Exceptional Six weeks of an interesting summer. At Home in Mississippi : Unexpected Vacation by BethShelby

As I continued my tenth year in school, my recent friend and cousin, Joy, who lived another town over from Newton, came to visit as often as she could talk her mom into bringing her over. She was in a school play, and she begged me to come and see it. She said she and a male friend and another boy would be going to the local Tasty Freeze to celebrate afterward. Back in the 50’s, many kinds of franchised fast food or ice cream shops became popular hangouts for teens. The rise of these places was said to be due to the highway system being built throughout the US. Although Joy wasn’t officially dating, a lot  of her friends were guys. I wasn’t interested in having to go anywhere with a guy I didn’t know, but I didn’t want to disappoint Joy by not coming to the play. Dad dropped me off at her school with the intention of spending the weekend. The play was The Magnificent Obsession. For me, the highlight was when the lead actress kissed the lead actor. The fake mustache he was wearing came unglued and ending up clinging to the lips of the girl being kissed. Everyone got a good laugh at a play that wasn’t supposed to be a comedy. Although I saw the movie later, this was all I was able to remember of the play. The ice cream treat with the strange boy was awkward, and made me decide blind dates weren’t for me. When school ended for the summer break, I envied Joy, because unlike my family, her folks always took two week or longer summer vacations to exciting places and in this year of 1953, they were heading to the mountains of North Carolina. Her dad would spend his time fly fishing in the streams or playing golf at a nearby course. Joy would take her paints and paint the scenery. Everyone seemed to do their own things on these trips, but at least they had a family vacation. I resigned myself to spending my summer reading, painting and being outside, likely mowing grass or helping in the garden. I was pleasantly surprised because my cousin, Jeanine and her husband Haskel came to visit bringing her two-year-old daughter, Kathy and their new baby, Danny. Jeanine had a brilliant idea involving me as they were getting ready to leave. “Aunt Lucille, my mom is coming down in a couple of weeks when she gets some time off from work. Why don’t you let Beth go home with us, and she can ride back with Mom.” I held my breath hoping and was thrilled when she decided that I could go. For me at fifteen, this was a dream come true. I left excited about getting to stay for two whole weeks, but Aunt Aline couldn’t get off quite so soon and my trip ended with me staying for six weeks instead. The drive which should have taken around 8 hours took 10 since Haskel detoured to visit his brother in Louisiana. Most cars at this time didn’t have air conditioning but they had bought a window unit for their car which helped with the humid southern temperature. It was after midnight when we arrived at their garage apartment. A half a block down the street, Jeanine’s mother, Aunt Allene and my cousin Dave lived in a duplex. The following morning, Jeanine had a suggestion knowing Dave and I had been really close, all of our lives. He was a little younger than me and we only saw each other about once a year, but I was looking forward to seeing him. He had been a great friend and like the brother I wished I’d had. “Beth,” Jeanine said, “Mom and Dave don’t know you came home with us. Mom’s already gone to work, and I’m sure Dave is still asleep. See that last house on the corner? Go down there and go in the door on this side. It won’t be locked. You can wake Dave up and surprise him, or if you want to wait until he wakes, he has a huge collection of comic books you can read until he wakes up. He will be excited to see you.” I did as she suggested and decided to wait until Dave woke up, contented to dig through the comic collection until I found the Archie and Friends comics to keep me occupied. Dave thought he was hallucinating when he walked in and found me there. I think it scared him to find he wasn’t alone, but he acted really excited to see me. The two of us ate cereal and listened to Homer and Jethro, a musical comedy team and Hank Williams singing Kaw-Laga, about a wooden Indian who never got a kiss. After we had heard the comedy albums for about three times each on his record player, we started walking back to the garage apartment. Dave was busy trying to think of things we might do together to pass the time before his summer job started. “Hey, you know what? We could get some games. Maybe even some kissing games.” “Who needs games to kiss? “ I asked. Oops where did that come from? We hadn’t kissed each other since we both wore diapers, and adults encouraged it thinking babies kissing were cute.   Dave’s eyes lit up. “Oh… You’re right. Maybe we don’t need games to kiss.” Well, I had said it, and although I hadn’t thought of him in that way, we were two young teens wondering about the next stage of growing up. It wasn’t like it would go on any further than a few weeks this summer, while we were together. It wouldn’t be nearly as awkward as learning about kissing on someone we didn’t know as well. Maybe we would wait and see where this might go. No more was said on the subject until the two of us went to a movie together that afternoon. In the darkened theater his hand reached for mine. A little trickle of electricity seemed to run up my arm. This felt good. Perhaps chemistry actually could exist between cousins. Later when he bent toward me, I turned and leaned toward him allowing his lips to reach mine. Wow! This time the jolt was quite a bit stronger. The next kiss lasted longer and the movie had lost its appeal. Hum… We couldn’t risk letting our experimenting get out of hand. Maybe it was a good thing Dave’s summer job would be starting in a few days. That evening back in my bed at Jeanine’s house, I thought of the unexpected sensation I’d gotten when we kissed. I decided Dave and I couldn’t allow this to go further than a few kisses. We were enjoying it too much. We weren’t the wild type who would allow our emotions to get out of control. We had to limit our contacts. He would be working, and I had other cousins in the area I needed to visit. We couldn’t risk going back to his mom’s place when she wasn’t home. What we were doing wasn’t illegal. I knew first cousins who were married, but still it was frowned on and wasn’t something either of us wanted. It was shaping up to be an interesting vacation. For this little country girl, it would be a time in which I would grow from an awkward young girl, into someone who felt more capable of my ability to deal with whatever life tossed my way. On the other hand, I was finding out those things called hormones were something that should be labeled with warning stickers. Recognized Author Notes Another chapter in the book Growing up in Mississippi. For me the fifties were my wonder years. Some may have read a bit of this in another story

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