The World According to Me and Mine

The Meeting As I set out on Saturday morning, May 3, 1961, with my friends to go to an annual company picnic I had no idea that I would meet my future husband, Chuck Rocco. My friend, Peggy, had gone to junior-senior prom with him. She wasn’t impressed, but he really liked her. As we walked around the amusement park, Myers Lake, we spotted Chuck in front of us. We giggled like girls do and it was obvious he had heard us because he conveniently dropped his change and had to turn around to pick it up. I instantly felt bad for him because he looked at Peggy adoringly and I knew she had used him so she would have a date to the prom. She introduced all of us to “Rocco” as he was known by his classmates. I had “liked” Peggy’s cousin, Chad, for a couple of years in junior high and our freshman year of high school. We broke up when he took another friend of mine to homecoming at their school which was the country school. I went to school in the city. Chad suddenly appeared in my life again early in the summer of 1961. It turned out he was good friends with Rocco. I came to find out later Chuck hated being called Rocco. Anyway, Chad asked me out on a double date with Chuck and my friend, Peggy. We went bowling, which I hated, but I was really happy about going on the date with Chad. He was my first love. It was short lived as he started dating a bank president’s daughter and I decided sadly it was just not meant for us to be together. My friend Peggy’s parents had a 4th of July pool party every year. It was a couple of weeks before the party and I was at their home helping with preparations for the event. Peggy and I were putting together the guest list when she asked who I was bringing for a date. I said, ‘Probably no one.” She said, “Ask Rocco, he is a nice guy and then I don’t have to worry when I ask Doug.” Doug Logan was her dream man. But I said, “You can’t do that because Rocco really likes you and I think that would make him feel really bad.” Peggy pleaded with me and just about that time Chuck pulled into the drive in his 1949 Dodge convertible. She ran into the house and left me there with him. So we sat down in one of those swings that faces each other with a canopy over the top and talked for a while. I said, “Would you come with me to the pool party here on the 4th of July?” He looked at me in disbelief and said, “Well I thought I would be going with Peggy.” I truly didn’t know what to say. I just sat there on the verge of tears because I was so embarrassed. He sat forward in the swing and said, “She’s bringing that smart ass Doug, isn’t she?” I said in barely a whisper, “Yes.” He jumped up, we had become engrossed in our conversation and didn’t see that Peggy had come out of the house and was standing behind him. Chuck said to her, “You can’t even do your own dirty work.” He got in his car and peeled out of the driveway. Distraught does begin to explain our feelings. Peggy came home with me to spend the night so we could support each other, though; I was the one that had really screwed up because I let her talk me into something I didn’t want to do. Later, walking back from the store for my mom, we saw Chuck’s convertible in front of my house. We ran the rest of the way home having no idea what was happening. We walked in on Chuck having coffee with my dad at the kitchen table. Oh my, you can’t imagine, Dad didn’t like boys to come to the house, especially uninvited and of all things they were talking politics. This couldn’t be good. Amazingly my dad left the three of us to sit and talk at the table. Chuck ignoring Peggy said to me, “Why would such a nice girl be a part of such a mean scheme.” I explained, “It wasn’t a scheme, I like you and I don’t have a date to the party, “trying to protect my scheming friend. “Come on you know I liked her and would think she would invite me to the pool party.” I said simply, “I am sorry it was stupid and thoughtless.” The evening continued with the two of us talking as he ignored Peggy even if she asked a question. I made a snack for us and after we ate he left, but he took my phone number. The next morning the phone rang early. Peggy and I were still in bed. My sister came storming into the bedroom and handed me the phone and said, “It’s that guy from last night.” It was him calling to ask me to go to the movie with him. I told him, “No way, you are only trying to get back at Peggy.” However, I had Peggy on the other ear telling me, “You have to go so you can spy and tell me what he says about me.”