I apologize for not posting very much lately, but my time has been taken up with new duties at work & dealing with my parent’s estate.
Speaking of estates, I bought a large collection of the weekly, Life magazine-knock-off, Look magazine at an estate sale, here in Springfield. My sister was looking at them & found several articles mentioning something from that year, that I had forgotten about, that certainly keeps with that theme of not knowing the future.
According to the articles, in these Look magazines, this guy was going to marry President Johnson’s daughter.
This was featured on a Tumblr I follow called Batman On The Cover. It is a compilation of old Batman comic book stories for readers in Brazil. It was from 1965, right before Batmania happened in the United States.
Saturday night was a SVSC Wolves Basketball home game. College basketball was the biggest event in Spring Valley. They were playing the Central Missouri State College Mules. Since it was early in the semester, Clint was in good standing with his grades so he was able to participate in the game.
Mykel had never been to a SVSC Wolves sporting event, because he wasn't interested. He wasn't interested in sports high school, but part of that was because the Lemming Pond Wasp football team never scored during a game. It also didn't help his school spirit that the jocks like to bully him, since he was only five foot and had asthma.
Things were different at SVSC. He was friends with two basketball players, so he invested $5 in a SVSC Wolves sweatshirt at the campus bookstore and decided to make an appearance at a home game.
Since this was a home game, the Wolfettes were going to perform at halftime. Mykel wanted to see what Grace could do as a Wolfette, since she seemed to be the clumsiest person he had ever met in his life.
He walked, through the cold wind to McDonald Area from Bonner Hall. The rock salt on the sidewalk crunched beneath his feet, passing by the piled up snow, along the streets and parking lots, that were getting blackened by the passing vehicle exhaust. He walked inside and saw the girls, except for Grace, from the Bonner Hall, in front of the concession stand.
“MYKEL!” came a familiar scream, causing people to look for the person, who screamed, never guessing it had come from the mouth of adorable, blonde girl with a friendly smile. Sherry waved him over. “Come sit with us!” She didn't have to ask him twice. Mykel gated over to her like his feet were no longer touching the ground.
“Would you like something from the concession stand?” Mykel asked Sherry.
“I could go for some popcorn and Pepsi,” Sherry answered, then asked, “Are we going to get popcorn and watch a movie tomorrow after chapel?”
“Sure. I hope there is a good movie on,” Mykel said. “Or we will end up watching Harold Ensely catch fish.”
Henry walked in to the lobby and the group made their way up the steps, to sit in the upper cheap seats. Mykel had to get out his Primetine Mist Inhaler and take some puffs.
“Are you okay?” Sherry asked with concern on her face.
“I'll be fine in a moment,” Mykel reassured her, which brought back her sunny smile. He was beginning to notice another of Sherry's little habits. If she had a cold, fountain drink with ice, she would dig and stab the ice with the straw. Ever so often, she would shake the ice in her cup. Sometimes, sucking a piece of ice up into the straw, dropping it into her mouth and munching it loudly. It wasn't as cute as the little “da-da-da-da” song she sung while studying, but it also wasn't as strange as when she would rub her hands with witch hazel and peroxide.
“What are those things on that little table, with the Foremost sign on it, where the team sits?” Sherry asked, of an ice chest, provided by Foremost Dairy, filled with tiny, liquid, non-lethal, equivalents of Chekhov's firearm over the mantle.
“Those are little fruit drinks that Foremost provides for the team during the game,” Mykel explained. “Clint has brought some back to our room. They are pretty good, but you have to be careful. They are in these little, flimsy containers. It's like the drinking cups they give you at the dentist and instead of a cap, they have a piece of tin foil over the top.”
“I thought Foremost was a dairy,” Sherry said. “I didn't know they made juice.”
“Yeah, I don't know where the juice comes from,” Mykel quipped. “Unless it comes from fruity cows.”
Sherry laughed loudly, “You're so funny! They kind of look like Christmas decorations or toys from up here.”
There was an older couple sitting a row down from where Mykel, Sherry and Henry were sitting. Henry was sitting besides Mykel on the outside and Sherry was on Mykel's right side, with the other girls, Kathy, Debbie, Silvy and Carlene, were in the row behind them. They looked around at the group and gave them a disapproving look.
“I hope you youngsters won't make noise during the game,” the grumpy old man snarled. “My wife and I don't like it when you college kids cheer real loud.”
“It's a basketball game, Gramps! What are we supposed to do? Sit with our hands folded and whisper?” Mykel fired back at the old man.
“You can clap, but me and the misses don't like a lot of loud screaming and shouting.”
After the “Star Spangle Banner,” the teams came out. From the tip off, the Wolves controlled the ball, to a point that the Mules barely touched the ball during the whole game. Clint and Slick played and integral part in the embarrassing defeat of the Mules. It was the usual Clint to Slick, Clint to Roy, Clint to Danny, Slick to Danny, Slick to Lou. Slick hit two three shots and Clint hit three two pint shots, however, the biggest play of the game was when Clint passed the ball to Lou, a senior, and he shot a three from mid court, just before the half time buzzer. The game should have stopped at that point because the half time score was Wolves 50 and Mules 9. The Spring Valley State Wolves were whipping the Central Missouri State Mules.
The Bonner Hall students really got into the game and cheered loudly, must to the annoyance of the old couple. The old man turned around and shushed the group several times, but they kept on cheering. During one of the fantastic displays of Clint and Slick, the old man reprimanded Mykel and Henry.
“Do you have to yell at the players like that? They can't hear you!”
“I'm cheering on my roommate,” Mykel explained. “He is one of the two freshmen scoring points!”
“I hope your roommate isn't the Negro!” The old man growled at Mykel, who didn't find the comment very friendly.
“The Negro is MY roommate,” Henry spoke up.
The old man gave them a disgusted look, like they had just broke wind, and said, “What is this country coming too? This is what happens when you let a cowpuncher from Texas be President!” The old guy turned back around.
As impressive as the first half of the game was, half time was really memorable. The public address announcer said, “Ladies and gentlemen, the state of Missouri owes much of it's rich heritage to the American Indians, who settled in this area. Such tribes as the Shawnee, Kickapoo, Osage, Quawpaw and the Sauk, played an important part in our states history. So we, here at Spring Valley State College take great pride in presenting a tribute to the American Indian by the Spring Valley State College Wolfettes.”
The lights in McDonald Arena dimmed slightly and Grace walked forward, wearing a tan, fringe vest and fringe, wrap-around sarong, and a feathered headdress, spinning a fire baton, as “Apache” by the Shadows thumped on the loud speakers. She stopped and spun it over her head, tossed it in the air, and caught it. Then spun it behind her back for a few revolutions, then returned it to the front to spin it some more. She then began skipping around the court, still spinning the flaming baton.
Sherry said to Mykel, “She is so good at this!”
“I wonder if the the college realizes how dangerous it is to let Grace dance with baton that is on fire in a gymnasium filled with people?” Mykel joked.
Then, Grace returned to the middle of the court and screamed, “YEEE-WAAW-TAY-OH-WAHNEE!” The lights came up and the other Wolfettes ran out in matching vest and sarong, like what Grace was wearing. With the lights up, you could see Grace and the other Wolfettes had “warpaint” on their faces. A boy ran out on the court with a bucket of water and Grace stuck both ends of the baton into it, to douse the flames. Another Wolfette handed her a baton with bright, colored feathers on it and the music on the loud speakers switched to “Running Bear” by Johnny Preston. They began dancing, on one leg, skipping and spinning their feather decorated batons, like Grace had earlier, while screaming “Yeee-wa-wa-wa-wa-wa!”
The old couple got up and left, “Let's go, Honey! We don't need to see anymore of this vulgar display!” As the stomped out Mykel thumbed his nose at them and Sherry stuck her tongue out at them. Henry laughed.
The routine ended and McDonald Arena erupted with applause for the Wolfettes. The girls all smiled, bowed and curtsied to the appreciative audience.
“Grace, you were fantastic!” Kathy yelled. Grace's other friends were cheering and waving at her. She saw them and waved, blushing with pride, as she started off the court, waving at them, not realizing she was about to walk into the table where the Foremost ice chest held the little jugs of fruit drink. Sure enough, Grace blundered into it, knocking it over. Ice cubes were soon floating in a orange, grape, lemon and raspberry punch flavored river on the side of the court. Some men ran over and helped Grace up. That caused a slight delay to the second half, but that still didn't help the visiting team. The final score was the Wolves 102 to the Mules 28.
After the game, the group, braved the cold, and went over to Sam's Little Sicily to eat pizza. Clint and Slick came after everyone else. Grace kept complaining that her arm was sore. She had some rather large bruises on it.
“I think your arm is broke!” Kathy said. “We probably should take you to the emergency room.”
Mykel accompanied Sherry and Kathy as they took Grace to the emergency room at Ralph I. Dix Medical Center. Clint and Slick took Henry and Debbie back to the dorm with them. Before they left, Silvy stopped Slick.
“You are coming to church with me and Carlene, aren't you? We are having a basket lunch and a guest speaker. He's a young preacher, with the SCLC, who was beat up, by the cops, at the Edmund Pettus Bridge.”
“Sure, I wouldn't miss his witness,” Slick said, as he started out the door to Clint's Mustang. “I'll see you in the morning.”
Next morning, Clint got up and got dressed in his white, dress shit and tie. He then poked Mykel.
“You will be late for chapel,” Clint reminded him.
“I'm not going. I'm going to layout. We were over at Dix until 3 A.M.”
“Was Grace's arm broke?” Clint asked.
“No, They took X-rays, but her arm was just sprained and bruised. Kathy went in with Grace. Sherry and me were out in the waiting room, drinking the complimentary coffee and water. They had a TV in the waiting room and we were watching a movie on Dr. Cadaverine's Late Night Horror Show called Invisible Invaders, about aliens taking over dead people's bodies, but this cranky, old nurse turned it off, because it might frighten these two little kids that were in the waiting room. She turned it over to another movie on Channel 4, where Joan Crawford was a hooker in Pago Pago, being harassed by some old, cranky preacher. Personally, I thought that was much worse for a kid to see than Invisible Invaders. I also didn't know Joan Crawford was ever that young and pretty.”
“What were the kids there for?” Clint asked, as he polished his shoes.
“Their grandfather had a heart attack,” Mykel explained, still groggy. “Sherry found one of those Uncle Arthur's Bed Time Stories books and she suggested we should pass the time by reading to the kids, from the book. Some of those stories are kind of sad, although, there were some about bratty, little girls, which we said reminded us of her friend, Alice Schnatzsky. After reading that book, to those little kids, me and Sherry decided that was enough religion for this week. It was sad though, the parents, had went in with their grandfather, came out and told the kids that their grandfather died. Poor kids cried and I think me and Sherry did too. Between the Joan Crawford movie, Uncle Arthur's Bedtimes Stories, and seeing that...and that colored couple...the guy had been stabbed by some white guy. The old nurse, who changed the channel on the TV, almost didn't let them see a doctor. Cop showed up and talked to the guy's girlfriend. At first, the cop didn't seem to care either, then she gave a description of the white guy and it turned out he was an escaped psycho from the funny farm. He killed a teenage girl and her mom back in 1957.”
“Sounds like you and Sherry had some excitement,” Clint said. “What did they do to Grace?”
“Wrapped her arm in one of those stretchy, flesh-colored bandages and gave her some pain pills,” Mykel explained. “I was glad to get out of there. I told Sherry we may go to Hi-Boy later and then get some popcorn at Katz, for a movie on the big television downstairs. Hopefully, nobody changes the channel this time.”
“Do what movie will be on?” Clint asked, as he put on his heavy coat and prepared to leave for chapel.
“I have no idea, but that is part of the fun. Besides, it is a chance to be with Sherry.”
Mykel went back to sleep, until he heard the single, loud ring of the telephone, around 11:30 AM. He scrambled out of bed and answered the phone.
On the other end, Sherry informed him, “I just got out of the shower and as soon as I get my clothes on I will meet you downstairs.”
“Can I take a shower?” Mykel asked.
“Sure. Especially after we spent last night, shut up in the hospital waiting room with all those people smoking,” Sherry said. “I can't stand to smell cigarette smoke on my body. Wear a heavy coat, I think it is only thirteen degrees outside.”
“I'll be down as soon as I can,” Mykel told her, before hanging up the phone and taking a quick shower.
He put on a checked, long, sleeve shirt, jeans and his PF Flyers, went downstairs, where Sherry was waiting in the lobby in a dark, blue, turtle neck, sweater, tan ski pants and her white, Hullabaloo boots. She was thumbing through a Glamour magazine, that was on one of the tables in the lobby. She saw Mykel and she began smiling.
“Have you been down here long?” Mykel asked.
“No. I just found something to read while I waited,” Sherry answered, as she reached around Mykel and gave him a hug. Mykel gave her a squeeze in return. The warmth of Sherry's body and the scent of her perfume gave Mykel a comforting feeling, yet he couldn't help but think he was in a tantalizing dream and his mother would wake him up any moment to go to Lemming Pond High School. He help Sherry put on her coat and they walked out into the cold air and dancing snow flurries, to Mykel's Impala in the parking lot. Mykel hoped that it would start after sitting in the cold weather with out starting. Luckily, it started.
As Mykel backed out, Sherry took one of those little bottles, out of her purse, and dabbed some of that concoction of witch hazel and peroxide on her hands. She then powdered her nose, using the mirror, attached to the passenger side sun visor.
On the radio, The Lutheran Hour ended and after the oh-so serious, top of the hour ID, a jazzy tune played and a group of girls sang “It's the K-I-double-L Killer Countdown Show with your host, Lovable Lance Powers!”
“THANK YOU LADIES! I'M LOVABLE LANCE WITH SOME MUSIC TO MAKE YOU DANCE AND SOME HAND HOLDING KISSY-FACE MUSIC TOO. IT'S NOON AND A COLD SUNDAY AFTERNOON. SEVENTEEN DEGREES WITH LIGHT SNOW IN SPRING VALEY. IT'S TIME FOR THIS WEEKS COUNTDOWN OF THE MOST POPULAR SONGS IN SPRING VALLEY AND GREAT STUFF, INCLUDING NEW MUSIC FROM BARRY McGUIRE, BOB DYLAN, THE GENTRYS, THE WHO, ROGER MILLER AND MORE! TWO SONGS, THIS WEEK, ARE FROM HIT MOVIES AND ONE IS FROM THE MOST POPULAR NEW SHOW ON TELEVISION.. COMING UP LATER WILL BE A SONG FROM THE HIT MOVIE, FRANKENSTIEN VERSUS THE SPACE MONSTER, BUT WE START OFF WITH A SONG FROM A M-G-M HIT MUSICAL CALLED WHERE THE BOYS MEET THE GIRLS. HERMAN'S HERMITS SING THIS SONG IN THAT FILM. IT'S CALLED “LISTEN PEOPLE,” AT NUMBER FIFTY, ON THE K-I-DOUBLE-L KILLER COUNTDOWN!”
“I'll wait until you stop, before I put on some lipstick,” Sherry said with a smile. “You might hit a pothole and I would have Jewel of India lipstick all over my face.” She giggled and then asked, “Do you think that shiny, white lipstick would look good on my lips? Carlene and Silvy were wearing it last night and it looked really cool, but Alice has been wearing it and I didn't think it looked very good on her.”
“The only thing that would look good on Alice Schnatsky is a metal bucket over her head,” Mykel joked.
Sherry swatted Mykel's arm, in a mock scolding, while laughing loudly with her head throw back and her mouth wide open. “That was mean, but really funny!”
“You will be pretty no matter what you wear,” Mykel complimented her.
Sherry blushed and smiled at Mykel. Her eyes were dewy, as if she was about to cry. “Do you really think so?”
Mykel nodded his head up and down, “Yes, I do!” Mykel wondered why Sherry would have to ask him if he honestly believed she was attractive. He would have thought that a gorgeous girl, like Sherry, would have heard that every day, but then he got his answer as to why she seemed surprised by his compliment.
“Chip never told me I was pretty,” Sherry lamented. “He never seemed to pay attention to me. I often wondered if he even knew I was sitting next to him.” Sherry put her legs up in the seat and scooted closer to Mykel. “I'm going to put you on the spot. Do you think I'm pretty enough to be in movies or on TV?”
“As a matter of fact, I've always thought you looked like someone on TV and I figured out who it is,” Mykel said, without thinking about how she would take it. “You know that TV show, The Farmer's Daughter? You look like the actress that plays Katy on that show.”
“You mean Inger Stevens! Oh wow! That is so cool that you think that! That is one of my favorite shows on television. She is really pretty,” Sherry giggled. “I was afraid you were going to say I looked like Granny on The Beverly Hillbillies.” She then leaned over and kissed Mykel's cheek, which caused him to be so excited, that he almost struck a median strip that was pilled high with snow.
“I couldn't think of her name,” Mykel explained. “I knew she had an unusual first name.”
“There is a woman in Knob Knoster named Inger,” Sherry said. “Big, fat, German lady...kind a cranky...she is one of Dad's patients. For awhile, every time she had an appointment, she would bring Dad a gallon jar of sauerkraut. Mom told him to tell her to stop doing that, because we couldn't eat that much sauerkraut.”
“DEBUTING AT NUMBER FIFTY ON THE K-I-DOUBLE-L KILLER COUNTDOWN IS HERMAN'S HERMITS WITH “LISTEN PEOPLE.” I'M LOVABLE LANCE POWERS AND THIS IS THE K-I-DOUBLE-L KILLER COUNTDOWN, SPONSORED BY D-X GASOLINE WITH SUPER-BORON, MCDONALDS HAMBURGERS, WITH TWO LOCATIONS IN SPRING VALLEY, AND YOUR OZARKS PEPSI COLA BOTTLING COMPANY. RIGHT NOW ON THE COUNTDOWN, AS PROMISED, THE NEW RECORD BY BARRY MCGUIRE, THE FOLLOW UP TO “EVE OF DESTRUCTION,” ALSO WRITTEN BY P. F. SLOAN, COMING IN AT NUMBER FORTY-NINE IS HIS LATEST “CHILD OF OUR TIMES” ON THE K-I-DOUBLE-L KILLER COUNTDOWN!” Lovable Lance introduced the new song, as Mykle pulled into Hi-Boy's parking lot.
“I hope this one doesn't mention atomic war,” Sherry said. “That's not something I want to hear someone sing about. It hits a little close to home for me.”
“I noticed when the chaplain brought it up, in his sermon, last Sunday, you kind of got uneasy,” Mykel said. “Is that something that frightens you?”
“Whiteman Air Force Base is in Knob Knoster and that is where most of the missiles for the United States a kept,” Sherry informed Mykel, as she began applying her lipstick, once again using the mirror on the sun visor. “Everywhere you go, you see the missiles. You see them out the window of the school bus and you could see them from my elementary school playground. Let's face it, if the Soviet Union fired missiles at us, they would probably aim them right at Knob Knoster.”
“We didn't have missiles in Lemming Pond,” Mykel said. “Just aluminum boats.”
“Aluminum boats?” Sherry asked, with a giggle in her voice, as she put her lipstick into her purse.
Mykel then explained, “Supposedly, Lemming Pond is the aluminum boat capitol of the United States. I'm not sure if that is according to the chamber of commerce or the Guinness Book of World records.”
They got out of the car and walked across the ice glazed parking lot to the Hi-Boy entrance and sat down in a orange vinyl booth. They each took a menu and began searching for what they wanted to eat. K-I-L-L was playing on the overhead speakers and Barry McGuire was asking, “What will you grow up to respect, Tell me what will you grow up to protect, In you burning turning mind, You are your own worst enemy.” When the waitress came over, they both ordered a Hi-Boy burger, French fries, and Pepsi.
“Just so you know, we are Dutch,” Sherry told the waitress. The waitress didn't understand what she meant by that statement.
“Y'all enjoying yer visit to the United States?” the waitress asked with a toothy smile. This caused Sherry to burst into loud, uncontrollable laughter.
Mykel was laughing too, but managed to say, “Miss, my friend meant this would be on separate checks. We are students over at Spring Valley State College.”
When she went to turn in the order, Sherry began to regain her composure. “I thought everyone knew what it meant to 'go Dutch.' Especially if they worked at a place that served food.”
The ballsy voice of Lovable Lance echoed through Hi-Boy, “THAT WAS BARRY McGUIRE, AT NUMBER FORTY-NINE, ON THE K-I-DOUBLE-L KILLER COUNTDOWN, WITH 'CHILD OF OUR TIMES!' I'M LOVABLE LANCE POWERS AND HERE IS ANOTHER BIG DEBUTE ON THE KILLER COUNTDOWN! ONE OF THE LATEST NEW BANDS FROM MERRY OLD ENGLAND. WE'RE STILL PLAYING THEIR FIRST BIG RECORD, 'I CAN'T EXPLAIN', HERE AT K-I-DOUBLE-L AND AT NUMBER FORTY-EIGHT IS THEIR NEW WILD ROCKER. HERE IS THE WHO WITH 'MY GENERATION' ON THE K-I-DOUBLE-L KILLER COUNTDOWN WITH ME, LOVABLE LANCE POWERS!”
Mykel and Sherry laughed, giggled and snorted until their food arrived. They continued to laugh and giggle. Mykel ran through a catalog of impersonations for Sherry's amusement that included Groucho Marx, John Wayne, Boris Karloff, Lawrence Welk, Walter Cronkite, Lyndon Johnson and the cast of the Man from UNCLE. Later, they both ordered a hot fudge sundae. Mykel had considered paying for everything, but he was actually glad Sherry suggested the 'go Dutch,' because, if he had paid for both of their tickets, he would have been out $2.50. He looked in his wallet and saw he did have ten bucks left. He still needed to buy the King Sized Pepsi and giant sack of buttered popcorn at Katz for their afternoon of movie watching on the big color television in the student lounge.
There were two older women sitting in an adjacent booth. When they got up to leave, they walked over to Mykel and Sherry's booth and scolded them. “You two are loud and obnoxious! You ought to be ashamed of yourselves!” snapped one of the younger of the two women. They, turned and stubbed off, out the door, into the cold, icy, parking lot.
“And you are old and ugly!” Mykel snarled, as he watched them walk out the door. Sherry began laughing again, even louder than when the waitress thought she said they were from Holland. Mykel added, “Probably in her fifties.”
“Seems like older people in Spring Valley are crabby,” Sherry observed. “Remember the old man, last night, at the basketball game.”
“I'm finding out that there are people in this town that hate us college kids,” Mykel said. “It's like they don't want us here.”
“THAT'S THE WHO ON THE K-I-DOUBLE-L KILLER COUNTDOWN AT NUMBER FORTY-EIGHT WITH 'MY GENERATION.' I'M LOVABLE LANCE POWERS AND HERE IS THE SONG FROM THE HIT MOVIE FRANKENSTIEN VERSUS THE SPACE MONSTER. IT'S BY AN IRISH BAND CALLED THE POETS AND THE SONG IS 'THE WAY THINGS OUGHT TO BE' ON THE K-I-DOUBLE-L KILLER COUNTDOWN, WITH YOURS TRUELY, LOVEABLE LANCE POWERS!”
The waitress picked up the plates and discarded wrappers from the old ladies table, as the overhead sound system thumped with the bass guitar in the song. Sherry watched her and then reached into her purse, pulling a dollar bill from her billfold. “I want to give her a good tip since we laughed in her face. I feel bad about that now.” Mykel felt bad about it too, now that Sherry mentioned it. When the waitress came to get their money, Sherry gave her the dollar and Mykel gave her two dollars and told her to keep the change. The waitress was overjoyed by Mykel and Sherry's kind gesture.
“Thank you! I appreciate it! Those two old biddies, in the booth behind you, ran me back and forth with the coffee pot, complainin' about everything...then, instead of a tip they left me a callin' card, from their church, with a Bible verse on it!” the waitress explained. “I know yer supposed to be nice to old folks, but some of 'em take 'vantage of you. I know people talk bad about ya, but you college kids don't cause trouble like the older folks do.”
Mykel and Sherry left Hi-Boy and went over to Katz to buy the sack of popcorn and Pepsi. It really wasn't a pleasant experience to go to Katz on Sunday, because of the nonsense of the Missouri Blue Laws. You were only allowed in the grocery, drug, automotive sections and the snack bar and cafeteria. Everything else was roped off and, on this Sunday, they had added a new twist of covering the shelves with opaque sheets of cloth. Mykel and Sherry stopped on their way into the open portion of the store and gave the covered shelves a confused stare.
“Hey, you two! You are not allowed to look at merchandise in the departments forbidden under the Missouri Blue Law!” A middle-aged jerk with a buzz-cut and a pin, reading 'Manager,' on his vest, came charging over to where Mykel and Sherry were standing. “There is no shopping in this section on Sunday!”
“We weren't shopping, Baldy,” Mykel snapped. “We were try to figure out why everything is covered up. We couldn't possibly do in shopping with things covered up.”
“You are not allowed to look at this section! You are forbidden to purchase any of the merchandise or peruse the merchandise in any section forbidden under the Blue Law!” The manager with the buzz-cut screamed at Mykel and Sherry, as if they were dangerous criminals. He then began to go into details about the need to deter Sunday shopping. “We are initiating stricter store rules. You are not even allowed to look over the ropes, at the covered shelves, on Sunday. We may have to start putting up curtains to keep trouble makers, like you, from trying to shop in the forbidden merchandise sections of the store! Only the edibles and pharmacy sections are allowed to sell merchandise today. We also feel you should find what you need and not linger in the store...AND STAY BETWEEN THE ROPES!”
They started walking over to the snack bar area and Mykel began grumbling to Sherry in a low voice, “Jackass! I'm just glad they don't let that guy carry handcuffs and a gun. He would be dangerous.”
“Like we were talking about at Hi-Boy, he's another one of those cranky adults of Spring Valley,” Sherry said, as they each got two King Sized Pepsi bottles, which were on sale at four for a dollar.
They took them over to the snack bar and asked the girl, at the counter, for two of the jumbo buttered popcorn bags. She scooped the popcorn out of the popper and tied the bag at the top. As she was ringing the bagged popcorn and Pepsi up, she said, “I saw Oscar was yelling at you about something. Don't pay any attention to him. This is his first week as manager and he has let it go to his head. Last week, he was running the paint shaker in the hardware department. Why they made him manager, I don't know.”
Mykel and Sherry went back to the dorm. They went to the TV lounge in the basement, turned the color television to channel 11's Sunday Afternoon Movieland. They were soon eating popcorn and drinking Pepsi, on the big, green couch, as Red Ryder and Little Beaver helped a little boy injured in stagecoach accident and, after that, Charlie Chan had to figure out, who was killing the cast of a radio soap opera with poison cigarettes.
Mykel and Sherry heard some boys yelling and making a commotion. They had fell asleep, during the Charlie Chan movie, and three boys had come into the TV lounge, turned over to channel 4 and were watching a basketball game. They decided to go to Mykel's room and watch the rest of the movie on his TV, since it was in black and white anyway. They got to the room and found that the movie was already over.
It didn’t make the Billboard Top 40, but it was on many Top 40 radio station’s hit surveys in the early part of 1966. It is well remembered as one of the great rock anthems of the Sixties. The Who’s classic “My Generation.” Here is a great video I found on YouTube with news reel footage of young people dancing. Enjoy!
One of the complaints made against the excerpts of my novel, posted on Facebook, was that i mentioned “songs that people are not familiar with.” Granted, this person is in my age group and quite a few people, of my generation, refuse to listen to any music made before 1981. So, here is a playlist I compiled of cover versions of the songs, mentioned in the novel or might be mentioned, that people would recognize. Some of these are pre-1981, but they are often heard on radio, in movies or TV commercials. Maybe this will help some people enjoy the novel better.
“I Can’t Explain” The Scorpions (The Who)
“I Do” J. Geiles Band (The Marvelows)
“Flowers On The Wall” Eric Heatherly (The Statler Brothers)
“Five O’Clock World” Hal Ketchum (The Vogues)
“Black Betty” Ram Jam (“Looky Yonder/Ballad of Black Betty” Odetta)
“Shady Grove” Ricky Skaggs
“Tainted Love/Where Did You Love Go” Soft Cell (Gloria Jones/The Supremes)
“Sounds of Silence” Disturbed (Simon & Garfunkel)
“Husbands & Wives” Brooks & Dunn (Roger Miller)
“Funnel of Love” Southern Culture On the Skids (J-Ann-C Trio)
“Wonderful World” Paul Simon, James Taylor etc. (Herman’s Hermits)
“Let’s Hang On” Barry Manilow (Four Seasons)
“I Fought The Law” The Clash (Bobby Fuller 4)
“Tracks of My Tears” Go West (The Miracles)
“More Than I Can Say” Leo Sayer (Bobby Vee)
“Time Won’t Let Me” The Smithereens (The Outsiders)
“Working My Way Back To You” The Spinners (Four Seasons)
“Shape of Things” Rush (The Yardbirds)
“The Last Time” The Tractors (Rolling Stones)
“King of The Road” Randy Travis (Roger Miller)
“Boy From New York City” Manhattan Transfer (The Ad-Libs)
“Rosalyn” David Bowie (The Pretty Things)
“You Really Got Me” Van Halen (The Kinks)
“I’ll Feel a Whole Lot Better” Tom Petty (The Byrds)
“One More Heartache” Detective (Marvin Gaye)
“Any Way You Want It” Kiss (Dave Clark 5)
“Babe I’m Going To Leave You” Led Zeppelin (The Association)
“Elvira” The Oak Ridge Boys (Dallas Frazier)
“California Girls” David Lee Roth (Beach Boys)
“Ain’t Gonna Eat My Heart Anymore” The Divinyls (The Rascals)
“I Want Candy” Bow Wow Wow (The Strangeloves)
“You Can’t Hurry Love” Phil Collins (The Supremes
“Eve of Destruction” Red Rockers (Barry McGuire)
“Fever” Madonna (The McCoys)
“Heart Full Of Soul” Box of Frogs (The Yardbirds)
“How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You)” James Taylor (Marvin Gaye)
“Gone Gone Gone” Alison Krauss & Robert Plant (The Every Brothers)
“Psychotic Reaction” The Cramps (Count 5)
“Just Like Me” Pat Benatar (Paul Revere & The Raiders)
“Hurt So Bad” Linda Ronstadt (Little Anthony & the Imperials)
“I Do Love You” GQ (Billy Stewart)
“Oh How Happy” Carlene Carter & Paul Carrick (The Shades of Blue)
“Groovy Kind of Love” Phil Collins (The Mindbenders)
“When a Man Loves a Woman” Michael Bolton (Percy Sledge)
“Our Day Will Come” Jamie Cullum (Ruby & the Romantics)
“Mountain of Love” Charlie Pride (Johnny Rivers)
“You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away” Pearl Jam (The Beatles)
“Get Ready” Rare Earth (The Temptations)
“The Monkey Time” The Tubes (Major Lance)
“Ooo Baby Baby” Linda Ronstadt (The Miracles)
“Remember Walking in The Sand” Aerosmith (The Shangra- Las)
The cafeteria in the Student Union was an adequate place to escape the snow and cold on that Thursday. Winter had struck the Ozarks with a hateful vengeance, as it had done in the rest of the United States. Everyone seemed to be in the mood for hot coffee and soup for their lunch. They were listening to Mykel tell about his first day at the radio station.
“The old lady, from the John Birch Society, hands Lovable Lance this petition, from people, who want the radio station to stop playing rock and roll music, and Lovable Lance held it up in front of her face and ripped it right down the middle! It was so cool!” Mykel told the group, from Bonner Hall, sitting at the table.
“They showed that on the TV news last night,” Dennis said. “We were in Keith Smith’s room and he had his TV on the news. I told Tommy I thought I saw you standing behind some of those people.”
“I might have been in camera range,” Mykel said. “I think both TV stations were there and the newspaper.”
“I bet that woman got those names on the petition out of the phone book or got them off of tombstones,” Slick said. “White people are shifty like that, when they are trying to get their way.”
“Some guy gave us coupons for that fried chicken they sell at the lunch counter at the drug store,” Clint told the others. “It comes in a little box with mashed potatoes, a roll and slaw. So we drove over there and got some Tuesday night.”
Owen slipped into the cafeteria like he was being followed by Mafia hit men. He kept glancing from side to side and behind him. He was selected his food with hands trembling. He sat down the table from the others, looking uncomfortable. His art class portfolio, seemed to be in disarray, like the contents had been stuffed into it in a hurried manner, as if he was fleeing for his life from a threat.
“Owen, move down here and sit with us,” Mykel commanded the nerdy fellow.
“Well, I don’t know…if I can…something happened in class and I should be alone,” Owen stuttered and stammered. He was white as a sheet, like he was haunted by the vindictive ghost. “And the girls are here…”
“Owen, we don’t bite! You’ve sat with us before at lunch,” Sherry tried to coax Owen into joining them.
“Don’t sit down there alone, Owen honey,” Silvy pleaded. “If you are having a bad day, we can give you some comfort. We all have bad days.”
“If you are having problems with your class, maybe we can think of something that will help you make a better grade in that class,” Kathy reassured him.
Owen tucked his head down and averted his eyes away, “That’s the problem! I saw something in class, that I never thought I would see at school and I don’t think I can even look at a girl right now.” Everyone at the table was now confused, but also incredibly intrigued by Owen’s situation.
“Owen, move down here and tell us what the problem is,” Clint ordered. “We won’t be judgmental.”
Owen, somewhat reluctantly, got up from where he was sitting at the end of the cafeteria table, picked up his tray and portfolio and moved over to a seat by Mykel. He turned so he was looking at Mykel, Clint, Slick and Dennis, trying not to make eye contact with Sherry, Kathy or Silvy.
“I went into Drawing 2, which I always go to at 11 o’clock on Thursday. We have been drawing figures. First with wood dolls, then manikins, then live people who would pose for us.”
“Did they make you draw a corpse?” Silvy asked in horror.
“No, but it was just as bad,” Owen answered her, trying not to look her in the face. This was irritating the girls that he was trying not to look at them. “There was a girl, on the platform, where the people who pose usually are, sitting with a big sheet over her. All I could see was her head sticking out from under this sheet. When we all seated and had out our drawing supplies, the instructor pulled the sheet back and this girl was naked!”
Everyone reacted with surprise. The girls began laughing with the realization that this was why Owen was avoiding eye contact with them. The boys of course reacted with excitement and hooting.
“Okay, Owen, tell us where this class is and can we come to class with you?” Slick asked jokingly.
“I’m going to sign up for that class next semester,” Dennis laughed.
“Owen, have you not seen a naked girl before?” Clint asked with more seriousness than the other boys.
“Not even seen a picture of a naked woman in Caviler or Playboy?” Mykel asked.
“No, my parents would get mad at me if they caught me with those kind of magazines,” Owen answered. “My mother does even want me to see her without her clothes.”
“I thought you boys said you wasn’t going to judge Owen!” Kathy scolded the guys. “Owen, don’t pay any attention to them. It’s perfectly fine to be unnerved by seeing a girl naked for the first time.”
“And don’t worry, we all pretty much look the same naked,” Sherry tried to reassure him. Unfortunately, Owen began to turn a mix of nausea green and embarrassed pink.
“But that isn’t the worst part,” Owen explained. “I was so nervous that I was trying to get out of there as soon as I could, when class was over. I knocked my pencil box off of my desk. I was trying to pick everything up as fast as I could and that girl got down off of the platform to help me pick up my pencils and erasers. She was STILL NAKED! I mean, she was real nice trying to help me pick my stuff up, but I wish she had put her clothes on first.” Then, a look of terror crossed Owen’s face. “Oh no! There she is! She is getting something to eat!”
Slick looked around to the buffet area, “Is she still naked?”
Clint laughed, “As cold as it is toady, she isn’t going to walk from the art department to the Student Union in the nude.”
“Which girl at the buffet is she, Owen?” Mykel asked. The boys were now staring at the three girls going through the line. One was a chubby girl with curly, red hair and freckles, another was a girl with thick glasses and her blonde hair in a ponytail, and the third girl was an attractive, exotic girl with a tan complexion and jet black hair, in a beehive.
“The girl with the black hair,” Owen identified the young lady, who was the first naked lady he had ever seen. “She’s not from here. She has a foreign accent.” The young lady got a cup of coffee from the machine and began to look for a seat.
“Owen, if that is who you saw naked, you should consider yourself a very lucky fellow,” Slick chuckled and the other guys agreed.
She spotted Owen and waved at him, then began walking over to the table. “She’s coming over here!” Owen screamed, as the attractive young lady made her way toward the group. He began to tremble.
“Hello! I’m glad I found you,” the attractive girl, with a pronounced accent, greeted Owen, who was getting nervous, seeing her again, even though she was now dressed. She reached in her coat pocket and pulled out a wooden protractor. “I found your protractor, after you left the class room.”
Owen sat with his mouth ajar and mesmerized look in his eyes. “Uh…uh, thank you! I…appreciate it,” Owen stammered to the young lady. The expression on his face, coupled with his awkward response, could be read like a book. It plainly said “I’ve seen you naked.”
Kathy, always the facilitator of hospitality for the circle of friends, spoke up, “You can join us for lunch, if you like.”
“Thank you!” She, slipped off her coat, which caused Owen to cringe a little, maybe expecting her to still not have clothes on underneath. She then sat down with next to Owen and across the table from the girls. Owen looked as if a grizzly bear was sitting next to him. The guys were watching this with amusement. Mykel noticed they had the same look on their faces, they had, at Kathy’s little mixer in the dorm suite, when Sherry put her leg across his lap. “I see you in Art Building often. Are you an art major too?”
“Yes, m-m-my name is Owen Stickley.”
“My name is Farrah Darabi, I am a sophomore art major, specializing in sculpture and my minor is in art history.”
Owen seemed to gain a little more composure, but was still not exactly a ladies man. “You’re not from Missouri, are you?”
Farrah just smile and politely replied, “No, I am from Tehran, the capitol city of the country of Iran. My father works for the government and I am part of a cultural education program where they send students to Western colleges to study.”
“So, you are along way from home?” Owen stated the obvious, but Farrah nodded her head and agreed. “I’m from here in town. My parent’s house is about two miles from the college.”
“Do you like Missouri?” Kathy asked before taking a drink of coffee.
“Yes I do. I like how pretty the terrain is in the spring, summer and fall,” Farah gushed, then added, “But I’m not enjoying this cold and snow.”
“None of us are,” Mykel groused. “I’m originally from Vermont and the one thing I hated there was the stupid snow. At least in Missouri, it is only around for about two months. In Vermont, it snows in November and hangs around until April.”
“We probably should introduce ourselves,” Kathy apologized to Farrah. “My name is Kathy and this is Sherry and Silvy. Next to Silvy is Slick and beside Slick is Dennis. Across from them is Clint and Mykel. We all live in the same dorm as Owen. Sherry and I were originally in Shelby House and Silvy and Slick were in Carver House. We all had to relocate to Bonner Hall for this semester.”
“That dress you are wearing is really pretty,” Silvy admired Farrah’s outfit, which was a dark blue dress with large white buttons down the front.”
“Thank you! My father went on a business trip to Dallas, Texas and he took my mother and I with him. He and Mother bought it a big store, I think it is called Newman – Marcus. I really think he paid too much for it. Are all clothes in the United States expensive?”
“No no, we can show you places to get clothes and save money too,” Kathy said. “We know where to find the bargains.”
“Robert Hall, Mode-O-Day and Newburys,” Sherry added. “You can get good stuff cheep at those stores.”
“And if you need underwear, Katz, Kressgee and Woolworths usually have a sale on panties,” Silvy explained. “Three for a dollar.”
Mykel whispered to Owen, “You should give your new friend a compliment. Chicks like when boys compliment their clothes or perfume.”
“That dress is really nice and I like that perfume your are wearing,” Owen complimented Farrah as Mykel suggested he should do.
“It is patchouli,” Farrah explained. “It is quite popular in my country.”
“I like it, it smells like Top Job” Owen said with a smile, not realizing that he had just given Farrah the most awkward compliment in the history of romance.
The three girls covered their mouths because they were giggling. Dennis nearly fell in the floor laughing. Slick slapped his forehead with the palm of his hand and then slid it down his face, mumbling, “Oh Lord, he is no Romeo.”
“So what kind of art is your passion?” Farrah asked Owen.
“I like to draw,” Owen responded. “I would like to be a comic book illustrator like Jack Kirby or Steve Ditko.”
“Who illustrates the comic strip about the pilot, named Steve, in the newspaper?” Farrah asked. “The artwork in that comic strip is so wonderful.”
“I think you are talking about Steve Canyon,” Owen answered, like he had suddenly become an expert on the subject cartoonist. “That drawn by Milton Caniff. He is a legend in the business.”
“Which would you rather do, after college, draw comics for a newspaper or for a comic book?” Farah interrogated her new friend, like he was applying for a job. Surprisingly, Owen must have recovered from the shock of seeing Farrah naked and felt comfortable enough to tell her the friction his plans for the future were causing with his parents.
“Either one would be nice, although I would rather work in comic books, because the story lines are less serious. I would prefer stories about superheroes or monsters to stories about doctors, lawyers and detectives. My parents want me to become an architect. They want me to transfer to the Rolla School of Mines and studying engineering. They say I would make more money and it would be a more respected profession.”
The girls got up to go to their classes, “It was nice meeting you, Farah. I hope we can see you around campus,” Kathy said.
“It was nice meeting you as well.”
The guys got up to leave for their classes, “Wait! You guys aren’t leaving me here!”
“Owen, we have classes to attend,” Clint said.
“You and your friend are hitting it off nicely,” Mykel reassured him. “You can talk about art classes and tell her about Spring Valley.”
The guys and girls left the two new acquaintances, alone in the cafeteria, to talk to each other. When they left the cafeteria and got out into the hall, Slick and Dennis began laughing about Owen’s earnest but clumsy compliment to Farrah.
“You smell like Top Job! That’s what a woman longs to hear a man say to her,” Slick laughed.
“He looked at her the same way a possum, on the highway, looks at your car is heading towards it,” Clint chuckled.
“From what I have heard, girls from other countries are kind of hairy,” Dennis laughed. “Maybe that is why he was scared of her.”
The girls were not finding any of this joking about Owen and Farrah amusing. “Will you boys cut it out! I think it was very sweet that she was so concerned and showed interest in Owen. Most girls would have laughed at Owen for dropping his stuff, but she had helped him pick his stuff up,” Kathy scolded the boys. “Probably this is the first time a girl even attempted to talk to Owen.”
“She seemed like a very sweet young lady,” Silvy added. “Imagine being so far away from home.”
“And would you guys be able to talk to me if I was naked,” Sherry asked, as she reached over and rubbed Mykel’s hair, with a giggle. “Would you, Mr. Daring?”
Mykel didn’t know what to say to that. Would Sherry really take off her clothes in front of him?
In the novel, there are things in the background that drive the characters. Mykel wishes to be able to prove himself and rub his success in the face of his former classmates from Lemming Pond. With Clint, the dark specter of being drafted and going to Vietnam hangs over his head.
The dark specter that Sherry Ridenhour would like to rid herself of is Donald “Chip” Hallwell. She dumped him over Christmas time and would like to move on. Unfortunately, her frenemy, Alice Schnatzky, seems to wants to remind her that she broke up with a boy that everyone in their hometown of Knob Knoster, Missouri, would have given everything to date. Chip Hallwell’s family “put the knob in Knob Noster.” As the novel goes along, we find out that most people don’t blame Sherry for dumping Chip & they think Mykel is a better suitor. The only person who thinks she made a mistake is Alice.
I have a clear cut idea of what Chip is like: stiff, devoid of a humor or pleasure, but Aryan – mannequin looks. A blonde, preppy, jock boy with a crew cut. Like the guy in the photo above.
The name comes from a business man, who tried to get one of my co-workers fired over something he (inadvertently) said on-air about the businesses this guy owns. Fact is, it was true & other people on social media are talking about how bad this business is a shadow of its former self.
The other part of his name is a variation of the name of a prominent Missourian, who my former boss claimed worked for him & he was supposedly a better employee than me. I’ve read biographies on this person & it never mentions him working in radio.
I should say, I almost changed Chip’s last name. I saw a name on a mail box here in Springfield recently & I remembered there were quite a few people, when I attended Southwest Missouri State University (now Missouri State University) had this same name. I felt bad for those people, especially girls with this name, because I’m sure people teased them in school, because it was the name of a brand of feminine hygiene product. You see, I have considered changing Chip’s last name from Hallwell to Massengill, as in douche. After all, Chip is a douche. I’m still considering that change, but for right now, Sherry Ridenhour’s ex-boyfriend is named Chip Hallwell. You know his family put the knob in Knob Noster.
Most of the characters that inhabit Mykel’s life in the radio business were either modeled after someone I worked with or are a composite of people I have worked with in the radio industry. The two exceptions would be Saul Ketner, Mykel’s boss, who had been an actor during the Golden Age of Radio. He is sort of the “ideal” radio boss mixed with a prominent Lebanon, Missouri business man, who my father worked for, they he admired greatly. Then, there in Mathew Gilstrap a.k.a Matt Moonlight.
Matt Moonlight is a mixture of three nationally know DJs of the past. First is Frankie Crocker, a New York DJ. He is credited with coming up with the phrase “Urban Contemporary.” People of my generation will recognize him as the host of NBC’s Friday Night Videos. He is also rumored to be the inspiration for Venus Flytrap on the sitcom WKRP in Cincinnati. Frankie Crocker passed away in 2000. You can hear Frankie Crocker on WMCA in New York here.
Another famous DJ that inspired Matt Moonlight’s on-air delivery and the promotion of him as a “mystery man” was Alan Almond. Like Matt Moonlight, Alan Almond only issued a blank silhouette for publicity (seen above). It is said that he had a succession of bad publicity photos, so he told the radio stations to only use a silhouette to represent him in station publicity. Alan Almond worked in Detroit doing a nighttime show called Pillow Talk, playing love songs with a smooth, low voice, romantic patter that included segments called “Make a Wish on a Star” & his “Hello to the New Babies.” For a while, his show was syndicated to compete with Love Songs with Delilah. The radio station I worked for had been a Delilah affiliate, but lost it when Clear Channel (which owned her show) bought one of our rivals in town. We tried to replace Delilah with Alan Almond’s Pillow Talk. I liked Alan Almond’s show, because he played better music & he had a hip, sexy patter. He also had this closing routine that he did, where proclaimed it to be ‘the Witching Hour,” then he rattled off “I Love You” in several different languages, while “Summer Madness” by Kool & the Gang played in the background. I always found Delilah annoying & preachy. Of course, Ozarkers like preachy people & hate hip people. Listeners complained that Almond sounded like “an obscene phone caller” & they were “creeped out” not knowing what he looked like. Radio listeners in Springfield & the Ozarks are whiners. So, our radio station quit running Pillow Talk. Alan Almond passed away in 2015 (one website used a photo of British radio personality Alan Partridge with his obit). You can hear Alan Almond on WNIC in Detroit.
Last but not least, part of Matt Moonlight’s mystery man persona was modeled after the one & only Wolfman Jack. In the early days, Wolfman Jack played up a persona of a mystery man. It wasn’t until the 1970’s, when he hosted NBC’s Midnight Special & appeared in George Lucas’ American Graffiti, that people really knew what he looked like. A rumor went around that he was an African-American. There are many stories about people who were contacted by a clean cut, well dressed, radio salesman, from radio station XERB, named Robert W. Smith, who introduced himself as “the Wolfman’s representative.” The salesman, with a nasal & squeaky voice, would sell them time on the Wolfman’s show, always saying that the Wolfman was “too busy to meet them in person.” Smith would then promise to get the copy to the Wolfman & get the ads on his show. He would shake hands with the client. When the client, turn to walk away, they would hear a familiar voice say, “Oh by the way, THE WOLFMAN LOVES, BABY! Ah-WWWOOOOOOO!” The client would turn around. Neither Wolfman Jack nor Robert W. Smith (which, was Wolfman Jack’s real name) was no where to be seen. George Lucas had a variation of these stories in American Graffiti, where Richard Dryfuss meets a popsicle eating fellow at the radio station, who turns out to be the Wolfman. Wolfman Jack passed away in 1995. The scene from American Graffiti can be found here.
NEW NOTE: I’m happy to report that this sneak peak chapter has received several hits, according to the stats provided by WordPress and Jetpack. I noticed that in my haste to post this in time for Valentine’s Day three years ago, I had some typos, as well as I have since changed the name of the college and the town the novel is set. I have changed those and even some of the music titles mentioned. ENJOY!
NOTE: This is a sneak peak at an upcoming chapter. I thought I would post it today since it involves Valentine’s Day. Enjoy!
Mykel managed to stay awake during American Lit with Dr. Gladys Wisencoff, as the class discussed Winesburg, Ohio, and how close it was to Edgar Lee Master’s Spoon River Anthology. As far as answering questions about any character other than young, idealistic newspaper reporter George Willard, Mykel wasn’t real interested. Dr. Wisencoff asked Mykel if he thought the character of Wing Biddlebaum was a pedophile.
“I don’t know,” Mykel answered with a cocky smirk on his face. “It never noticed it saying that he was a bicycle collector.” Dr. Wisencoff tried to hold in a laugh, given a half smile at Mykel before moving on to one of the more serious students. Kathy and Grace snickered and giggled at his answer. Finally class ended, mercifully, and everyone made their way out of the classroom.
Kathy instructed Mykel, “You and Clint try to be dressed in something nice about 7 p.m., for the Alpha Sigma Alpha Valentine Date Dash Dance.”
Mykel then confided in Kathy and Grace, “I got a Valentine card and present for Sherry. Just a box of candy. I’ll give it too her after classes this afternoon.”
“We have an appointment to have our hair done at Campus Beauty Shop at 2 p.m., but I’m sure you can give it to her before we go to our appointment,” Kathy said.
“She might not want it and will give it to somebody else,” Mykel fretted. “I gave candy to a girl in Lemming Pond and she gave it to a bunch of guys on the football team. It was those chocolate covered cherries and they used rubber bands to shoot them at me in class.”
“Mykel, Sherry would never do something like that!” Grace said.
“No, Sherry likes you,” Kathy tried to reassure Mykel. “She also appreciates the attention you give her, because she didn’t get any attention from her former boyfriend.”
“I hope so,” Mykel said with trepidation.
“We know so,” Kathy reassured him.
Mykel went to American History and sat down. Sherry came bouncing into the room a few minutes later with a smile on her face. Her hair was pulled back in a knot.
“Good morning! Are you excited about tonight?” Sherry asked, as she took her coat off, with a crackle of static, as it came off of her ski sweater.
“What is tonight?” Mykel tried to act like he wasn’t to anxious about going to the dance with Sherry.
“The Valentine’s Day Date Dash! You’re not really supposed to know about it, but it is best if you’re dressed kind of nice, since it is Valentine’s Day,” Sherry beamed with excitement.
“Yeah, I’ll be ready” Mykel was feeling more comfortable about the dance, so he decided to ask her about this afternoon. “Can we get together for a few minutes this afternoon, when you are finished with class?”
“Well, me and Kathy are going to get our hair fixed for the dance, so we can’t get into the shenanigans that we have been after class,” Sherry giggled. “But yeah, we can get together for a few minutes and hang out.”
Mykel relaxed, slightly, but became more excited that the experience might be more positive than his horrible experiences with girls in Lemming. He got little out of Professor Plowright’s lecture why Charles Guiteau assassinated President Garfield.
Mykel rushed back to his dorm room. He needed to be ready for when Sherry got out of class. As usual, the first thing he did when he got into the room was turn on the radio.
He took the Valentine card, that he bought at Katz, out of the sack, which showed a boy and girl drinking soda with the words, “Just thought I’d POP the question – Will you be my Valentine?,” and signed his name on the inside. It was kind of corny, but Mykel still wasn’t sure how he was going to take it. He had told Bethany Duckworth that he was in love with her and she said she felt “disgusted” that he was in love with her. Mykel was trying to be cautious, but at the same time he had bought Sherry a heart-shaped box of Whitman Chocolates for four dollars. Maybe these won’t end up as projectiles aimed at him.
On the radio, T. R was telling about a private plane crash landing on the water at the Lake of the Ozarks, a soldier being stabbed at Fort Leonard Wood, and budget talks in Jefferson City. When he was finished, the Four Tops began singing “Wake Me, Shake Me.”
Mykel decided to ring the girl’s suite to see if Sherry was back from class. His finger’s trembled as he dial ‘420’ on the phone. No answer. He hung up and waited about ten seconds and dialed again. No answer. It didn’t help that the Four Tops song included the lines “She don’t love you, she don’t love you.” Mykel waited a minute this time and dialed the phone. Debbie answered and he asked if Sherry was there.
“No, she is back from class yet,” Debbie said. “I’ll have her call you when she gets here.”
“THE BIG THIRTEEN-HUNDRED – K-I-DOUBLE-L WITH THE FOUR TOPS AND WAKE ME, SHAKE ME, THROW COLD WATER ON ME! HEY HEY! I’M LOVABLE LANCE POWERS AND HERE IS A SONG THAT WE ARE HAVING A TON OF REQUEST FOR TODAY. IT’S A VERY MUSHY ROMANTIC SONG FOR VALENTINE’S DAY. IT’S STAFF SARGENT BARRY SADLER AND THE BALLAD OF THE GREEN BERET ON THE BIG THIRTEEN-HUNDRED – K-I-DOUBLE-L!”
Mykel decided to call the girl’s room again to see if Sherry was back from class. Debbie answered again. “No, Mykel, she isn’t here yet. I’ll tell her to call you, when she gets in.” Mykel sat down on the bed and watched the minute had on the clock make it’s revolution around the face of the alarm clock. So, he got up and dialed the phone. “No, Mykel!” Debbie snapped. “Sherry isn’t here yet! I will have her call you when she comes in! You will just have to wait for her to call you!” Mykel hung up. He decided that he probably should wait for Sherry to call, rather than call the room again.
Finally, the phone rang and Sherry told him to come down to 420. Mykel picked up the envelope, with the Valentine inside, and the heart-shaped box of Whitman’s Chocolates, and made his way to see Sherry, stopping off in the stairwell to buy a bottle of Pepsi for her and himself. Mykel was going all out for this girl, in hopes that she was maybe THE girl.
The door was open and she walked out the bathroom, rubbing that concoction, of Witch Hazel and peroxide, on her hands. “Hey, I understand you have been trying to call me,” she laughed.
“Is Debbie mad at me?”
“No, she just thought it was funny that you were calling that much,” Sherry said. “You must really want to see me.”
“Yeah, can we sit down?” Mykel’s voice croaked with nervousness.
“How about we sit on…” Sherry pointed to the settee and said in a pretend sexy voice, “the Love Seat.” She then burst in to laughter. Mykel sat down and Sherry sat down next to him, after she turned on the radio on the counter, playing “Hungry For Love” by the San Remo Golden Strings. “What all have you got in your hands?”
“I got us a Pepsi and this other stuff is for you,” Mykel was shaking as he handed the gifts to Sherry. “Happy Valentine’s Day!”
“Chocolates! You shouldn’t have!” Sherry took the envelope with the card and opened it. She looked at the cutesy drawing on the card and then, read the inside. Her bottom lip began to quiver and tears began running down her face. “Oh Mykel!”
“I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to upset you. I’ll leave now and…”
“No! No! Your not going to believe this, but this is the first Valentine’s card that I have received since elementary school,” Sherry sobbed. “It is so nice to have a boy treat me special on Valentine’s Day for once!”
“You mean Mr. Knob Noster didn’t give you a Valentine?” Mykel asked.
“No, and we went together two years I got nothing from him,” Sherry then threw her arms around Mykel and gave him a tight hug. “Oh Mykel, thank you!” Then, she said, “Let’s eat the chocolates!” They unwrapped the red foil on the box and each took one out and bit into it.
Sherry chewed the chocolate candy rather furiously, then asked Mykel, “What was in your? Mine was filled with maple syrup – taffy – stuff.”
“Some kind of stuff that taste like orange juice, after you brushed your teeth, with a mystery nut in it,” Mykel grumbled. Sherry giggled about Mykel deduction of what was inside the chocolate he had just ingested. “That was one of those strange ones, that I don’t like to get a hold of when eating chocolates.”
“There is a key on the inside of the box lid,” Sherry exclaimed, as she looked at the lid. She held it up and scanned it for the flavor of chocolate Mykel had eaten. “That was a peppermint and fruit cream. I don’t like the cherry cordials myself.”
“I bought a box of those cherry cordials for a girl I liked in Lemming and she gave them to some guys on the football team. They put them in rubber bands and shot them at me. They would hit me and break open, so the filling would run down the side of my face. I was all sticky by the end of the day.”
“That’s awful, Mykel! If she didn’t like the candy, she could have least shared it with you, not let a bunch of brutes pelt you with it.” The story made Sherry feel sorry for Mykel, but she decided to rectify the wrong afflicted on him in Lemming Pond. She found the cherry cordial in the box and held it up to Mykel’s face, to feed it to him. He was taking a drink of Pepsi at that moment. “Here you can eat my cherry!” Mykel nearly choked on his Pepsi and Sherry, quickly realized how awkward and inappropriate that her offer of the chocolate candy sounded, she began laughing. They were both laughing and she placed her head on his shoulder. “That didn’t sound very good, did it!” Once they stopped laughing. They looked into each others eyes and she placed the cherry chocolate candy in his mouth. Mykel bit down on the chocolate and realized that he could probably develop a taste for cherry cordials. Sherry then leaned in and gave Mykel a kiss on the lips.
“THE BIG THIRTEEN-HUNDRED – K-I-DOUBLE-L! I’M LOVABLE LANCE POWERS WITH THE SAN REMO GOLDEN STRINGS AND HUNGRY FOR LOVE! I’M CRAVING PIZZA MYSELF. IT VALENTINE’S DAY, ALSO KNOWN A SINGLE PEOPLES AWARENESS DAY.” Lovable Lance played a recorded drum rim shot. “IF YOU GIVE YOUR GIRL A DIAMOND RING TODAY, I HOPE SHE DOESN’T GIVE IT BACK. IT’S GARY LEWIS AND THE PLAYBOYS ON THE BIG THIRTEEN-HUNDRED – K-I-DOUBLE-L!” Lovable Lance introduced “This Diamond Ring” to the listeners.
Kathy walked into the dorm suite, “Well, you two are celebrating Valentine’s Day the right way.”
“Mykel got me chocolates and a Valentine card,” Sherry boasted to Kathy.
“They are talking naughty too!” Debbie yelled from the bedroom. Sherry and Mykel chuckled about the faux pas Sherry had made about the cherry cordial.
“That was nice of him! Can I have one?” Kathy reached for a piece of candy out of the red foil, heart-shaped box and Sherry, playfully, swatted her hand.
“Get you own box!” Sherry laughed, but some stray tears welled up in her eyes, as she explained, “These are the first box of chocolates I ever got from a boy and I’m not sharing.”
“Well!” Kathy said with fake indignation. “You’re sassy now that you have a nice boy that gives you attention.”
“Now Kathy, you know some people think I’m queer because I have a Beatle hair cut and make jokes. Also, my family never put the knob in Knob Noster,” Mykel making fun of Alice, which made Sherry and Kathy laugh. “By the way, will Alice grace us with her presence at the dance tonight?”
“No, she isn’t in our sorority,” Sherry answered. “Thank God!”
“That’s good! I was afraid that while we are dancing tonight, she would be following us around telling you how you need to go back to that jerk Chip,” Mykel said. “I can see her doing that and staring at me with that creepy eye of hers.” Sherry and Kathy laughed at Mykel’s comment, which he augmented with a futile attempt to imitate Alice’s exotropia strabismus by crossing his eyes.
“Not trying to rush you off, but we need to be going to our beauty appointment,” Kathy informed Mykel.
“It’s 1:45 now!” Sherry exclaimed with a slight panic. She put the candy box in the refrigerator and Mykel walked with Sherry and Kathy out to Kathy’s Packard Clipper in the parking lot.
After they came back from eating in the cafeteria, Mykel and Clint got dressed up for the Alpha Sigma Alpha Valentine’s Day Date Dash, which they were supposed to act like they didn’t know about it. Clint put on a white dress shirt and Mykel put on a sweater. They turned on Mykel’s television and watched the news until Batman came on.
“Shouldn’t we put on ties?” Clint asked Mykel, before taking a drink of Dr. Pepper.
“It would be nice, but we are supposed to act like we didn’t know the girls were coming to get us,” Mykel explained. “I think we are already over dressed as it is.”
“Did Sherry like the candy you got her?” Clint asked.
“She liked it so much she cried,” Mykel replied. “She had never been given a gift on Valentine’s Day. If I ever meet up with that Chip Hallwell, I’m going to punch his lights out for treating her like her did. I don’t care if his family did –” Mykel quickly slipped into a crude imitation of Alice’s voice. “Put the knob in Knob Noster.”
Clint chuckled at Mykel’s imitation of Alice, then said, “You know, I’d to take a dip of chew, but I don’t think I should before a date with a girl, because there might be some kissing later on and girl don’t like to kiss a guy that has been chewing tobacco.”
Someone banged on the door of the boy’s dorm room. “Are those are dates that we are not supposed to know about?” Clint laughed.
Mykel got off of the bed, walked down the corridor to the door and opened it, to find Sherry and Kathy were standing outside, dressed in their best dresses, with white gloves and their hair and makeup to perfection. Kathy’s hair was curled and Sherry had her hair bleached to an almost silvery white. “Surprise! We are here for the Alpha Sigma Alpha Valentine’s Day Date Dash!”
Mykel milked his attempt to act like he didn’t know they were coming to the point of absurdity. He turned and said, to Clint, who was walking up the corridor to the door, in a dry, slow, mock unexcited tone, “Oh my, there are two sorority girls here, wanting us to go to a dance with them. I was not expecting this tonight. Were you, Clint?”
“Nope. I forgot it was Valentine’s Day,” Clint answered. The girls laughed at the boys acting like they didn’t know about the dance, even they were ready and waiting for the girls. The boys got their coats and Mykel turned off the TV. “Why don’t we take my Mustang since it is a special occasion?” Clint suggested.
“The Alpha Sigma Alpha house is just across the street. We were just going to walk,” Kathy said. “But it will be cool to ride in a Mustang! Besides it is cold outside.”
When they arrived at the Alpha Sigma House, the boys opened the doors of the Mustang for the girls and helped them out. “We should have got the girls roses or corsages,” Clint observed.
“Remember, we weren’t supposed to know about this,” Mykel reminded him, as they walked the girls up the steps to the Alpha Sigma house, which was decorated the red, white and pink crepe paper streamers and big, scarlet hearts. There was a pretty good crowd of students, dancing in the large room, in the center of the house. In the corner, a fellow was playing records on two record players with a hi-fi speaker. At the moment they walked in, he was playing “More and More Amor” by Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass.
“Hello, girls! You look lovely!” a white haired lady, with silver framed glasses, walked over and began talking to Kathy and Sherry.
“Hello, Miss Emojean!” Kathy greeted the lady.
“Miss Emojean, I want to introduce you to my friend, Mykel Daring,” Sherry gushed. “Mykel, this is the sorority house mother, Miss Emojean.” The boys told her that it was nice to meet her.
“Sherry, this boy is a different boy than was here at the Christmas party, isn’t he?” Miss Emojean asked. “Wasn’t he a taller boy with blonde hair in a brush cut?”
“Yes, mam! But since he never liked to celebrate Valentine’s Day, he is probably spending it alone in Knob Noster tonight,” Sherry acknowledged that she was not with Chip anymore.
Miss Emojean placed her fore fingers over her lips and snickered, “Oh my! Well, Mykel, were you surprised when Sherry came to get you for the Date Dash Dance?”
“Mam, I was never more surprised in my life,” Mykel told Miss Emojean, imitating Red Skelton doing Clem Kadiddlehopper character. He then went back to his own voice and told her, “This is the first time a girl asked me to go to a dance with her. I’m pretty happy right now!”
“You certainly have more personality than her former boyfriend,” Miss Emojean complimented Mykel, then turned to Clint and Kathy. “Kathy, what is your friend’s name?”
“This is Clint Grogan. He is on the Wolves Basketball team.”
“I thought he must be a basketball player as tall as he is,” Miss Emojean observed. “Where are you from, young man?”
“Hermes, Missouri.”
“That is near the Iowa line, isn’t it?”
Clint smiled and said, “Yes, it is near Iowa, near Nebraska and near Kansas.”
“Well, it is nice to meet you boys,” Miss Emojean said. “I’ll take your coats, girls. We have punch and cookies, over at the kitchen bar. Have a good time!” The boys helped the girls removed their coats and Miss Emojean took them in another room to hang them up. Kathy was wear a knee-length, black, velvet party dress with white satin collar and cuffs and Sherry was wearing a knee-length, deep pink, chiffon, shift dress with vertical pleats all around.
“Shall we dance, ladies?” Clint asked, as they walked into the parlor of the old Victorian house, which had been converted into a makeshift ballroom for the evening. The instrumental ended and the DJ providing the music, began playing “Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me” by Mel Carter. It was then that Mykel realized that dancing with Sherry would be a tad awkward since he stood only five foot one and she was five foot five.
“I know how to fix this!” Sherry said, as she reached down and took off her shoes, to make her closer to the right height for Mykel to dance with. He still had to look up to look into Sherry’s blue eyes, but the fact that he was standing close enough to do so was an wonderful experience alone. They put their arms around each other and began slow dancing to the soulful love song. Her body felt warm pressed up against his. It was warmer than it usually was when they were heavy petting in his dorm room, but he figured it was because of Valentine’s Day excitement.
“That was nice of you to do that,” Mykel thanked Sherry. “The girls in Lemming wouldn’t dance with me, because they said my eyes and nose would be right between their boobs.”
Sherry laughed and gave Mykel a flirty wink, “What would be wrong with that?” Then, she said, “I find it ironic that none of the girls in Lemming wanted to have anything to do with a sweet, considerate and loving person like you, Mykel, and yet, in Knob Noster, I was the envy of Alice, and all the other girls, because I was going with Chip Hallwell, who was inconsiderate, uncaring and downright boring.”
“I noticed Miss Emojean wasn’t very impressed with Chip,” Mykel said with a smirk.
“Once you get away from Knob Noster,” Sherry explained. “Nobody is impressed with Chip.”
“You know what we should do tonight that would make this evening more fun?” Mykel asked with a sarcastic tone in his voice.
“What?” Sherry looked Mykel in the face with an inquisitive look.
“If we didn’t talk about Chip anymore tonight,” Mykel answered, right about the time Eddy Arnold began singing “Make The World Go Away” on the Hi-Fi speaker.
Sherry smiled, “That’s a good idea, although I was hoping you would say we should get drunk. Maybe when Miss Emojean isn’t looking, someone will spike the punch. They usually do.”
Mykel felt he really didn’t need a drink, he was inebriated just holding Sherry close to him and swaying back and forth with the music. “I like your perfume,” Mykel said to her. “What’s that called?”
“Ambush,” Sherry whispered the answer to him. “Someone didn’t like me to wear perfume, but you just told me not to bring him up.”
“Well, I like perfume on a woman, even though it sometimes triggers my asthma,” Mykel’s complimented her awkwardly.
“Thanks! I put it on my both sides of my neck, both of my wrist…” then Sherry whispered to Mykel. “I also put it on my derriere and my underwear.” She winked at Mykel and continued, “I’d lift my skirt and let you smell, but…” she began giggling to a point that she could hardly talk, “Miss Emojean would frown on me doing that.”
Mykel tried to continue dancing, although his mouth was hanging open to his belt after Sherry passed on that bit of candid, provocative information to him. She was still smiling and laughing at his reaction. She placed her hand on the back of his head and pushed it forward into her hairspray stiffened blonde hair, which kind of scratched his face, which was draped on her shoulder. The DJ switched from playing a smooth, Nashville, reconciliation ballad to the sinister, spooky, Philly soul song “Who Do You Love (I Want To Know)” by the Sapphires. “Let’s just keep dancing,” Sherry said. “We can do that sometime, when I’m in your room.”
So Mykel and Sherry continued to dance to the slow songs, holding each other close, occasionally stopping to kiss each others cheek and smile at each other. It was during the big dramatic finish of “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry” by B. J Thomas, that Sherry made an acute observation, “Mykel, have you noticed how all of the songs that are so good to slow dance to are very sad. They all seem to be about losing your love to another person or someone couple breaking up. I wonder why that is?” As Sherry commented with wisdom of a person, who knew the sadness that comes with love, the DJ began playing “What Now My Love”.
“And this song is about the most depressing song in the world,” Mykel odd continued the discussion. “Why Sonny and Cher, would want to sing this is beyond me. They’re a happy couple and will probably be like my both grandparents and celebrate their fiftieth wedding anniversary some day.” Mykel then said, “Where are Clint and Kathy?” He and Sherry looked around until they spied them at the refreshments.
“They are having cookies and punch,” Sherry noticed their location at the party. “Kathy is probably telling Clint the proper way to make sugar cookies.”
“Do you and Kathy not get along?” Mykel asked.
“Oh no! I like Kathy!” Sherry clarified what she meant. “But she always is in charge and organizing everything. She likes to tell you how to do everything. Kathy is a born leader.”
Mykel and Sherry made their way over to where the refreshments were being served through a serving window with a Formica covered bar. There was a platter of heart-shaped sugar cookies, iced in pink and red, with little sprinkles on them. The punch was being served in little plastic flutes, like for champagne.
“Taste the punch!” Kathy commanded Sherry and Mykel with a big smile.
“Did somebody…?” Sherry started to ask.
“Oh yes and it is rather strong too,” Clint added. “Pretty sure they put vodka in it.”
Mykel and Sherry both got a cup of punch from one of the senior Alpha Sigma Alpha girls, then walked back over to where Clint and Kathy were sitting. They took a drink and both made a funny face. Mykel strangled a little and coughed.
“Now that is what I call punch,” Mykel joked. The fellow playing the records followed “What Now My Love” with “I Can’t Grow Peaches On an Apple Tree” by Just Us and Mykel thought of Sherry’s rather poignant comment to him, before they paused for refreshments. He excused himself and walked over to where the DJ had his hi-fi system set up.
“Hey pal, can I have a word with you?” Mykel asked the guy.
“Yeah, sure. Do you have a special song you want to request?”
“Not one special song, per say. My date pointed out that most of the slow songs are kind of sad. Do you have any slow songs that aren’t about breaking up?” Mykel inquired. The guy pulled out a clipboard with a list of songs on them.
“Yeah, sure,” the DJ explained. “I was just playing some of these first. I have some others I can play. I got plenty of Beatles records I can play. Those are usually happy. I’m also going to play some upbeat stuff so people don’t have to slow dance all night, then the last few songs will be instrumentals.”
“By the way, how did you get started doing this?” Mykel asked.
“I used to be in radio,” the guy said.
“I’m a Broadcasting major and an intern at K-I-L-L.”
“Can I give you a word of warning? Do not work at K-M-W-H for the Meinhoffs!”
“Is that the father and son team? I have heard bad things about them.”
“They forced me to sign, what is called, a non-compete contract. Most non-competes are for a few months in the same market. The Meinhoffs non-competes are for two years for the whole state of Missouri. My wife and I are both from Springville and don’t want to move to another state. So, I started this business. I make good money at these frat and sorority parties. Tell you what, kid. I’ll try to play something happier for your girlfriend.”
Mykel thanked the guy for the advice, about avoiding the bad radio station, and walked back to where Sherry, Clint and Kathy were sitting. Mykel had barely sat down, when they DJ played “Every Little Thing She Does” by The Beatles. His little talk must have worked.
Sherry’s cheerful smile was a tad wilder this time. “I think I’m going to need another cup of this punch.”
“I do too. Want me to go get us another cup?” Mykel asked and Sherry said yes. Clint asked Kathy if she wanted another cup of punch and she said yes, so both boys walked over to the refreshments were being served to get the girl’s more punch.
“Are you having fun?” Mykel asked his roommate.
“Yeah, we danced some, but we’ve enjoyed talking more…” Clint answered. “And drinking this punch, although Kathy thinks the cookies are too dry.” Mykel smiled, because Sherry had already remarked, to him, that Kathy would say something about the cookies. “She said they need more shortening or butter in them.” Then, Clint added, “I can tell you two are having good time. I don’t think either one of you have stopped smiling since you got here.”
“We’re having a good time, but we always do when we are together,” Mykel replied with a ever growing smile. He glanced over at Sherry and gave her a little wave, she smiled and waved back at him.
Clint tapped Mykel on the wrist, as he started to pick up a plate, with some cookies for he and Sherry to enjoy together. Clint then motioned, with his head and eyes, toward the serving window, to a red headed girl with a towering beehive hairdo and violet dress, in the kitchen, pouring a some Smirnoff Vodka into a paper cup. When it was filled, she dumped it into the punch bowl, after making sure Miss Emojean wasn’t around. The girl was adding a can of Ruby Red Hawaiian Punch and a quart bottle of Bubble Up to the bowl, when she noticed that Clint and Mykel had saw her spiking the punch. She came out of the kitchen, with the punch bowl and placed it on the refreshment table, where the boys were standing and began chatting with them.
“Well Hello! I’m the Alpha Sigma president Betty Kay Kendall. You are two nice looking young men! I assume you are here with dates.”
“Yes, we are,” Clint answered, as “Everybody Loves Somebody” by Dean Martin began playing on the DJ’s hi-fi system. “I am here with Kathy Trautman and Mykel is with Sherry Ridenhour.”
The red haired girl looked at Mykel and smiled, “Sherry is kind of a big girl for a tiny, little boy like you.” She was joking, but Mykel didn’t appreciate her attempted humor.
“So, where are you tigers from?” Betty asked, as she sat a cup of her lethal punch down on the table behind her and lit a Tareyton 100.
“I’m from Lemming, but don’t hold that against me.” Betty laughed in a slightly fake manner at Mykel’s usual comment about his hometown.
“I’m from Hermes.”
“Well well, I’m from Palmyra. We are practically neighbors,” Betty gushed.
“If you call twenty miles away being neighbors,” Clint answered in an annoyed voice. Neither Clint nor Mykel was having any of Betty’s glad-handing. Luckily, Sherry and Kathy apparently saw Betty trying to flirt with their dates and rushed over to get them away from her. Clint was sort of startled by how quick they came over, to the refreshment table, from across the room, as if to save them from being hijacked by the red haired girl with the beehive hairdo.
“And here are your dates now!” Betty gushed, trying to avoid acting like she was caught. “Are you girls enjoying the dance?”
“Yes we are, Betty! We sent the boys over here for some more punch and cookies,” Kathy hinted. “We came to check on what was keeping them.”
“I was refreshing the punch bowl, so they were probably waiting on that,” Betty apologized, but never admitted that she was flirting with Clint and Mykel. She dipped all four of them a cup of the punch and served it to them. The four took a drink and were struck by how this batch of punch was stronger than the last. The amount of vodka caused a tingling numbness, accompanied by acidic singe as it went down their throats. “Do you all like what I did with the punch?”
“It’s great!” Sherry said with a burning throat. “But Miss Emojean is going to be upset, if she finds out what you put in it.”
On the dance floor, there was more movement, thanks to the DJ playing “I Getting Sentimental Over You” by the Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass. The Valentine couples were trying to dance the Watusi, Frug and Pony to the mariachi-influenced jazz-pop.
“The music seems to have gotten happier,” Sherry observed. “Maybe we should be out there dancing too.”
“That’s a great idea, but let me finish this cup of punch,” Mykel answered her. “It kind of makes me vibrate all over.”
Sherry winked at Mykel and giggled, “It does me too.”
They finished their cookies and punch and returned to the dance floor, just in time for the DJ to play “You’re The One” by The Vogues, which was faster than what they had been dancing to earlier. The up-tempo music mixed with the buzz from the spiked punch gave Mykel and Sherry a rush of enthusiastic dancing that others at the dance began watching with great enjoyment. They were running the gamut and trying to do the Watusi, Frug and Pony, all at once, and Sherry even threw in a little bit of the Swim, before Mykel put his arms around her waist and tried to spin Sherry, while she held her flailing arms out, like they were an Olympic ice skating duo, but the effects of the spiked punch caused them to blunder into two other couples. They began laughing, only slightly embarrassed, although one of the couples, they bumped into, was not amused. Mykel and Sherry both told the other boy and girl that they were sorry. The girl mumbled something to the boy about them being “freshmen.” Sherry gave Mykel a kiss and smiled with a twinkle in her blue eyes.
“I think you are a pretty good dancer!” Sherry complimented Mykel
“I think you have had too much of that punch,” Mykel replied, to which Sherry threw her head back and laughed louder than usual. Surprisingly, her hair never moved, thanks to the amount of hair care products that had been applied, while she and Kathy were at the beauty shop, but she was glistening with perspiration.
“Hey, you want to get another cup of punch?” Sherry asked while grabbing Mykel’s lapel and tugging on it, for no apparent reason. “I need a cold drink to cool me off.”
“I don’t think another cup of punch would hurt us,” Mykel agreed, so they walked over to the refreshments and grabbed another cup of the spiked punch.
The DJ began playing “Eight Days a Week,” by the Beatles, and Sherry smiled at Mykel. “I love this song!” She then tried singing along with John Lennon, “Hold me, love me, hold me, love me.”
Mykel was drinking another cup of punch, when he noticed, through the serving window, Miss Emojean in the kitchen, she dipped a cup of the punch, took a drink and made a horrified expression on her face. “This is punch is tainted. I’ll bet Betty did this!” She said, out loud, before she took the punch bowl and dumped the contents into the sink.
As soon as she finished her cup of punch, Sherry jumped up and said, “Let’s go dance some more!” She grabbed Mykel’s arm and almost dislocated his shoulder pulling him to the dance floor. After the earlier dancing mishap, the other couple tried to make sure they were not around Mykel and Sherry. The Beatles song ended, the DJ went back to slow dance music and played Tony Bennett singing “The Shadow of Your Smile.” Mykel put his arms around Sherry, giving a gentle, little squeeze.
“You know what we need to do?” Sherry jabbered loudly in Mykel’s ear, even though she probably thought she was whispering. “We need to pick us a special song to be our song. How about this one?”
“This is okay to dance to on Valentine’s Day, but too middle-aged, country club couple for us,” Mykel answered, as only a radio station employee would, when speaking of popular music.
“You’re right,” Sherry said. “This is something old country club people would like and I sure don’t want to be like them. I’ve been to some country club dances and they are really, really boring! And you also dance better than Chip did. You hold me closer. I also like your aftershave, it smells so clean.”
“It’s just Aqua Velva; nothing fancy.”
The continued to sway slowly to the songs the DJ played on his hi-fi system, as they would continue to try to pick a “special song.” They considered both “Today” by the New Christy Minstrels, “Some Enchanted Evening” by Jay and the Americans, and “All I Really Want To Do” by the Byrds. They had a bit of a disagreement about “Unchained Melody” by the Righteous Brothers. Sherry liked it, but Mykel said “People twenty-five years from now probably won’t remember that song.”
Some of the other couples were starting to leave. Clint and Kathy were sitting and talking to another couple, while about three other couples continued dancing next to Mykel and Sherry.
Mykel quietly told Sherry, “You know, I could hold you and dance with you, from now until eternity.”
Sherry, after being so happy and giddy all night long, suddenly sounded morose, “No, Mykel, I’m afraid you can’t.”
Mykel was afraid, that she would eventually turn on him or let him know that she didn’t love him. He was having such a wonderful night. He knew it was too good to be true. “Why?” he asked, as he felt like he was going to cry.
Sherry looked at him, with that mischievous look of hers, where she was trying to hold in a laugh She then confided, with a little giggle in her voice, “You can’t hold me until eternity, because I drunk all of that punch and I’M DYING TO GO TO THE LADIES ROOM!”
Mykel quickly turned loose of Sherry and gave laugh of relief. He was afraid he had done something wrong and their friendship was over. Luckily, it was only the call of nature. A total of four songs passed, while Mykel waited for Sherry to return from the bathroom. To Mykel, it seemed like four years. She came tipsy toddling back to Mykel from the bathroom, still in her stocking feet, after removing them, so she and Mykel wouldn’t be so miss matched in heights while dancing. “Red Roses For a Blue Lady” by Vic Dana began playing for the remaining couples and Sherry reached out her arms for Mykel to take her again.
“I noticed, while I was on the toilet, my shoes are missing,” Sherry informed Mykel. “I may have lost them. I really, really, really liked those shoes. They were so cute.”
The next song the DJ played was a ballad called “For You” by a soul group called the Spellbinders. Mykel held Sherry’s body tight against his body, as the lead vocalist sang, “I would cross the desert sands, on my knees and hands for you, girl. For you hooo-hooo-hooo-hooo you girl.”
“Do you like this one, Sherry?”
“Yes, this is a sweet song.”
“Then this is will be our song,” Mykel told her and gave her a kiss on the cheek. “I love you, Sherry Ridenhour!”
Sherry teared up and began to weep with happiness, “Oh Mykel, this has been the best Valentine’s Day I’ve ever had! I love you too.”
“What a coincidence, this has been the best Valentine’s Day, I’ve ever had!” Mykel gently wiped her tears with the side of his hand.
The DJ announced that the next two songs would be last dances of the evening. Clint and Kathy and the couple they were chatting with, got up and danced as well to “Our Winter Love” and “Stranger On the Shore.” Miss Emojean turned the lights up and began trying to find what coats, in the den, belonged to which guest. She had actually kept track pretty well. When she brought out Sherry and Kathy’s coats, she also brought the pair of high heeled pumps, that Sherry had shed, before she began dancing with Mykel. “You will need these, Honey,” Miss Emojean smiled. “I think your new boyfriend is a keeper too.”
“He told me he loves me,” Sherry bragged with a smile. “My other boyfriend never said that to me.”
“He didn’t act like he would have the gumption to love anybody,” Miss Emojean gave her final judgment on Chip for that evening.
They walked out into the twenty degree night to Clint’s Mustang. He opened the door and again pulled the seat forward, so Mykel and Sherry could ride in the back seat, and drove back to the dorm parking lot. On the radio, Bob Dylan was finishing up singing “Love Minus Zero.” After comparing his girlfriend to a raven with a broken wing, the PAMS jingle singers came on and cooed, “HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY FROM YOUR SWEETHEARTS AT K-I-DOUBLE-L!” As if Cupid had intervened in the programming at the radio station, the next song was The Spellbinders singing “For You.”
“OH MYKEL! They are playing our song on the radio!” Sherry squealed with joy. “Me and Mykel picked this to be our song tonight.” She moved closer to Mykel, put her arm around him, laid her head on his shoulder, and gave him a kiss on the lips.
“This is a good song to have as your song,” Kathy commented.
Clint parked the Mustang and Kathy made a request. “Since it is so cold outside, let’s just sit here awhile. That heater feels so good. I’ve been cold all night.”
“Fine with me,” Clint agreed, then added. “I’m glad you talked me into going to this party. I had fun. The best part of the night was when you two ladies rushed over to rescue me and Mykel from that red headed gal.” He began laughing, “She was trying to get her hooks into me and I didn’t want to tell her that I don’t find red heads attractive.”
“I like how you two girls just appeared out of thin air, when you saw her talking to us,” Mykel laughed. “You two were like Elizabeth Montgomery and Barbara Eden. I turned around and there you were. Although she was more interested in Clint than me.”
“We caught her spiking the punch,” Clint told the girls. “She was putting whole cups of vodka in the bowl.”
“I drank several cups, because I have been hot all night,” Sherry said, moving in closer to Mykel to a point that she was almost in his lap, which was beginning to make Mykel nervous. She eased up her skirt tail above her knee and then moved his hand over to her nylon covered leg. She smiled and winked.
“Betty is notorious for two things: spiking punch at our parties and trying to steal your date,” Kathy explained. “She thinks because she is the Alpha Sigma president, she can get away with taking your boyfriend away from you.”
“She never tried to steal Chip, unfortunately,” Sherry remarked.
“THIS IS MATT MOONLIGHT ON THE BIG THIRTEEN-HUNDRED – K-I-DOUBLE-L AND THE PERFECT REQUEST FOR VALENTINE’S DAY – THE SPELLBINDERS AND “FOR YOU.” ANOTHER NICE VALENTINE’S DAY DEDICATION, FROM BOBBY TO SALLY, WHO ARE IN THE SIXTH GRADE AT JARRETT MIDDLE SCHOOL HERE IN SPRINGVILLE. FROM HIS TRIBUTE TO NAT KING COLE LP, THIS IS MARVIN GAYE AND “TOO YOUNG.” I’M MATT MOONLIGHT AND I LOVE ALL OF YOU LISTENING TO K-I-DOUBLE-L!”
Mykel was listening to Matt’s on-air voice, that evoked an image of a handsome, white playboy with wavy hair, which was different than who he really was; a hard working, stout, Black man with a wife and two kids. He knew how to perform, as Mr. Ketner and Lovable Lance like to say, radio magic.
Sherry turned around in the back seat and laid her head in Mykel’s lap, looking up at him with a sweet, childlike expression, she raised her arm and began to tickle him under his chin. Without warning, her expression changed to one of terror and she bit her lip. “Quick! Let me out of the car!” she screamed.
“Why? What’s wrong?” Mykel asked. Before she could answer with words, she answered instead with a rumbling, rolling, demonic belch, accompanied by a scarlet deluge of regurgitated Hawaiian Punch, Bubble Up, and Smirnoff Vodka, that flowed, from her once kissable lips, to cover Mykel’s bright yellow sweater and the white, leather backseat of Clint’s Mustang.
Kathy looked around and announced to Clint, “Oh my gosh! Sherry just puked on Mykel!”
Sherry looked rather embarrassed, but before she could apologize, she vomited on Mykel again with even more force than the first volley. Sherry began to cry, not with happiness, as she had when Mykel gave her the Valentine card and candy or when he was telling her he loved her, but this was shame mixed with discomfort.
“Are you going to be okay?” Mykel asked with a worry.
“No.” Sherry whimpered and sobbed. “I threw up so hard, that I pooped a little.”
“We better take her inside! I’ll bet it is alcohol poisoning!” Kathy said.
They helped Sherry inside and into the elevator. “I just thought of something. This dress is dry clean only,” Sherry lamented. The girls got off the elevator on their floor. Mykel decided to help her walk down to Room 420.
“Mykel, you could get in trouble!” Kathy reprimanded him. “It’s after curfew and boys aren’t supposed to be on the girl’s floor or in their room.”
“I don’t care! She needs my help!” Mykel and Kathy got Sherry into the room. Her knees buckled a few times and she was as limp as a rag doll. Grace and Debbie were still awake, studying with the radio on.
“Oh my gosh! Were you guys in a car wreck?” Debbie asked at the sight of red bodily fluid on Mykel and Sherry’s clothing.
“No, Sherry got sick on Mykel,” Kathy explained. “It may be alcohol poisoning. We will need to keep her up for awhile. First, we should give her a shower. That will help and clean her up too.”
Kathy and Mykel sat Sherry down, in one of the kitchen chairs, and helped her off with her coat. Grace and Debbie watched with both worry, as Sherry was sweating buckets and seemed to be on the verge of passing out, and revulsion at the soiled front of her dress and Mykel’s soiled sweater. In the background, the science fiction, gospel choir and jazz trumpet sound of Donald Byrd’s “Christo Redentor” played behind Matt Moonlight, while he gave his famous sign off spiel over the K-I-L-L.
“OH MY LITTLE CHILDREN OF THE OZARKS, IT IS BEDTIME, SO SAY YOUR PRAYERS AND KISS YOUR TEDDY BEAR GOODNIGHT. THIS IS MATT MOONLIGHT, YOUR FRIENDLY VOICE AND GALLANT CHAMPION IN THIS SOMETIMES HARSH AND CRUEL WORLD. I WANT TO THANK YOU FOR LISTENING, THANK YOU BEING A FRIEND AND, MOST OF ALL, THANK YOU FOR ALWAYS BEING YOU. IF YOU FEEL SAD OR ANGRY TOMORROW, I HOPE YOU WILL THINK ABOUT SOMETHING I SAID TONIGHT AND IT WILL MAKE YOU SMILE. SO I SAY TE QUIERO, TE AMO, WO AN NE, JE T’AIME, ICH LIEBE DICH AND, OF COURSE, I LOVE YOU, NO MATTER WHO YOU ARE, BECAUSE WE ARE ALL HUMAN BEINGS ON PLANET EARTH. FOR THOSE OF YOU IN THE LOUNGE, SAVE A DRINK FOR YOURS TRUELY. GOODNIGHT MY SWEET ANGELS! THIS HAS BEEN NIGHTCAP WITH MATT MOONLIGHT, SIGNING OFF UNTIL WE MEET AGAIN.”
When the unusual jazz piece faded out, Matt did his patriotic duty for the FCC and played the cart with Mr. Ketner signing off, with information about K-I-L-L, being 1300 kilohertz, and owned by the Mary Sue Broadcasting Company of Ardmore, Oklahoma, and then the ‘Star Spangle Banner” played, before the signal went dead and white noise prevailed. Grace reached over and turned the radio off.
“Mykel, we need to get Sherry undressed and into the shower,” Kathy informed him.
Mykel understood, but before he left, he squeezed Sherry’s hand. “Sherry, I wanted to give you a goodnight kiss, but…I don’t know…you know…and hugging would be kind of…uh…”
Sherry in a groggy voice mumbled, “I had a wonderful time and I love you, Mykel!”
“Oh wow! She told me she loved me…again!” Mykel gloated as the girls smiled at the sweetness of the scene, even though both parties involved were covered in vomit.
Mykel went to his room, took off his clothes and took a shower.
“Do you think you can get that sweater clean?” Clint asked.
“I really don’t like that sweater, so I’m not too worried about it. I’m more worried about Sherry. You know there are people, who go to sleep with alcohol poisoning and don’t wake up.”
“I don’t think she really drank enough to kill her. We will have to try and clean the backseat of my car tomorrow,” Clint said, then he chuckled. “I got to say, me and Kathy bought busted a gut laughing when you spun Sherry around and you, kind of, whacked that other couple upside the head with Sherry.”
“They didn’t think it was very funny,” Mykel fretted. “I’m kind of worried about her. People die from alcohol poisoning.”
“Surely Sherry didn’t have enough to kill her,” Clint surmised. “And she already threw up. Usually people die when they vomit in their sleep. Besides, Kathy knows everything, she probably knows what to do.”
“I hope so,” Mykel murmured.
As soon as they got out of class, Mykel and Clint took some paper towels and a bottle of 409, they got from the grocery store, across from campus, and went to work, in the chilly February weather, cleaning the back seat of Clint’s Mustang, where Sherry had vomited. When they got back inside, Clint made them each a cup of instant coffee on his hotplate. They were drinking their coffee and watching an Our Gang short, where Spanky feed the Wild Man from Borneo everything in the kitchen pantry, when there was a single “ding” from the phone.
“Grogan’s mule barn, which ass do you want to talk to?” Clint answered. “Howdy! We just cleaned up the little present you left in my car last night. You want to talk to Mykel?” He handed the phone to Mykel. “It’s Sherry.” Mykel smiled when Clint told him it was her. They talked a few moments, then Mykel got an uneasy look on his face, then he told her goodbye.
“What did she say?”
“Well, the good news is she didn’t have alcohol poisoning,” Mykel said. “The bad news is she has stomach flu and so does Kathy, Debbie and Grace. She said to tell you we would probably have it next.”
WIP: DYNAMIC DUO OF THE OZARKS 