Young Agnes
Young love is delicious meat, tender and juicy. Once sampled, it leaves you with a ravenous appetite, stated only by more of the same. You go back for another bite; it’s tastier than before and now you want a mouthful. You try little nibbles while love simmers but soon temperatures rise. Young blood boils quickly, the world evaporates, nothing is left but the two of you, and you can’t get enough of each other. It began the night of the New Year’s party and I went for Agnes with fierce determination. We were young, hungry and romance was our dish.
Agnes went to St. Hubert’s, a girls Catholic High School taught by very strict nuns. The girls were told not to allow boys to fondle them, keep your lips closed if you kiss and never wear black patent leather shoes (the reflection could show your panties. I never found it to be the case with black patent leather shoes. I looked hard, never saw anything.) I had one more year of high school but my mind was not on scholastics. Agnes’s parents had remodeled the basement into a small recreation area. Agnes and I passed many an afternoon listening to records, dancing and doing everything except the homework we were supposed to be doing. We became inseparable and it put a dent in my relationship with her brother Dave. Before I was smitten by Agnes, afterschool hours were spent with Dave. I spoke to him about it and whether or not he understood, he said he did.
Agnes and I went everywhere together, dances on Friday nights, parties and even to church on Sundays. In summer, when school was out, our favorite haunts were the public swimming pools. Boulevard pool was close to home but the Summerton Pools, further northeast, provided a getaway for us We would pack picnic baskets, take the 59 car to the end of the line east and then wait for the bus to Feasterville. It was a short walk to the pools; we would stay till closing time and catch the last bus home
Agnes loved to dance and the jitterbug was her favorite. She could do a mean polka and dancing with her grandfather would leave him beaming with smiles. (I was not much for polkas other than to play them at the Polish American Club.) Many were the nights Agnes went with me when I was playing piano. We went to our junior and senior proms together, I in a tuxedo, she in an evening gown. The highlight of the evening was after the prom. Going to one of the nightclubs in New Jersey was popular; the management was liberal and we would be served alcohol with the meal. Reflecting on it, we were dead give aways, the girls would order a sloe gin fizz, (I get nauseated thinking of it) and the boys felt tall ordering beer.
I graduated and went on to college. I was working after school and spending as much time with Agnes as I could. Between playing piano and pursuing my passion, my grades suffered proportionately. I was having such a good time that I didn’t give a hoot. I was living at home, had my own automobile and enough money to satisfy my needs. Being with Agnes was all that I had on my mind. It became difficult to see her because her parents moved to a new location. They bought a home in a beautiful subdivision in Orland, PA., 25 miles northeast of where I lived. It was a single home on a nice plot of ground with a grassy front lawn and enough space behind the house for a barbeque. Agnes wanted a dog; we bought a dog. A pedigree Collie named “Merry Maid Of Windy Hills.” Merry was a pretty dog, Agnes loved her and the dog was always at her side. Agnes graduated high school and worked in an office close by. It was getting harder for us to be together; the distance was an impediment but didn’t stop me. When I wasn’t working after school I would drive to Orland to be with her, have dinner and drive home late at night.
Note here that my mother was furious with me because of my constant attention to Agnes and the resultant deterioration of my academic endeavors . I was the only thing my mother lived for, she had great plans for my future and none of them included girls. She had no understanding of, nor would
she accept, my need for Agnes. Her anger at the situation grew stronger every day to the point
where she was on me constantly, insisting that I clear my head, straighten up and fly right.
she accept, my need for Agnes. Her anger at the situation grew stronger every day to the point
where she was on me constantly, insisting that I clear my head, straighten up and fly right.
That I only had eyes for Agnes was obvious to everyone. It was reciprocal and Agnes made it clear that we were a pair. We were base flesh in the crucible of youth, fired by passion and fused into a human alloy, two people as one. It was a happy time.