Chapter Three - The Devil Makes His Move

CHAPTER THREE

The Devil Makes His First Move

         During those last two weeks I began to feel more and more at ease around her parents. Comfortable with them. But it was still a pleasant surprise to hear Linda say one Saturday that her folks liked me very much. I would soon deeply appreciate that gesture of friendship and encouragement.
         Beginning with South Pacific my father had begun to notice that I was spending all my time with one girl. So he sat me down and told me “all the pitfalls of sticking to the first girl you really get to know – the first one you fall for”.
         Like every other teenager, I tried to convince him that MY case was different from all the others; that I was part of that 1- or 2% that found the right girl the first time. Same old story, you say? Sure it is. That was my problem. The twist here is that I was right. But by then that line had been used for so many years by so many teenagers that it didn’t carry any clout anymore, and I just couldn’t convince him:
         “Jim, you’ve done a number of things with Linda, and also visited her house pretty frequently the last couple months or so, but you haven’t done what we suggested and played the field. What’s going on?”
         “Well, I’m not really interested in doing that yet.”
         “Jim, you and Linda are both too young to know what you really want yet. She can’t be that sure either, whether she thinks she is or not. Besides – the longer you stick with one girl, the less likely you’ll be to play the field at all.”
         “Dad, what if I’m right about the way I feel? You can’t deny that’s a possibility.”
         “Jim, the odds on that are so small it’s really not an issue.”
         I had to buy some time to develop something in defense of my argument. My mind was racing. Frantically, I reminded him of the fact that I had taken one girl (Rhoda Ramirez D’Arellano) to the Basil Rathbone performance at school last November and to the Christmas Formal a month later, and another (Georgia Woolrich) to the senior Banquet, shortly before I met Linda. All he said was that two dates weren’t really enough:
         “If you want to go on seeing Linda you’re going to have to date others at the same time.”
         My mind was going a mile a minute. What would this do to Linda? It felt to me like her emotional position was fragile enough as it was without her knowing that I was playing the field. I had to keep seeing her, for BOTH of our sakes. I hated being backed into a corner. I don’t remember what else I told him any more than I remember exactly when that conversation took place. I didn’t want to remember. Whatever I said to him it must have been convincing; he agreed to let me go with her until school was out. I was never more glad to see two weeks of my life behind me.
         (Looking back, I find myself wondering… did dad notice that I was spending all my time with Linda, or did mom notice it and push him into saying something? JAW 6/11/81)

         (Dad and I went through the first draft of this book together on Sunday, October 10, 1999, and I asked him about this. He said he just agreed with whatever mom chose to do. The next night I asked him why he did that, and he said, “It was easier than arguing with her.” Gee… thanks, dad. JAW 10/18/99)

         On Monday, May 22, 2000, my dad and I were discussing family events of the past after hearing that my aunt Ina, mom’s sister, had passed away at 6:15 that evening. Dad said that he and mom, and Ina and her husband, Harry Fogelsong, had all never dated anyone but their spouse from the time they met. I asked him why, then, they couldn’t, or wouldn’t consider the idea, at the time, that Linda and I were right about each other, too.
         “I guess we never thought it through that far.”
         "I tried to tell you. Two or three times, during those discussions we had about me playing the field. You wouldn’t listen.”
         He didn’t say anything to that.


This work is taken from "A Once In A Lifetime Love: An Autobiography of Two High School Sweethearts", copyright 2000, as yet unpublished, by the same author.