man, and writing an exact man.” Beneath this was written my supposed personality sketch:
Tall and rather mechanically inclined…seen visiting West Chester frequently…likes riding his motorcycle around the countryside…finds it difficult to find time for homework…never has much to say…plans to work for his father as a truck driver and mechanic after graduation.
Say what? Me mechanically inclined? And I’ve never ridden on a motorcycle in my life, although I have a lot of friends who do. I certainly had no plans of being a truck driver and especially one working for my father. So what gives.
Well, one panel over in the yearbook is Paul Miller’s photo and write up, which is exactly like mine, except for the quote and the first three words of the blurb: “Big and broad…” Somehow I ended up with Paul’s write up and so everyone in my class got to read what the editors thought of them, except me.
I am not sure if Lois was along to the motorcycle races or not. I didn’t ride one, but I did watch them race. I was out with her on Saturday, took her to dinner and for a ride. Obviously somewhere over the weekend the recent contact from Sonja must have come up or we ran into Sonja somewhere, she had a habit of popping up everywhere.. I received this letter from Lois when I returned to work on Monday.
Larry,
I’m sorry I acted as I did yesterday but I guess you realize it was a case of pure unadulterated jealously. I was so jealous of the fact that Sonya (sic) had arrived on the scene again. I don’t consider myself the most possessive person in the world, but to me Sonya (sic) represents a threat to my future happiness. I know you’ll laugh or get mad at me, but darling I can’t help it. I’ve fallen so desperately in love with you that in some instances I can’t help but get jealous. Believe me darling I trust you completely, but I know how things were between you two once and I get scared as I know time can change things between two people (that time being now and in the future). Larry, I hate to even think of what life would be like if you should leave me. You mean everything to me, and the fact that her mother keeps comparing you to every boy she brings home plus the fact that I remember her mother telling me that I got you just in time shook me up. All I could see was her trying to get you back on these trips home. That was the reason I said I didn’t trust her. She reminds me of my cousin Evie. (Joan pictured on the left and Evie on the right in 1961.) I’ve seen Cousin Evie in action too often for comfort. In fact when I first brought you around, my dad told me to keep you away from Evie and Joan if I knew what was good for me if I wanted to keep you coming to 1030 Cobbs St & not to 1018 Cobbs St. You see my cousins always take an avid interest in my boyfriends and no interest in me.
Oh Larry, please don’t leave me. I can take almost anything in stride, but not your leaving me.
Well darling, there’s my whole story. Maybe I wasn’t as understanding as you thought but I thought a threat had arisen and I was ready to stand up and fight. My mom taught me that anything in this life that is worthwhile is worth fighting for. And I can’t think of anything more worthwhile than you. I am hardly ever jealous but this was one time the green eyed monster bit me good. I hope you aren’t mad at me. You have my complete trust, love and understanding.
As incredible as it sounds, I must have taken Lois to Sonja’s place at some point. I don’t know why I would have done such a thing other than to show off how I had replaced her. At least somewhere along the line Lois met Sonja’s mother more than one time or at least claims to have.
In the letter Lois also makes references to her cousins, Evie and Joan, always stealing her boyfriends. But who were these boyfriends? Lois has spoken of a couple boys she dated briefly in high school, but has not made any mention of her cousins coming after these guys
and taking them away from her. I even question whether her father ever warned her to keep me away from her cousins. (On right, Lois going to her Senior Prom.)
Now some may ask why would I doubt these statements? We’ll see some behaviors occur that will answer that question eventually, but to be perfectly clear I am not sure what is true and what is not.
July closed in as usual, work all week and then have a burst of activities crowded into the weekend. On the weekend of the 24th we ran my Ford out to Parkesburg for inspection and new shocks (isn’t this contraption completely rebuilt yet?). When we got home, I helped dad put new sides back on the flatbed as he was going into the tomato hauling business again. That night we went to a serenade and then to the Kimberton Carnival.
Now this matter of a serenade, also called a shivaree. Lane Keene had gotten married and was home on the first night. All these friends (so-called) of theirs snuck up and surrounded the house below their bedroom. When the light went out for a few minutes the serenade began, or the caterwauling actually. Yelling and beating on pots and blowing horns to make a horrendous racket. They even had a bullfrog fiddle, which is like a long log with some kind of string fastened that you play with a bow, like a violin, except it makes a deep, frog like croak. All the while people are yelling for the new bride and groom to come out until they do.
This is why you don’t tell anyone where you are staying on your wedding night.
The next day, a Sunday, I took Lois to Willow Grove Park.
During the week I took Cindy to a Vet in Limerick for the cough she had develop. The doctor said she might have tapeworms.
On Friday I went to the Exton Drive-in with Melvin Moyer, then Saturday I went with Melvin and Dick Huzzard to the Kimberton carnival again. I didn’t get home from the Fair until 2:45 AM. I slept late and no one went to church, but in the afternoon I went horseback riding at Anne Shantz’s with Melvin and Dick. And then we slid into August.
Lois and I both saw “Psycho” at the same time, but not together.
She went with her girlfriends and they all came out of the movie leery of showers. I believe I saw it with Richard Wilson at the Hippodrome Theater in Pottstown. It didn’t make me fearful of showers. I preferred baths anyway.
It did make me into a strong Alfred Hitchcock fan. I admired his movies and I read a lot about him
and his methods. I had always watched “Alfred Hitchcock Presents” so he had already been somewhat an influence on my own writing. “Psycho” made me aware of the use of symbols in storytelling. For instance, when Marion Crane is dressing after the opening scene in the hotel room she puts on a white bra. When she is dressing to flee after stealing the money she
wears a black bra. In the motel, when she makes the decision to return the money, she is wearing a white bra again. She also had a white purse before she stole the money, but exchanges this for a black one afterward. These are clues to Marion’s switching from good girl to bad and back to good.
Ronald had also seen “Psycho” at this time. He was always a movie fan. He thought it was a terrific movie. Around the same time he went with some Army pals to see the film, “Sex Kittens go to College” (afraid I missed that one) in Fitchburg, but got into the wrong theater and sat through a film he had already seen, “5 Branded Women”. Vera Miles appeared in both this and “Psycho”, which were made at the same
time. Because they shaved Vera’s head for “5 Branded Women” (Vera on left), she had to don a wig for Psycho (Vera on right).
John Zacherley, who as Roland hosted “Shock Theater” in Philadelphia, became such a big star that Success lured him away from the local area to the Big Apple, New York City, where he began hosting a similar show under his real name, Zacherley. He was cashing in on his fame with records and books. I was currently reading his book, Zacherley’s Midnight Snacks, a collection of short stories by science fiction and horror writers. He brought out another collection in the same year called Zacherley’s Vulture Stew”.
On August 6 Chubby Checker launched a nationwide craze with his song, “The Twist”. There was also a twist for Ronald. The Army transferred him to E Company because his course changed. He had to change his quarters from the nice new facilities to barracks left over from World War II, “which were built to only last 4 yrs.”
I was talking about going to college next year. I was going to Study Creative writing, Drama and Music. Whatever plans I had in mind to accomplish this became a mote point a couple of months later.
Lois and I went to the Valley Forge Music Theater on August 13
to see West Side Story. The Music Theater was in a tent in those days. They called it “theater in the round”. This was because the stage sat in the center with the seats completely surrounding it. Actors played to all sides and often used the aisles as part of the stage. We had the first two seats in Row A of Section A. This meant we were on the aisle and at the edge of the stage. We were practically in the show. I feared being stabbed during the knife fight we were so close to the action.
Neither Lew Tendler’s Restaurant nor the Valley Forge Music Theater exist today.
I tended to write parodies of famous people and I send Ronald one on President Eisenhower convoluted speaking style.
“Well, now, if we are to look at the overall picture, that is to say, in regard to that question, which of course, I haven’t to any degree as yet studied or read up on, I would say, in all practicality, emphatically, I think so.”
I was also drawing caricatures of people at that time and that is my version of Ike.
I was under the influence of a new name hitting the Billboard comedy record charts, Bob Newhart. He released one of the greatest comedy albums in history called “The Buttoned-Down Mind of Bob Newhart”. His shtick was to do mock telephone conversations with famous historical figures. I send Ronald a supposed conversation between Abraham Lincoln and his press agent. Reading it over today I wonder if I simply repeated a Newhart routine as if it was my own.
comedy. It was one era changing to another as represented in August by two occurrences in the music world.
On August 18 an unknown
band made their first public appearance in Hamburg, Germany under The Beatles name. (pictured right).
In nearby Doylestown, Pennsylvania one of my youthful influences died of stomach cancer. His name was Oscar Hammerstein II (pictured left).
Then something happened that almost upset this whole applecart. I do not remember exactly the incidence, but am piecing it together from letters. My best guess is Ronald came home over Labor Day weekend and we planned to go bowling. He had recently written about scoring a 198 and hoped to top 200. He hoped we could do some bowling when he came home on that holiday.
Ronald, Lois and I went bowling, whether Ginny was along I don’t
recall. I do know that somehow Sonja Kebbe showed up and Lois was quite upset about that fact. She was ready to hit Sonja with a bowling ball.This was not the first time Sonja popped into my life since she broke up with Bob. Lois definitely considered her a threat.
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