to live with his father. It was several years before I saw him again, during World War
II, I believe. Then in 1989 we met in Cumberland at the fiftieth reunion of Allegany
High School’s class of 1939. Always the devil, he winked and said, “Bill, did you
ever make it with Bess."
iv - Sophomore Year, 1936-37
This year I would have to get back into the habit of getting up in the morning
to go to school, the full-day session having been resumed. Eliminating the split
session was made possible by the transfer of a large number of students to the newly
built Fort Hill High School on the other side of town.
By the time I graduated to the tenth grade in September of 1936, I had also
graduated to long pants. If you find it odd that I mention this, be advised that in those
days not every human being - from babies in arms to little old ladies - wore long pants
as is the case today.
The school year got off to a good start socially with a dancing party at the
Cumberland Jockey Club in honor of Alice Louise Read on her fifteenth
birthday. My invitation said that my date would be Ann Hausman. It was well-
known that since the seventh grade I had a crush on Ann but had been too shy to
ask her for a date, so it was nice of Alice Louise to “fix me up." Except that it
was a very big affair, I don’t remember anything about it. However, it
undoubtedly nurtured my crush on Ann.
By now I could dance a little better and looked forward to school dances. Just
as much fun were the skating parties at the Crystal Park roller rink in LaVale, near
Cumberland. These had become quite important school club activities and were well-
attended. Although limited in entertainment money and means of transportation, I
somehow managed to attend most if not all of them. Like the majority of occasional
skaters, I was merely adequate and never learned to skate backwards. What I liked
was couples-skating - nothing fancy, both boy and girl skating forward, left hands
joined, the boy with his right arm around the girl’s waist. I tried to have as many
“skates" with Ann as possible. But she was quite popular.
On April 16, 1937, I celebrated my “lucky birthday" - sixteen on the sixteenth.
Grandma had always prepared a fitting dinner on the birthday of each family member
living at the Wallace home but my celebration this year seemed to receive a little
more attention than usual. Grandma had even let me choose the main dish for dinner
- turnips! (Cooked with potatoes and beef, they were one of my favorites. Most
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