Northport Memories of Yesteryear: The Little Red Haired Girl

Charles Schultz illustrated for us that in every Charlie Brown's life, there is a little red haired girl. Mine was blonde with freckles, very Irish, and she made her debut around 1951, just about the time I entered the first grade. She was smart (would eventually earn her Doctorate), pretty, popular and full of adventure. Her name was Janie.

I was particularly impressed with her worldliness as she had come to town in a silver airplane from a distant city called Miami. I surely wondered what that must have been like but it would be another 15 years before I would experience air travel when Uncle Sam would send me to a kind of "camp" where they had parties...work parties. 

In the meantime, a whole childhood laid undiscovered. In those early years, I had only a smattering of knowledge about the distinction between the sexes other than the fact that the girls had long hair and wore clothes like their mommies while the boys had short hair, wore pants, and were rough and tough like their dads. One thing was certain though. Through all the hype and denial even in those early years, for some reason the girls were just nice to be around, something that no self-respecting five year old BOY would admit to his peer group for fear of being singled out as a sissy.

The girls seemed to have less of a problem with their feelings, freely reciting sing-song poems about two "love birds" sitting in a tree, k-i-s-s-i-n-g and distributing valentines at the appropriate times to every boy in their class. They also had some kind of an amazing four sided fortune telling device that they made from paper and held it between their fingers. As they flapped it open and closed repeatedly, it foretold who they would marry and how many children they would have. Amazing technology!

Fast forward to 1954, the year our family moved Bayview Avenue, across the street from the harbor where I would spend the rest of my childhood as a water rat. As luck would have it, we were just two doors down from the little red haired girl (who was blonde). In fact, she used to keep her beautiful bicycle in our garage. Now, we were neighbors and would become childhood friends and part of the Bayview gang, but there was still something in the code about not having a "girlfriend" when you are (by now) 8, so I would have to keep this "friendship" under wraps.

As I recall, along about the 4th grade she approached me about the prospect of being her groom for the Halloween parade/dance which I immediately dismissed (although she may remember it differently). How could I suffer this public humility and still face my male friends? I figured out a way to justify it. I would introduce a deal whereby I would borrow her beautiful bike to visit a friend, and in exchange I would be her  Halloween groom. We negotiated and she accepted. This agreement enabled me to justify my behavior with the male social code enforcement board by invoking the "obligation" rule. In retrospect, little kids are amazingly resourceful.

I promptly informed my mom that I would need a tuxedo for Halloween. Back in the old days, Mom always made my Halloween costumes and this time, she out-did herself. She crafted a tuxedo with tails and a top hat which made me nearly as handsome as Janie was beautiful in her wedding gown that her mom made for her. Oh, man, I hoped I could live this one down! We made Northport history that night as we marched in the Halloween parade, up Main Street, past the movie house, up Ocean Ave. and to the school. I could hear adults on the sidewalks exclaiming how cute we were. Actually, when you think about it, we must have been cute.

When we got to the school dance, I realized that I had never danced before. Here I was, frozen in the moment and without a plan. I don't know if Janie had danced before, but she seemed pretty comfortable with the idea. I was petrified and could feel my shoes filling up with my own perspiration. Now, what do I do? She lead me to put my right arm around her waist and my left hand in hers. So far, so good. I just kind of moved around with her and we muddled our way through the Halloween dance that was 1954. 

We still remain friends today, some 50 plus years later and email often, reminiscing about those early years when we were wide-eyed and had a whole world in front of us. It was a time that was simpler, when social contracts were as good as gold and honor was central in relationships. It was a time…lost in time, “back in the day."