DOREEN
Next is my older sister, Doreen. She is two years older than I, and she did not really play too
much with younger sister Nancy and me. She had her own set of friends and her
own room. She and her friends would go skating at Jewel’s Pond in the winter
and go to the canteen every Wednesday night at the Y.M.C.A., carrying a box of
45-rpm records with her.
Doreen and I were on the C.Y.O.
(Catholic Youth Organization) cheerleading squad together.
I remember that in October 1962,
during the Cuban missile crisis, Doreen didn't leave her room for days. She was
scared to death. The stand-off between the U.S. and
Russia had time ticking away at the threat of a war. Everyone held his breath
waiting for Russia to back down, and thank heaven they did. It was the closest,
since World War II and the Korean War, that we had come to going to war. I
was 14, and I remember how frightening it was. We even had bomb drills in
school. We would have to put our hands on our heads and get under the desks.
There was even a family across the
street from us (the Stores) whose father had them convinced that the end of the
world was coming. One evening they were by the
highway waiting for a bus that was coming to take them God-knows-where. We
never found out, and soon they were gone.
I remember Doreen sitting in the chair
in the living room with a coffee cup, cigarette, and hairspray, getting ready
for school. Going uptown to the custard stand with her friends was something
else she did often. Every day after school we watched American Bandstand
at 4 p.m. I was Doreen's dance partner.
When I was in third grade, we went
on a class trip to Monroe Museum Village. I got three dollars for whatever
I wanted, so I looked for something for Doreen, Nancy, Grandma, Mom and Dad.
I was so excited to give something to everyone. Doreen was up in her room,
and I brought my gift to her. When I got back downstairs and outside, the
window opened, and she threw the hatchet out, yelling, "Just what I always
wanted." I was brokenhearted.
Doreen married a few
years after I did, to her childhood sweetheart, Bucky, and they have two
children and three grandchildren. Bucky and Doreen
have been married for 48 year
DOREEN AND I
DOREEN AND I
One day Doreen and I made mud pies. We got pieces of
boards and made mud cakes. This is the only memory I have of playing with
Doreen as a child. She also had a pet squirrel that would hang around us, for
the peanuts we had.
The phone was in our
parents’ room, with a short cord. This made talking to your boyfriend, or to
your friend about your boyfriend, kind of tricky. Oh, my! As we got older,
Doreen and I would make that race to the ringing phone, often knocking into
each other. I was often the winner, because Doreen was upstairs in her room
mostly.
When one of us sisters would start
school, the older sister would watch out for her: Doreen for me and I for
Nancy.
As I grew older and
reached my teens, Doreen and I grew closer, sharing boy
stories, clothes, and secrets. The boy that lived across the street had a cousin
from Brooklyn that Doreen had a crush on, so one day, prearranged, we took the
bus to Brooklyn and rode the subway by ourselves. We had lunch and then went
off to the Brooklyn Fox theatre to see a few rock 'n roll acts, then back to
catch the bus home.
It never turned into
the romance Doreen wanted. I was 13 and Doreen 15. There
were a few crushes, hers and theirs afterwards, and then the lasting romance
she had with Bucky. It took a while to catch him, and the influence of the
interest of another suitor, before they ran away to get married. The other
party was crushed to find, when he came to get her for their date, that she had
eloped. He cried, and Mommy cried with him.
To this day Doreen and I are great
friends and secret-holders. We talk on the phone every day, like talking
about when she got her license, and we would drive to Newburgh, up and down
Broadway or shopping for those special shoes or getting our hair done at the
popular salon, Fred and George's, the place to be. We still talk about the old
days: walking to the custard stand, listening to the radio, and hanging out
with others. I was excited to be part of the in-crowd and be accepted by her
friends. Then along came Kenny, with Friday night movies at the Didsbury
Theater in Walden and parties and dances. Kenny was much taller than I. He
was 6'2" and I, only 5’2”. He was very handsome. I've seen him a few times
when I go up North.
I cannot tell any
other stories of Doreen, as she has sworn me to locked lips. We’ll take one big
story to our graves…or until I need it!
###
We are serializing here Kathleen Blake Shields's memoir, Home Is Where the Story Begins: Memoir of a Happy Childhood, published this summer by Outskirts Press and available in paperback from OP, as well as amazon.com, bn.com, and other on-line booksellers. I am proud to have served as her writing coach and editor; my site is http://writeyourbookwithme.com.
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