Return To Forever (4 page)

It was a normal Monday morning on a normal school day. Joe was at his locker when Mary walked up before they headed off to French class together. She took his hand and placed his class ring into it. Joe was instantly confused. “My parents won’t let me go steady,” she whispered. “I have to pretend we are not seeing each other. I still love you but we will have to work around this for a while.”

Joe was stunned beyond words. He couldn’t believe what was happening and needed time to process this news. “Go on ahead to class,” he told her. “I’ll see you in the cafeteria for lunch later.” He would hang in the library and talk to Phil about this.

Phil was a thoughtful and cautious thinker, who would weigh things carefully before acting. He listened to Joe’s tale of woe but had nothing to relate it to. “Listen buddy, if she does love you like she says, she will find ways for you guys to be together. Her parents are afraid she will dump everything to be with you so they are just being overly protective.” Joe completely understood where her parents were coming from but it seemed like Mary rolled over without putting up much of a fight. Joe would have taken a bullet for her and take on anyone who tried to keep them apart.

At lunch they didn’t say much to each other. Mary knew Joe was devastated but she would not defy her family any longer. She came to the store several times that week to visit Joe which went a long way to heal the wound in his heart. Kids at school immediately noticed she was not wearing his ring and a couple of limp dicks asked her out but she declined.

Joe continued to cruise her house every night after work and the roar from his cutouts sent Clarence a signal Joe was still around. It didn’t take long for Mary to set him straight on making such a racket. She was painting a picture that they were no longer an item and his Chevy’s presence was giving a different signal. Joe promised he would silence the beast.

CHAPTER 7

A
s it turned out, the parental blockade was less of a problem than Joe expected. Mary became an awfully good liar for a pious Catholic girl, and came up with creative ways to get out of the house after school. As Clarence’s fear of Joe began to fade, he gave Mary more frequent use of the family car which she used to meet Joe whenever possible.

Joyce was aware of the subterfuge Mary was engaged in and was a willing and welcomed accomplice. In time, their friends at school figured things out and gave them plenty of support. She was “Joe’s Mary” and he “Mary’s Joe”. Many of their teachers gave silent approval to the couple’s quest to be with each other and offered reassurance that things would work out.

No amount of friendly support could prepare Joe for the SATs. He made no attempt to study and threw caution to the wind, knowing he had no chance at all to score high enough to offset his shitty GPA. As luck would have it, a new Community College was soon to open and he expected that to be his next stop academically.

Phil was focused like a laser on Annapolis and liked his chances. He had the grades and social enhancements to get in. His only problem was that he was a shitty wrestler and the academy required you to letter in at least one varsity sport. Phil was a JV wrestler but his dad knew the coach at the academy and was assured this would not be a problem. If Phil could get the sacred endorsement from a politician he was as good as in.

Johnny and Larry were not college bound. Both would likely keep working at Food Giant full time until something opened up…for Johnny it would be at Ford, where his uncle and brother in law had good positions and some pull with the personnel department. For Larry…who knew? The Lansdale Class of ’64 would be facing a market where there were good paying jobs with benefits available for any hard working graduate. College was a nice luxury but not the only option. The unions were strong and getting stronger and a UAW job at one of the “Big 3” was the bedrock of the growing middle class in the mid-west.

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Summer break descended on Joe and Mary with some new twists to their normal routine. Mary’s parents took her to the State College campus 80 miles from Lansdale, to see what was ahead for her and she immediately embraced the collegiate vibe and the tremendous freedoms that would come with it. Her application was accepted immediately and she broke the news to Joe with the appropriate, if not genuine, degree of remorse that they would be apart, as Joe’s application was respectfully denied.

Joe was resigned to attending the Community College and making the long drive to see Mary on the weekends whenever possible. Johnny was developing some fundamental skills on the guitar and Joe was eager to learn as well, building on the year of forgotten lessons he had taken in the 5th grade. That summer Joe and Johnny spent endless hours practicing with hopes of actually forming a band. Joe was able to acquire a cheap Sears Silvertone electric guitar with the small amplifier built in to the case and he practiced until his fingers bled.

On the work front, Mary was able to get an office job at the Ford Transmission plant in Lansdale, right across the street from Wonderland Mall. Joe would pick her up for lunch several times each week and they would go to a nearby park to eat and make out…usually in total privacy.

Joe asked for and received more hours and worked several 8 hour days during the week and, of course, all day Saturday. He was offered a full-time job on the night crew (10 PM to 7 AM) but declined. A change like that to his schedule would totally fuck up his time with Mary and, with the end of summer, he would have to jump back to a part-time schedule.

Other events of a global nature were unfolding that would ultimately affect the lives of the Class of ’64. Southeast Asia was becoming a hot bed of activity and LBJ was leaning towards military involvement in the tiny country of Viet Nam. Learning nothing from the French defeat and humiliating withdrawal years earlier, Pentagon hawks pushed hard and would eventually sway the President to jump in with both feet.

As they returned for their senior year, Joe and Mary rarely talked about the draft and Viet Nam. It was a time to enjoy what was left of their high school years and the friendships that would end with graduation. When yearbooks arrived, the majority of Joe’s friends who signed his wished him luck with Mary. In every one’s eyes they were still very much a couple; however neither of them signed the other’s yearbook. Mary was afraid her parents would see Joe’s words as proof that they were still seeing each other and she chose to give Joe a card rather than reveal her most intimate feelings for others to read. Her words reassured Joe that all their plans for a future together were still intact.

By the end of the year, most college bound seniors had been accepted and, with that important issue behind them, they kicked back and cruised through the months leading up to graduation. It looked like the colleges of choice were split among the dominant state universities and the new community college. A very few were accepted at the most prestigious campuses like Yale, Stanford and, of course, Phil at Annapolis. His freshman year would start right after graduation with a full summer of P.T. and learning basic seaman skills…pure hell.

Mary was treasuring every senior moment, attending school concerts and plays, participating in the madrigal singing group (with Joe in attendance), and becoming fully immersed in every club that would enhance her coming college experience. Joe was a passive bystander but was happy for her achievements and proud that she was still his girl.

The first Beatles album came out in January and Joe began his quest to acquire every new LP they released the minute it hit the shelves. This was followed up by their first visit to the USA and appearance on the Ed Sullivan show on February 9th which also was the same day the first Mustang rolled off the assembly line.

Joe was running the ’57 into the ground. The poor Power Glide transmission was not designed for street racing and it was nearing the end of the line. Joe had picked out a black Corvair Monza as a potential graduation gift. The best he could hope for was the down payment as a gift his family might afford but he would have to make the payments on his own.

By spring it was apparent to Joe and Mary that Viet Nam was more than a temporary dust up. At the end of March, McNamara confirmed US commitment to expand aid, both military and economic, to South Viet Nam. Within a month a spike in draft notices began and with it, the dawn of student demonstrations on campuses all across the country.

At first Mary thought Joe could avoid the draft by getting married but she was never serious and Joe knew it. The only real way to stay out of the service was to be a college student in pursuit of a degree. This student deferment drove a lot of kids not suited for college to enroll but the seniors at Lansdale had more pressing issues…like the Senior Prom.

CHAPTER 8

T
here never was any doubt in Joe’s mind that he would be taking Mary to the prom which was to take place on the University campus in Ann Arbor. The chosen theme was “The Twelfth of Never”…thank you Johnny Mathis. Once the date was decided, all the senior guys who worked at Food Giant asked for that night off. Joe was one of them and because so many workers were from the high school, the manager did his best to accommodate as many as possible and Joe was at the top of his list.

Once Joe had the time off secured he was eager to tell Mary the good news. As it turned out, she came to the store that night to visit him. “Great news,” Joe said, grinning from ear to ear. “Larry gave me the night off for prom!”

Mary’s reaction was not what he expected. She took his hand. “I can’t go with you. My parents would never allow it,” she said, looking down, not wanting to make eye contact.

Joe was crushed. He had never anticipated this…and he should have. “I’ll talk to your dad. This is a once in a lifetime event and you shouldn’t miss it!”

Mary was having trouble finding the right words to respond. “I’m not going to miss it Joe. I am going with Dave Ladue but it means nothing and is just for show. In my heart I will be with you.”

Dave fucking Ladue! Joe could not believe his ears. This guy was king of the nerds and a total dick with a 4.0 grade point…just the kind of guy Mary’s dad would pick…safe and gender neutral. It never occurred to Joe to find another date like she had done. If he couldn’t go with Mary he didn’t want to go at all.

“When did he ask you?” Joe responded.

“He didn’t…I asked him.” Mary replied. Dave and everyone else assumed she was going with Joe and was delightfully shocked to get the invitation. He never asked her reason for choosing him and didn’t care.

Was Joe the dumbest asshole in Lansdale? She had to have had this all planned out and never felt it necessary to tell the guy she professed to love? All Joe could do was pretend he understood and try and get past this in the weeks leading up to graduation. Something was changing in their relationship but he chose to ignore the signs and threw himself into his job and raising hell with Johnny and Larry.

Toledo, Ohio was a mere 55 miles from Lansdale and allowed teens to purchase diluted “three-two” beer. When it became too risky to steal real beer and wine from the store, the three amigos (Larry, Johnny and Joe) would often take a road trip after work to stock up on the low buzz brew. On just such a night, they piled in to Larry’s baby blue Ford and headed south.

They made it to Toledo in just under one hour and hit the beer store for two six packs and some smokes. Rather than hang in Toledo to enjoy their bounty, they decided to head back home and party all the way. AM radio was smothering the air waves with the first Beatles singles…She Loves You, I Want to Hold Your Hand, and some cuts from their new album, “Meet the Beatles.” Larry had not gotten the Beatles bug yet and when a Beach Boys hit came on he cranked up the volume and the gas pedal.

It was almost 1 AM as the blue Ford streaked down the empty turnpike, crossing the border from Ohio into Michigan. The moon was full and the boys were howling “Help Me Rhonda” into the darkness when Larry lost control. They weren’t sure if there was ice or a wet spot on the road but the Ford flipped on its side and slid for almost ¼ mile before coming to a stop on the shoulder. Miraculously no one was injured beyond a few bruises and a bloody nose.

To Joe, it all happened in slow motion and as he sat in the back seat, the radio played some all too familiar lyrics: “You ask how much I need you…” How fucking ironic, Joe thought. He’s sitting upside down and half drunk in the middle of nowhere listening to “The Twelfth of Never” while Mary is picking out a prom gown and getting her hair done. At that very moment he decided he would kick Dave Ladue’s ass.

The boys were stone cold sober at that point and were able to push the car back on to its wheels before a trucker stopped to help. Larry was able to get the car started and they slowly motored home. Nobody said much and Joe couldn’t get the prom and Mary out of his head.

By lunch the following Monday Mary had heard of the ill-fated road trip and was concerned that Joe was OK. She saw the bruise on his forehead but he assured her he was just fine. “We got lucky,” he said as he took a bite of his burger. Mary didn’t press him on what they had been doing but she knew Larry and expected he was the instigator for their hell raising that night. She also knew Joe was still hurting over the prom situation and decided she would write a note and give it to him to read on prom night.

All that week Joe kept an eye out for Mr. Ladue but never caught sight of him in the halls. They did not share any classes so he had to leave it to chance. And that chance came as he walked to his car in the school parking lot after school. Ladue was talking to a couple of his nerd buddies as Joe walked by. When they made eye contact Ladue gave him an arrogant smirk and the fuse was lit.