April 4, 1964.! an important date in the life of Rudy Vallentine! If ever there was a reason to build a time machine, this was the date Rudy would visit. For this was the day he felt he had failed to protect the love of his life and always thought he had caused her irreparable harm.
The days following Rudy’s 17th Birthday were a very happy blur in their memories. Every chance they had was used to the max to be spent together.
While Rudy’s job kept him busy until dinnertime, it gave Gypsy just enough time to complete her daily homework. Those things out of the way, they could be found in Gypsy’s basement recreation room, ofttimes alone, dancing to the sounds of The Beatles, Dusty Springfield, The Crystal, Gene Pitney, or whatever Murray the K was spinning on the radio.
Friday evenings would find them and their friends at the church-sponsored dance followed by the meet-up at Jahns Ice cream parlor. Often these days, Rudy would foot the bill since he was the only one in the group with a steady income. Weekends often found them strolling through Prospect Park enjoying the warm spring day or hanging with their crowd at their favorite park bent at The Parade Grounds.
For Rudy and Gypsy. There never seemed to be enough time to spend together.
And so it came about that Gypsy and Rudy arranged to skip their daily routines at school and work and planned a day together at Rudy’s apartment.
The purpose of this time together can only be guessed at, but could it be that they had planned a time to let their passions get the better of them?
In any case, sometime near the lunch hour, as Rudy and Gypsy were engaged in what could only be described as an enthusiastic and heated make-out session, there came a pounding at the front door.
“Could that be your father?” Gypsy asked
“No way, pop has a key and would not need to knock on the door,” said Rudy. “Let’s just ignore it,”
And they went ahead to resume their romantic pursuits.
Again, came the pounding at the door.
“Rudy, I think you should answer that,” Gladys said. “It might be important.”
Against his better judgment, Rudy went to answer the door ignoring a dread feeling of impending doom.
“Can I help you?” Rudy asked thru a crack in the door.
“Leóncio Sanchez?” said a man at the door, butchering Rudy’s given name. “I am the truant officer for Erasmus Hall High School. and I am here to take you back to school.”
“Ha!” exclaimed Rudy, letting his disdain for authority take over. “I was signed out of school six months ago. Don’t you idiots check your records?”
“Well,” said the truant officer, “can you prove that?”
“Sure,” said Rudy ‘Just a minute, and I will fetch the papers for you.”
And that, as Rudy was to reflect over and over, was when his world started falling apart.
Instead of waiting outside the apartment, the attendance officer opened the door and entered the apartment, where he came face to face with Gladys Perez!
It could be argued that the truant officer had exceeded his authority by entering the apartment uninvited, but there was not a legal beagle to be found on the premises.
“Here’s my documentation.” Rudy said, handing him the papers.
But the truant officer had sensed a more accessible game to be had.
“Uh-huh,” he grunted, giving the paper the once over and handing them back.
“And who might you be, little lady?” he said, addressing Gypsy
“G-Gladys Pe Perez,” Gypsy stammered.
“Shouldn’t you be in school, young lady?”
“She’s on her lunch break,” Rudy exclaimed
The truant officer gave them both the once over and addressed Gypsy
“Gather up your things, miss Perez; you and I have a Date with the principal.
Rudy could only stand helplessly as the officer escorted Gypsy from his home. He rushed to the living room window, where he helplessly watched as, unbeknownst to him at that time, he watched as the love of his life walked out of his life.
As he knelt by the window, Rudy contemplated ending his life. He had a Bowie knife and seriously thought about using it on himself. Eventually, his deep-seated feelings about the futility and waste of suicide brought him to his senses.
Two weeks passed. No one could tell Rudy what had become of Gypsy. It was as if she had vanished from the face of the earth.
Rudy waited for Gypsy’s phone call to let him know all was well. He waited in vain for the call that never came. Naturally, he was a no-show at the church dance and the Friday outing.
Finally, he got through to Glady’s brother Joey who filled him in on what had happened.
The school had called Gladys’s parents about the infraction. Her father was livid, thinking the worst had occurred and his little girl had been sexually assaulted.
Gladys’s parents took her to Kings Park State Hospital to examine her for evidence of rape. Naturally, they only got that she was still a virgin. She had not been sexually molested.
Gladys’s commotion proved too much, and she experienced an epileptic seizure.
Rudy was inconsolable, convinced that he and he alone had been the cause of Gladys’s problems. An opinion shared by her parents.
He behaved like a hermit for days and would see and speak to no one. He heard that Gladys had been committed to the hospital’s psychiatric ward on a suicide watch.
His friends tried to console him except for Ralph’s girlfriend Eileen, who opined that “Rudy is better without her, after all, she has Epilepsy, doesn’t she?” He was never to forgive her for that sentiment
While his friends were not as unsympathetic as Eileen, they all agreed he needed to move on.
The events of that day led to Rudy’s enlistment in the Army as an escape from a situation that he found intolerable.
On May 14, 1964, he was inducted as a volunteer in the Army.