June 1963, a bright summer day in Lansing, Michigan. A great day to head out to Lake Lansing Amusement Park.
Rudy and his cousin spent some time in the rec hall, had some lunch, and decided to stroll along the beach strip on the lake. Rudy had recently bought a straw hat which he was fond of wearing. As they walked along the beach, they passed a pair of attractive young girls who caught Rudy’s attention, as they passed, he heard them giggle and one of them said to the other “No, you wouldn’t!” With that, one of them snatched the hat from Rudy’s head stopping him in his tracks. Rudy turned around and he beheld his hat perched on the head of one of the girls who struck a pose, smiled and said “Hi, I’m Mary, and this is my friend Penny, But that’s not important.” Which caused her friend Penny to frown. Well, thought Rudy, this could prove interesting! “So nice to make your acquaintance,” said Rudy “What do I need to do to get my hat back?” The girls turned to each other, and Penny whispered something into Mary’s Ear, causing Mary to shake her head.
Rudy stood puzzled. Little did he know that the girls were deciding his fate.
Mary and Penny had been friends since grade school. As they matured, they developed the same taste in boys. This caused them to have occasional disagreements endangering their friendship. They finally agreed to a pact, if one of them staked a claim on a boy, the other was to assume a strict hands-off policy.
Mary turned to Rudy and said, “Meet us at the Drive-In tonight and we will discuss it.” She then planted a kiss on his cheek and the girls walked off. Rudy just stared after them shaking his head.
What Mary had left unsaid was that she and Penny would hash this out before they met up with Rudy again. Penny had whispered in Mary’s ear was “I want him!”
AS they walked away from Rudy, he noticed them engaged in a heated discussion. Mary, always the dominant of the pair, was telling Penny in no uncertain terms that she was staking a claim,
That afternoon he called Mary Alice and let her know he would not be seeing her that night. At the time they had no idea that this was the beginning of the end of their relationship. Rudy thought this was going to be just another innocent flirtation.
Later that evening, Rudy arrived at the drive-in fearful of a no-show. But was pleasantly surprised by a tap on his shoulder. Turning around to the sight of Mary Ann and Penny, he broke into a grin.
“Hello handsome,” said Mary. She was wearing his straw hat, With a big smile, she took it off and perched it on his head. Both girls were positively glowing as they broke out into a chorus of “He’s so fine” by the Chiffons. As the evening wore on, he got to know both girls better. Penny had a bubbly personality that reminded him of Connie Stevens on Hawaiian Eye. MaryAnn was much more intense and spent most of their time together dancing with him to the Jukebox. One of the songs that came on was Johnny Mathis singing “What will my Mary Say”. This gave Rudy a momentary twinge of conscience, but he quickly shook it off as he fell under Maryanne’s spell. (Remember I told you Rudy was something of a Dick!). On occasion, Rudy would ask Penny for a dance. Penny virtually glowed when he asked her to dance, but Maryanne shot daggers at Penny when she thought no one was looking.
By the time the movie was over, (none of them would be able to recall what had been on the screen) Maryanne had escalated from little pecks on the cheek to full-on passionate kisses on the lips. As the night ended, they exchanged phone numbers and Mary gave Rudy her address and invited him to come to see her the next day. (Author’s note: Mary never went by the name Maryanne, but it is being used here to differentiate between Mary Ann and Mary Alice. Poetic license and all that.)
That Saturday, as luck would have it, Johnny was going to visit his girlfriend Louisa who, happily, lived on the next street over from Maryanne. Rudy was, therefore, able to catch a ride. It was an eye-opener for Rudy as he discovered it was a seven-mile ride. It occurred to him that if he got serious, he would have to walk that distance to visit.
Mary answered the door as Johnny drove away and pulled Rudy inside. She introduced him to her younger sister Linda who looked very much like Mary. Mary informed Rudy they would be walking to Penny’s house. She explained that Penny had access to a basement rec room, and she entertained their little group there.
Upon their arrival after a one-mile walk, Penny greeted them enthusiastically. A guy was sitting on the couch and Penny introduced him as Junior Guerrero. “Yeah,” said Rudy, “we’re acquainted by reputation. The Guerrero’s and the Vallentine’s had a bit of a rivalry going on. Upon hearing this, Mary Anne pumped Junior for all the information she could get about Rudy. Once she got all the skinny on Mary Alice, she turned to Rudy with a devilish look and asked, “So when are you going to tell your mousy girlfriend about us?”
Penny looked on with sympathy as she heard this exchange.
Rudy was able to get to talk to Junior about the girls. “Are you dating Penny,” Rudy asked? “No”, Junior replied, “we’ve gone out a few times, but nothing serious. You should hear how she talks about you when Mary is not around.”. It was the first that Rudy had heard about Penny’s interest in him. Junior then went ahead to fill him in about the dating pact between Penny and Mary. “Watch out for that one.” Junior said, “Should Mary drop out of the picture, she will pounce.” Rudy thought there was little chance of that, but he still had to deal with the problem of the two Mary’s.
Over the next week, he split his time between Mary Alice and Mary Ann. until the fateful Friday night at the Drive-in.
As he walked into the concession stand, he felt like that poor fellow in the 4 preps song “Down by the Station”, for there before his eyes were his girlfriend’s Mary 1 and Mary 2. As soon as Mary Ann saw Rudy, her face lit up with an evil grin. She walked up 
to Rudy and planted a passionate kiss on his lips. Mary Alice looked on with a stricken look on her face. “Rudy,” said Mary Alice, “It seems pretty clear that we are thru.” At which point she turned and walked out of the concession stand. “Well, that’s that,” said Maryanne. Behind her, Penny whispered under her breath “Bitch”.
All thru July Maryanne and Rudy were inseparable. Rudy could not help but notice that Mary had a devilish streak to her, but he was intoxicated by her.
Mary loved to dance in the Dirty Dancing style, and she loved passionate kisses.
Penny continued to watch the two of them together. Rudy noticed that she loved to play the tunes “One Fine Day” by the Chiffons and “She’s a Fool” by Le sley Gore, while Mary loved to Dance to “Are you Lonesome Tonight” by Elvis and “It’s up to you” by Ricky Nelson.
Many evenings they would hang out on the corner by the local Quick Stop and harmonize to “Swinging on a Star” with Rudy singing the Big Dee Irwin part while Penny and Mary sang the Little Eva Lines.
Rudy and Mary spent most of their time at Penny’s clubhouse as they liked to refer to it. Penny enjoyed their company, but Rudy noticed she was not as bubbly as she had been.
Mary and Rudy also spent many hours at the Roller-Skating Rink and the local dances. Rudy no longer heard anything at the dances about his choice of partners. These outings always excluded Penny.
But the good days were fated to come to an end and one night at the Drive-in it happened.
Rudy was not feeling particularly well that evening and Mary was feeling mischievous and particularly devilish. One thing led to another and finally, Rudy turned to Mary and said, “Leave me the fuck alone will you.”. Mary looked at Rudy in shock crossed her arms and scooted away from him. On the way home, prophetically. Rudy heard the Shirelles song “Don’t Say Goodnight and mean Goodbye” for the very first time. It would forever remind him of that night.
The next day when he called Mary, she answered the phone said “Besa mi culo!” and hung up the phone. Rudy knew that Mary did not know any Spanish, so he realized Junior Guerrero had taught her how to say “Kiss my Ass” in Spanish. For the next week every time he called Mary, Linda would answer the phone and Mary would shout “Tell him I’m Not Home”
Rudy visited Penny a few times at her home.
Since the break-up with Mary, the old group that hung out at Penny’s was decimated. It appeared that Mary felt that Penny had somehow broken their pact and no longer hung out with her.
Junior still came by most evenings. Whenever Rudy dropped by, Penny was back to her bubbly personality. She began to sit very close to Rudy. Eventually, she began to make advances on Rudy. Junior had called it. Now that Mary was out of the picture Penny was all too happy to fill the vacuum.
It was about this time that Rudy’s (Leon’s) parents decided to come and bring him home to Brooklyn.
Rudy paid one last visit to Penny before returning to New York. As he entered the room, he could hear her playing her two favorite songs. She smiled at Rudy and said, “I knew this day would come.” she put her arms around him and gave him a passionate kiss. Junior had been right., Penny was determined to fill the vacuum Mary had left.
Poor Rudy. was too broken up over Mary to respond to Penny as he would have liked.
Penny however was determined to have her way with him, plying him with kisses and caress. There’s no telling how far she would have gone had Junior not been present.
The next day he called Penny and told her he was going back to Brooklyn. 
After a moment of shocked silence, she responded “You son of a bitch, you know how much I wanted you. I Hate you” and hung up the phone.
Rudy left the next day.
Rudy was to meet up with Mary Anne Harmon a year later when he flew up to Lansing on a thanksgiving four-day pass.
He learned that Penny had met a boy and was now pregnant. By him.
Mary called Penny to tell her that Rudy was there and “Looked good enough to eat in his uniform.”
Mary then handed Rudy the phone.
Rudy and Penny chatted much as they had the prior year. He then offered to come down and see her to which she replied “NO WAY, I don’t want you to see me like this. I want you to remember me as I was when you last saw me.” They talked a little longer and then hung up. That was when he noticed Mary was wearing her Evil grin. Was that revenge? thought Rudy.
Rudy was never to see or hear from Mary Ann or Penny again. Mary Ann passed away sometime around 2014
Junior Guerrero enlisted in the Army at around the same time as Rudy. He never returned from his tour of duty in Vietnam…
This chapter is a total rewrite of the article written sometime in 2011.
A companion Spotify playlist is available at https://open.spotify.com/playlist/006P0uIlcfCVbUiLQiCANl?si=PbspzGJaRX-S8b5NQdZRXw
Author’s note: This article is heavily laced with references to songs from the period. Music has played a very prominent role in both Rudy’s and Leon’s lives.
As always, I would love to hear your thoughts on this offering.
Expanded 2/2/22
It reads well bro,I like.
Great read with my morning coffee. Very engaging.