A Dating Life Part II
The first serious relationship that I had was in college. Brenda and I started dating in my Junior year. (Brenda is not her real name, but she always reminded me of the character Brenda Potemkin in Goodbye Columbus.) We lasted a sometimes tumultuous year and a half. It was nobody’s fault we were both very young and we had to contend with her mother.
Her mother was an interesting character. At 19 she believed that Brenda had already passed her prime and it may be too late for her to marry. She was sort of New Jersey with a Beverly Hillbillies perspective on life.
On July 13, 1977, we had tickets to see Boz Scaggs at Lincoln Center. We were taking her little sister for her birthday. I lived on Long Island, Brenda in Ft. Lee, New Jersey. I decided that I would pick them up at the Port Authority and drive them home after the concert. I had never before driven in Manhattan!
Halfway through the concert the entire City of New York blacked out. We were led by flashlight to the garage to get my 1969 Impala. Let me digress for a moment, that car was not the most reliable. It basically ran when it felt like running, and got approximately 8 miles to the gallon. That day it decided it wouldn’t give us any trouble.
There were no streetlights or traffic lights. We drove up the Westside of Manhattan. I was driving for the first time in the City contending with two hysterical young women screaming that Son of Sam was coming to get them. To which I assured them, that if they didn’t shut up and he didn’t get them, I would!
We made it back to New Jersey with no incidents. Brenda’s mother begrudgingly allowed me to call my mother to tell her that I was safe. Then she insisted that I leave. I went back through the City to Long Island. I remember the fires in the Bronx that could clearly be seen from the Major Deegan. When I arrived home my mother was livid. She said that she would have blocked the doorway before allowing anyone to travel through the City that night.
I lasted with Brenda through most of the next year at College. I saw her twice after College at a party and at a reunion. I like to think that every relationship leaves you with something positive. What this short segment of the relationship left me with was a greater appreciation for my mother.