concerned about subscription progress. These things required discussion so staff
meetings after school were often held. Mine was a stressful job, given its deadlines and
uncertainties, and more than once I recorded frustration or dissatisfaction with progress.
But day by day, progress we did, and in April of 1939 the last material was
dispatched to the publisher. On June 1, Allegew was distributed. It was beautiful,
though perhaps not so “different" as I had promised. Now I could breathe. Perhaps in
thoughtless reaction, I wrote, A whole year’s hard work and it takes about 15 minutes
to look at the darn thing. Nevertheless, what an invaluable experience I had gained.
During that long stretch, I kept my equilibrium by pursuing a relatively active,
but sane, social life. I went to at least a dozen dances and skating parties, school-
sponsored and others. The occasions were varied: church sponsored affairs, school
club dances, after-school “tea dances" (imagine that today!), and, of course, proms.
One big affair I attended was a “coming out party" for two sisters at the Fort
Cumberland Hotel. There was one costume affair at which I was Dracula (I can’t
imagine how I managed that get-up; my mother was not creative along those lines).
I enjoyed dancing so much that I got to be a bit of a snob about it and was
disappointed at more than one dance when the poor dancers outnumbered the good
ones. (I like to think that my snobbery never showed.) It was the era of “mixer" dance
numbers like the Paul Jones and specialty dances - the Big Apple, the Lambeth Walk
(a British import) and the Castle Walk (revived in a contemporary Astaire-Rogers
movie based on the life of Vernon and Irene Castle, famous dancers of an earlier
period). Jitterbug was beginning to be popular then but I didn’t become proficient
until later when I was in the Army. Slow, romantic, cheek-to-cheek dancing was in.
It was a nice way for a bashful guy like me to get to hold a girl!
Probably the best place for dancing to your heart’s content was Circle Inn.
This was a small coke and sandwich place, with a juke box and minuscule dance
floor, situated four miles outside of Cumberland on McMullen Highway. I spent
many carefree hours there after a dance or game, even walked there a few times (not
a good idea at night on that poorly lighted road). It was there at a party in May that
my date, Anna Bessie Everstine, taught me to jitterbug. There was also a place called
Mayfair and an Elda that I occasionally went to - not having a car, I went where I was
driven. But the most frequented meeting place of all was right on Baltimore Street,
our main drag: Ford’s Drug Store. The idea of going to Ford’s was to see and be seen.
It had little to offer besides a generous number of booths and a juke box that could be
operated from each booth, but no dancing. The fare was simple - fountain drinks, ice
cream and simple, cold sandwiches. Although discouraged by the management, kids
occupying a booth for hours with a coke or two, at five cents each, was not unusual.
Scraping together money for my few expenses was no easier this year than in
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