August 1963 Flatbush Brooklyn NY
Rudy was back in town. The Summer in Lansing, MI, had been an exciting time. Rudy had experienced his first romantic kiss with Mary Alice Watson. The kiss and the romance that followed played a large part in creating the Rudy Vallentine personae. Rudy and Mary Alice carried on a long-distance relationship for eight months through letter writing and the occasional brief phone call. The forced separation was ended when Rudy left home for Lansing. All went well until he met Mary Ann Harmon. Rudy’s infatuation with Mary Ann ultimately led to his betrayal of Mary Alice in favor of a new relationship with Mary Ann. Little did Rudy know at the time; Mary Ann would pay him back with her betrayal and his first heartbreak.
Rudy was half-heartedly trying to resume his interrupted New York lifestyle. He continued his on-again-off-again relationship with his cousin’s stepdaughter, Paula, in the Bronx.
Paula was a Latin beauty. Olive skinned, long dark brown hair and captivating brown eyes.
Paula loved to dance and always welcomed Rudy’s visits. But, like most of the Latin girls he knew, she did not show any romantic inclinations towards him.
Then there was his rivalry with his cousin Daniel Santana over the blond bombshell Phyllis, also in the Bronx. The rivalry revolved around the usual macho assertion that one or the other could conquer the object of their infatuation. The resolution of this rivalry took months to resolve. Phyllis was a statuesque blonde blessed with an imposing figure. Phyllis carried herself with the grace customarily seen in royalty.
Strangely enough, Rudy was more attracted to Phyllis’s best friend, Corinna.
Corinna was almost the polar opposite of Phyllis. Several inches shorter than Phyllis, she presented a somewhat introverted personality. Light brown hair framed an oval face with soft
brown eyes. Corinna
Corinna resembled a girl. Rudy had wanted to develop a close relationship thru ninth grade but had been too timid to approach after school.
Phyllis and Corinna seemed to go nowhere without each other. A pattern he had met before with Mary and Penny, and one he would encounter time and again.
Closer to home, Rudy and his local friends organized a social group called “The Seven Sinners,” which consisted of Rudy. His best friend Ralph, Ralph’s brother Bobby, the Massa twins Bobby and Joey (want to be horse jockeys), Eddie Davis, and Mr. Brooklyn (I confess his real name has been lost in the mists of time). Mr. Brooklyn, it was later discovered, was a plant of the NYPD (a la Mod Squad), though he was a waste of resources on the part of the New York Police, as the sinners (apart from graffiti) were no threat to society in general. Their activities mainly consisted of West Side Story role-play sessions and gatherings at Jahn’s Ice cream parlor with their various paramours of the day.
In due time, Rudy met Susan Welch, who had the dubious distinction of having the ability to get inebriated on Coca-Cola. They dated for a few weeks. While that was good for some exciting moments, the novelty quickly faded away, as did their relationship.
Rudy engaged in only three fistfights throughout Leon/Rudy’s middle school years. Curiously they all involved a best friend named Darryl Price, an unlikely Jewish geeky friend he had made at Walt Whitman JHS. To this day, no one can say what triggered these fights, but all can agree on one fact. Darryl could not learn from his mistakes. Rudy had suffered from some pretty bad nosebleeds from his earliest days that came upon him suddenly. These nosebleeds were caused by a weak blood vessel in his nose and infuriated him, but there was nothing he could do about them.
During his first fight, Darryl scored a hit on Rudy’s nose, which resulted in a massive nosebleed. The result was predictable, given Rudy’s temper. Rudy was not hindered by the blow, as was Daryl’s intent, but instead infuriated. Now he had a cause he could blame for the nosebleed! A reason that he could strike back at. The resulting fury caused the fight to be over in minutes. Darryl never stood a chance. Unfortunately, Darryl never learned his lesson. He always caused a nosebleed in their later encounters, which lost Rudy’s fury and decided the contests. The last of these confrontations occurred at the tail end of the summer of 63. Leon and Darryl remained close friends despite these disagreements until the Rudy personality asserted itself. Rudy gathered a new circle of friends, which excluded Darryl. Ultimately. Darryl revealed some sensitive information to Rudy’s parents, which led, in part, to his exile in Puerto Rico.
Inevitably, his circle of friends picked up local equivalents to his Lansing circle of friends. There was June, who resembled Judy in looks and mannerisms. Christine (Chris) was a veritable clone of Penny, and then there was Marie (God help us, another Mary) Berkle, a sweeter version of Mary Harmon.
Marie was a petite blonde with blue eyes. The epitome of girlish sweetness. Always fun to be with, Marie caught Rudy’s attention the moment Christine introduced the two of them to each other.
Rudy dedicated many hours to the pursuit of Marie. But no matter how hard he tried, the best he ever achieved was a kiss on the cheek, even though she was a charter member of the Jahn’s ice cream circle and unattached. It seemed to Rudy that Marie was interested in him but afraid to commit to a relationship with him.
Into this charged atmosphere came the injection of the accidental girlfriend. Dora Weiss.
No one knew where she came from or what her game was, but one night there she was at the weekly Ice cream gathering. She was a friend of one of the girls in the group.
Dora was tall with flaming red hair and green eyes. She was very outgoing and had a forceful personality. Dora had a way of capturing your attention and engaging you thoroughly.
One thing that became clear was that she had set her sights on Rudy. At first, Rudy was annoyed, but then he thought, Wait, maybe I can turn this to my advantage; after all, she is kind of cute. Perhaps I can use her to make Marie Jealous!
Not only was Marie unimpressed, but Rudy found himself succumbing to Dora’s charms and easy banter. Unbeknownst to Rudy, one small problem, Dora, came with a hanger named Carolyn Quigley. In many circles at that time, attractive girls had best friends they traveled with (almost chaperones) who were less than appealing and hoped to benefit from their friends’
leftovers. Carolyn fits the unattractive description. She was short and dumpy with a face that would not stand out in a crowd. Rudy found her personality to be abrasive.
Dora was seldom without her best friend. It turned out that Dora was not a local girl; she lived on Avenue U, which was a good thirty-minute bus ride from Rudy’s home.