that causes a reddish rash all over the body. In those days you could see Quarantine signs on houses to isolate the sick and keep the disease from spreading. This was before antibiotics and Scarlet Fever was a very dangerous childhood disease; it could lead to rheumatic fever or even death. So, shortly before my sweet sixteenth birth- day, I was taken by ambulance to the hospital, quarantined from friends and family and feeling terrible. No party, no friends, just bed rest and isolation for 28 days. When they finally allowed me to stand up, I couldn’t. All the muscles in my
THE HAYRIDE Our little sorority got the idea to have a hayride and to invite all our favorite boyfriends. By this time Betty liked another boy and invited him. At the time we didn’t even have a phone in our house, so I went to the corner candy store to call Sidney and invite him to be my date for the hayride. Despite the fact that I had barely said hello to him, he knew who I was and he accepted. This was two months before the date of the hayride. A month before the hayride I called Sidney again. My excuse to call him was to tell him he might want to bring a sweater because it could be chilly. Everything was fine with Sidney and our date was on. At five o’clock in the afternoon, on the day before the hayride, my front door bell rang. There was Sidney. His mother had informed him that his presence was required at a family wedding. So he was sorry but he couldn’t make the hayride. Needless to say, I was upset. I called my friend Betty and she said, “Don’t worry; I’ll get you another date.” She came to my house with a boy who didn’t appeal to me much. Since I didn’t have an alternative I agreed to take him as my date. I asked him what he would like to eat on the hayride and he said anything I would bring would be fine. I must have packed ten corned beef sandwiches, all with ketchup on them. It never occurred to me that the ketchup might go sour in the heat – which it did. It also never occurred to me that ten sandwiches were too many even for a growing boy. And the poor boy wound up having to go around trying to scrounge food from the others for something to eat. Oh well, you live and learn. On the way home from the hayride everyone was schmoozing to beat the band. I didn’t even hold hands that day, much less schmooze. The only good thing that happened was that one of the girls’ boyfriends said, “Look how nice Dorothy’s figure looks in a bath- ing suit.” SCARLET FEVER I guess nobody is too wise as a teenager and sometimes does things just to be “smart.” For instance, I walked home from Annie and Betty’s neighborhood many times in cold weather with my coat wide open, just because I thought it was smart looking. As a result, shortly before my sixteenth birthday, I contracted Scarlet Fever. Scarlet Fever is an infectious bacterial disease
legs had atrophied from lack of exercise. It took me a while to walk. Not exactly the sweet sixteenth birthday I expected. The hospital was filled with young interns who would go from room to room studying the various diseases. I was so terribly afraid and embarrassed that they would come and examine me that I hid under the covers, but they never did.
Sidney Albert - My First Boyfriend
Even after I was allowed to go home and was no longer contagious no one would come near me for a while. My friends, Annie and Betty, sang Happy Birthday to me from across the street. After a few days at home I decided to treat myself to a movie. I went all by myself one evening and heard later that Sidney Albert had called me. I was very excited. We made a date to see a movie. On the night of our date, when we left my house, there was a group of his friends waiting outside who didn’t believe he actually had a date. Sidney surprised them. We took the trolley to the movie theatre. It took Sidney quite a while to work up the courage to put his arm around me as we watched the movie but he finally did. When we got back to my house we were sitting on the couch and the family was all upstairs. While we were sitting there a mouse ran out from under the piano. I saw Sidney’s eyes blink. I pretended not to see it either. Neither of us said a word.
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