An Adventure

A friend and I skipped school to see Frank Sinatra. Yes, I was there among hundreds of screaming bobby soxers. The year was 1938. Waiting for the bus to take us from Greenbelt into Washington, D.C. Roy Braden, the town manager, offered us a ride I feel he must have thought our parents knew. The town of Greenbelt was a cooperative town built as a WPA project during the Roosevelt administration. My father was the mayor of this Maryland town.

When we arrived at the theatre the lines were long and excitement reigned. The marquee read Tommy Dorsey and His World Renowned Band.. Below this were the names of three singers, Bob Eberly, Helen O’Connell and Frank Sinatra. I remember vividly the song Tangerine. This teenager was “totally lost in the moment”. Any thought of consequences totally evaporated.

The bus trip home was ecstatic as we replayed our moments of swooning ecstasy and trying to remember the words of the songs. However this was short lived as the reality of what we had dared sobered us. Our parting was indeed “sweet sorrow”as we separately headed home. Did my mother know?

I was met at the door (she had locked me out). by an angry woman greeting me with arms crossed and a startling facial rebuke. In total silence she climbed the stairs. I somehow knew I was to follow. Then closeted with her in the bathroom, I was issued the unexpected news.


HERE IS THE REST OF THE STORY


A classmate, Teresa had dashed home with the following announcement. “You think Phyllis Warner is such a ‘goody-goody’, she skipped school with Freddy”. You can bet the phone lines lit up as the word spread. By the time my mother was gifted with a call, Phyllis Warner had skipped school with a boy.

“But mother, it wasn’t with a boy , it was my girlfriend Mayfred. Freddie is her nickname”..

This did not provide deterrence…..I was housebound after school for two weeks. However, the worst of it was having my Grandpa avoid me. His granddaughter had changed the note he wrote excusing her for one day, not two. I had marred this loving relationship.

Was it an Adventure ….or a Loss?

Phyllis Warner Haase October 2007