OH LAWD chapter 18

Golden Glove
courtesy photobucket.com

 

During the year of having Marly tag alone on my dates I began to realize that Marly was fighting her own teenage battles and knowing that made me change my attitude toward her.  

Having Linda for a friend was the best thing she could have, because Linda was a special and level headed girl and knew what Marly was struggling with.

Paddy decided to turn my interests in a different direction, and he told me I think you should enter the elimination contest for the Golden Glove boxing matches.

I wasn't up for it, but he kept after me until I agreed.  He said you have two months to get into shape.

He suggested I join the track team and run several miles a day for conditioning, and the dance club to help develop my foot work.

He said these new dances require a lot of fast foot movement, and will improve your balance.  The girls laughed at me for joining the dance club, but it wasn't long before they joined also.

 

I never told Marly and Linda the real reason why I was doing  the dance club, only that I just wanted to learn how to do the new dances.

The day came for my first fight and I didn't know if I was ready on not. My opponent looked to be in good shape which didn't make me feel any better.

Paddy said, “Try to survive the first round, and I will tell you how to beat him.”   I said, “Okay, I think I can do that.”  

 

During the next three minutes that guy beat me at his will. I could feel eyes beginning to swell, and my lips were getting puffy. Thankfully the round was over and Paddy said, “Okay you got through that round now it's your turn.”

He gave me some quick instructions on how to fight that guy part of which was stay away from him just a little, and that will take the power of his jabs. Then he said to follow each jab with a straight right. 

 

I met the guy in the middle of the ring and followed Paddy's instructions, and knocked the guy out in that round.

I was too sore from that first round to get very excited about my victory.

I made it to the regionals and met with a guy who was an excellent fighter. The best I could do was a draw, and he got the edge from the judges, and went on to win the championship at his weight class.

After I was done with boxing I was glad for the experience but had no intentions of becoming a professional boxer.  Not winning that match didn't bother me at all for I knew that I could have whipped him in an alley fight where you use fists, elbows and feet.

Paddy said he was proud of me and that I did really well against the nation's best talent. The hardest part of this was keeping Ma from finding out about it and explaining why I was beat up.

My Pa and the guys at the restaurant completely enjoyed the matches, and I gained a little more respect from the neighborhood.

Some time later just before closing time some toughs from some other town came into the restaurant and started to act unruly.

 

Pa asked them to hold it down and stop the cursing. That made them more belligerent and Pa asked them to leave. They walked out without paying, and stood outside shouting for Pa to come out.

Paddy and Abdul were first to go out then were followed by me and Pa.  The last one was Noonan who carried a sawed off shotgun behind his back. Without saying anything Paddy knocked the nearest one down and out, and then reached for another.

I hit a short guy near me, and the one who was left standing yanked out a large knife and started toward me.

 

Abdul moved in front of me and pulled out his Turkish style knife, and before the thug could move he slashed the guy with the knife twice and then asked if he wanted to get down to some real knife fighting.

The ruffian shouted, “No, get me a doctor.”  Someone had called Officer O'Malley, and he showed up and took charge.

 

After a few days he let them out of jail and took them to the city limits and warned them not to come back.   

Oh Lawd!

 

To be Continued

 

 

OH LAWD chapter 17

image courtesy photobucket.com

 

I could hardly believe that story Noonan told me about his trip down in Mexico, but I didn't question him about it.

The summer had passed and it was almost time to go back to school. I moved on up to high school while Marly had another year of Jr. High.

Things were a little different in high school there were more social events scheduled and more interaction with the opposite sex such as dances and acting in the school plays, and working together on school projects.

Sports became more intense as the competition between schools became important. I wasn't too fond of wearing the short gym pants but mandatory showering after class cleaned up some of the boys that had an aversion to bathing.

Marly decided to swear off boys for her attempts at romance left her somewhat unfulfilled. It seems that the guys she went out with, usually were too fresh, unfaithful, and want her to pay for everything.  With her meager finances she couldn't afford them.

I happened to over hear her having a frank discussion with Ma, and it made me blush.  Ma's advice was mostly about what you want to do without coercion, and who you want to be.  

 

After that talk with Ma she took a “Who needs them?” attitude toward guys.

Since I was going to a different school than Linda and Marly they became close friends and they would often talk in whispered tones where I couldn't hear them, and then giggle while looking at me.

I knew they were having fun at my expense and was having trouble figuring out how to get even with them.

Marly was self invited when Linda and I would go somewhere and I wasn't quite happy about it even if Linda was my sister or not.

 

When we went to the show, we used to sit in the back and now we sat in the middle seats. That  pretty well eliminated the hugging and kissing, and that was one of the reasons I wanted to go to the movies.

Worst of all, when we went to a school dance I had to do something I hated, and that was to dance with my sister especially if it turned out to be a slow dance.

As it turned out this went on for the whole year, and I asked most everyone I could trust not to blab about it and what I should do. In every case it was some version of, “Now she is your sister and you must watch over her.”

It looked like neither she nor I was going to do much courting this year even though I would introduce her to a lot of boys from my new school.

I was disgusted with the whole idea of, "Romance for teens" except when the three of us would come home from a late event Marly would stop at home while I walked Linda home, just the two of us.

I would kiss her goodnight and the warmth of her lips would make everything alright again.

I think her father must have had super hearing for two minutes after we would get on the porch the light would come on, and he would say in his sternest voice, "Linda, its time for you to come in, and tell that young man to go home."

We finally figured out to do our kissing before we got to the porch.

I was disturbed by the way things were going this year but Ma would say, “The things that should work out, will work out, so don't worry about it.

While I couldn't fully see the logic of what she was saying, but it always made me feel better just hearing it.

Oh Lawd!            

To be Continued

 

OH LAWD chapter 16



Courtesy Free Clip Art

 

Having got through the worst period of my life so far, I got back to normal for a boy my age.

The next Saturday Linda and I went to the movie again and Marly and her boyfriend were sitting three rows in front of us. Things were going well when I saw Marly slap her boyfriend, and say some angry words in a whispered tone which I couldn't understand. He got up abruptly and left while Marly stayed and sat alone.

She walked home with Linda and me. They lagged back and were talking while I impatiently walked ahead.  Finally I just walked on home while they were engaged in some private girl talk. Neither Linda nor Marly would answer me when I asked what they were talking so serious about.

After a while I gathered Marley’s friend had gotten too fresh and went too far. When I told her I was going to beat him up she said, “Just forget it for that was the last of him as far as I am concerned.”

I said, “If he calls you again let me talk to him or he bothers you at school let me know and I will put a stop to it.” As it turned out she wasn't bothered by him any more.

I asked Noonan if he had any more stories he could tell me and he said, “Did I ever tell you about moving to Mexico and marrying a Mexican girl?”

I said, “No, I don't think so.”  He said, “It was a number of years ago when I lived in San Diego California. There were two women fighting over me, each of which thought I was her man.

That may have been my fault because when I had a couple of drinks I didn't know what I was doing.  Sometimes I would ask a woman to marry me and that got me in a lot of trouble.  As it turned out both of them set a date for us to wed and as it happened it was the same date for both ladies.  Each of them came from big families and I mean they were a lot of them and their brothers were monsters.

I knew I couldn't marry both so I crossed the border into Mexico and went south to a small town. It wasn't long before I knew many families, and was invited to wed the older sister. Accordingly to their standards she was too old to attract most men for they all wanted teenagers for wives.

courtesy Free clip art

It didn't bother me that she was twenty four or five or even twenty six. I never knew for sure how old she was, because that was a family secret.

Her name Alisa and she did most of the cooking for the family and they insisted I move in with them for they didn't want to lose their cook. Outside of getting a little wood for cooking and a few chores I didn't have to do much of anything.

I still remember the first time I ate her cooking. I took a big bite of something and at first I tasted the delicious flavor of the food and a few seconds later the hot seasoning hit me. Those peppers took the skin off of the inside of my mouth. After a few days I could tolerate the heat although the scarring that took place damaged my palate somewhat.

He said that although we were married she never slept with me, and I thought that was strange for Mexican girls are known for being quite passionate.

I thought well after all I had everything else I needed, and it was siesta time most often for me. Then something strange happened.  She was going to have a baby.

At first it must be a miracle until I found out she had a boyfriend. As it turned out I wasn't married to her after all. The guy who was supposed to be a priest wasn't a priest at all, and she was really married to a fellow her father hated. When the father found out what was going on, at first he blamed me.

I explained that I was as surprised as he was. To make a longer explanation shorter he told me to leave, and her real husband moved in.

 
I wanted to get out of there before someone did harm to me, so I caught an old bus to Ciudad Juárez and then crossed over to El Paso.”

Oh Lawd!   

 

 To be Continued

 

OH LAWD chapter 15

At the Movies
courtesy free clip art

The next day, after Abdul helped me become an expert kisser, I felt I needed to take a break and enjoy my new status, or at least how I felt about the new me.

I was trying to decide how soon I should go on a test run to try out my newly gained lip power.

After much deliberation I decided to be reassured before I took the plunge and took some girl on a date.

I decided to go down to the restaurant and ask Noonan about his experience in learning to kiss. I asked him, “Hey Noonan, how did you learn to smooch?”

He said, “You know if someone had asked me that forty years ago I wouldn't have told them this, but at my age I don't care anymore.

It was like this, I was shy and I kissed this gal and later I found out she told it around that I didn't know how to kiss. This embarrassed me so much that I went down to an older woman I knew, and paid her to teach me how to kiss.

The next time I talked a gal into going out with me I kissed her and she said, ‘You're kissing me like I was an old lady.’  Well I wasn't going to take that so I told her she didn't know anything about kissing. We argued for a while and then I told her if she knew so much then show me how to do it.

For the next hour she taught me all about how girls like to be kissed, and it took me several dates with her to forget what the old lady had taught me.”

That was all I could take, so I told Noonan thanks, but I had to go and do some chores.

Now I was really confused. I thought I'll just forget what Lola taught me, but to this day that kissing lesson still sticks in my mind.

After wearing myself out with worry, I concluded I would never kiss but once again, and that would be if I got married.   After that we wouldn't do it again, ever.

Friday night Linda called me up and asked me to go to the movie show with her the next day.

I tried to get out of going, but she said Marly is going with her boy friend, and now that we are going steady we should go too.

“Going steady; who said anything about going steady?” I thought.  She said you thrilled me by kissing me after the dance, and I would like you to do it again.

I felt trapped so I agreed to meet Linda at the show for the matinee. She was already in line when I got there so I gave her the money for our tickets.

She said she wanted to sit in the back so she got in line early because the seats in the back filled up quickly. So here we sat on the back row with the lights still on so everyone could see us.

Marly and her friend came in and sat a few rows in front of us. When she saw us she started laughing to herself, but I knew why she was doing it.

 

Finally the lights went out, the movie started and then I finally drew a relaxed breathe.

Up until then I was as tight as a violin string.

 

Linda leaned over as close to me as possible and put my arm around her shoulder. It was at that point I decided we needed some popcorn.  Eventually I had to return, and she asked why it took so long to get it.

I lied and said it was because the line was long. We ate our popcorn and I said I was thirsty and would be back shortly. I got us some sodas and she leaned over against me again.

 

I started to go and get some candy and she pulled me back into the seat and said, “We don't need any more popcorn, drinks, candy or anything else what we need is to enjoy the movie,” as she put my arm around her shoulder again.

I could see Marly in the dark, and every so often the guy she was with would lean over and kiss her.

 

The movie was half over when I came to my senses and I reached over and kissed Linda right on the mouth and she kissed me back.

The next day I asked Marly if she enjoyed the movie she said, “I didn't watch much of it, what about you, did you like it?”

I could only smile and say, “Yes it was pretty good,” when in realty I hadn't seen hardly any of it either.      

 

Oh Lawd!       

 

To be Continued  

 

 

OH LAWD chapter 14



Lola
 Courtesy photobucket.com

 

It was a couple of days before I got over Linda and Marly laughing at my lack of kissing expertise. 

When I settled down I decided to fix that instead of being so embarrassed.

But who should I go to? Ah yes, it had to be Abdul, the man who knew all about love and love making.  

Even though we were close, and he had educated me about the things I needed to know at my age; it was a little hard to ask him for help on how to kiss.

But at least I knew he wouldn't laugh at me and I could trust him not to talk. I was in a quandary wondering if other boys my age were in the same predicament as I ... hmm.

Abdul counseled me saying, “You know eventually you will figure this out by trial and error,” but I said, “I don't think I will last that long for I am desperate.”  

 

He said, “Okay it’s off to Lola's place.”

The very sound of that was frightening, but I was committed to becoming a real good kisser, so off we went.

About twenty minutes later we arrived at a house that was dark from the outside, and I wanted to leave already.  Abdul said, “C'mon lets get this over with,” which made it sound like it would only take a couple of minutes, so I said "Alright let's do it."

We knocked and when the door opened a beautiful, but heavily made up woman looked at us and said, "Hello Abdul where have you been?"

Abdul said, “Oh I've been around.”  Then he took her over to a corner and in hushed tones they talked for a couple of minutes.

Every conceivable thought concerning what was going to happen went through my mind, and I went numb with dread.

When the thought, “What am I doing here?” came to mind, as she approached me and said "Come with me." 

I all but fainted as she took my hand and led me into another room.

For the next hour she taught me everything, I mean everything about how and why, and when and where concerning "The kiss."

She explained and demonstrated, and then made me practice on her. While that sounds bad it wasn't, because it was instructive and produced results although I would have liked to have learned about the "tongue in the mouth stuff from someone else."

She brought me back into the room where Abdul was, and he asked me how it went and I said, "Great."

He said I think we better clean you up a little before we leave because you have lip stick all over you.

If it was to do over again I would have insisted she scrape off some of that makeup for I even had it in my mouth.

I thanked her for the lessons, and as we left Abdul slipped her some bills and said I will see you at a later time.

 

After I began to return to normal, I thought “If anyone ever finds out about this I will have to leave the country for I couldn't live with that knowledge going around.”

Abdul assured me that absolutely no one would ever find out about it unless I told someone, and I never did.

When I arrived home I was removing my shirt as the housekeeper came in and asked how all that lipstick got on my shirt. I just had to lie and said, “Some boys held me down and smeared it all over me.”

She smiled at me and said, “Do you expect me to believe that?” I said, “No but that was the best lie I could come up with at this particular moment.”

She laughed and said, “I better get this in the wash before your mother sees it and has a fit.

OH LAWD!    

 

To be Continued

 

OH LAWD chapter 13



Kids Dancing
courtesy free clip art



I'm going to skip over many things not so exciting and tell you about some that were interesting. 

On the last day of school I was happy and also gloomy. I said goodbye to some of my teachers who had painstakingly taught me the three R's and next year I would be going to another school.

It was a combination of sadness and ecstatic joy. I suppose everyone who has had that experience knows what I mean.

The summer was before me and I had it all planned out.

One of the first things was what you might call, "My coming of age party."

There was a thing beginning to stick out on my throat and my voice was beginning to change.

There was also other things happening but I won't go into that.

The event was going to be on the coming Sunday after church time. The pier was decorated and all the local folks associated with the goings on related to the pier were invited.

There were also some self-invited people who showed up, but that was alright for after all it was a party. The party went into the evening with so many people there.

Marly invited several of her friends and those who had boyfriends tagged along with them.

Her new boyfriend came and I talked to him for a while.  Actually I told him what I expected as to his conduct with my sis. He said, “Alright but you had better tell her the same thing.”

Later I thought, “What did he mean by that?” so I asked Marly if she knew what he meant.

When she found out what I said to her boyfriend, she got as mad as a twelve year old could get, and she didn't speak to me for the next two weeks. 

Finally Ma told her to straighten up. When she told Ma why she was mad Ma said, “Perhaps you and I should sit down and have a talk for he didn't go near far enough.”  

After Ma got through with her she came out and gave me her worst hateful look but things got back to normal soon after that.

After the party and a few other things happened which I won't go into; but I decided that this phase of growing up was going to be a greater challenge than I thought.

This girl thing was confusing but I decided I might as well get started trying to figure it out.

Marly had several girl friends, some who were a little older than she was.

One day she said, “You should talk to Linda for I think she has a crush on you.”

She continued, “There is the school dance coming up and I going to it, why don't you ask Linda to go with you?”  

I told her, “You know I don't dance very well.”  She said, “I can teach you the steps and you can practice them by yourself.”

It seemed to be another one of those things that was inevitable so I agreed.

After a while I got the hang of it and spent a few minutes each day practicing with Marly although I had trouble having to hold her being my sister and all.

She then coaxed me into calling Linda to see if she would go to the dance with me and to my surprise she said, “Sure I would love to go.”

After several nervous days the time had came and I got Paddy to drive me to pick up Linda to take us to the dance. He was to pick us up at about ten and take us home.

When we arrived, the music was playing and suddenly my mouth went dry. I gave them our tickets and we went in. I headed to the punch bowl to wet my dry mouth.

Linda came over after talking to her friends and said, “Let’s dance,” so I said “Alright.”

It so happened to be a slow dance and she was hugging my neck to where with my tight collar, and her hugging I thought I was going to choke.

As time went by I got into the mood of things and began to enjoy the evening. After the dance Paddy picked us up and we took Linda home.

I walked her to her door and she kissed me.

About the only kissing I had ever done was to kiss Ma but this was different.

This was Friday and on Monday I heard Linda talking to Marly saying that brother needs some kissing lessons for it was like my mother kissing me.

Hearing this was the worst embarrassment I had experienced up to now, and hearing Marly laugh about it sure didn't help.

Oh Lawd!

To be Continued  

TROUBLE IN RIVERCITY

This True Story is shared at my wife's blog hop - Tell me a True Story.  My fictional story will continue so please return tomorow for the adventures of the kids living in Gulf Port!  Oh LAWD!

Muddy Mess
courtesy photobucket.com

 

Let me tell you a story of an incident that happened when I was still a young Christian; we had a close knit group in the church I attended.  The people in this story are dead and gone so it cannot reflect back on them.

I had been elected to the deacon board even though I really wasn’t qualified, but because there were just a few men available, and some refused to serve again; so now I was a deacon!

There were many of us who were close, going out to dinner, evenings spent together and the like.

 

There was one couple; Perry and Mabel that were good friends to us.  Mabel was several years older than Perry and they were not always kind to each other, saying little digs in front of other people.  In spite of that they were part of our social group.

There was a single lady, Lorene who was about age thirty and who had been our church secretary for several years.  She became friendlier with Perry and he would confide in her, his home problems. 

 

And again no one paid any attention to this because we were a close knit church group. 

Then one day Perry wanted to meet with the church board and a time was set.  I really wasn’t prepared for what happened next; Perry said that he and Mabel were not married they had only “lived together” for over twenty years.

This was a shock back in the fifties.  I and others thought, “Well, we need to straighten this out, we could have a wedding ceremony, and that would fix everything.”  Whereupon Perry announced that he and Mabel were separating, but he would still support her. 

Perry drove a delivery truck around town for a living, until one day he announced he was going to take a line job driving from Portland Oregon, to Oakland. About this time Lorene announced she could no longer keep the church books for she was moving.  If anyone hasn’t figured out where she was moving then I will tell you, “Portland”. 

Perry and Lorene had planned all this, and played it out accordingly. Lorene would become indignant and defended their actions by saying Perry had every right to leave Mabel and marry her, because he and Mabel had never married.

Time passed and we heard that he and Lorene had gotten married, and they now were the parents of a child.  Mabel continued to attend our church but she died a few years later.

Every day a similar situation occurs in the Christian church somewhere, doing despite to the cause of Christ.  The people involved move on and leave the local body to bear the brunt of their despicable deed.

James 1:21 Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.     

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