Entry 19611109 - Backstory 1

_November 9, 1961, Milford, Ohio_


"Fran! You're going to be late for school!" Esther Sorkin called down the hallway.

"I'm almost ready, Mom!" Fran called back.

Her mom was wrong, because the school building was less than three blocks from their three-bedroom ranch on Brandon Avenue in downtown Milford, Ohio. Next year, though, she'd have to ride the bus, because they were opening a brand new High School about four miles away, on the very far east side of town. But school wasn't her priority; her priority was Benjamin Goldfeder, the dreamy, drop-dead gorgeous son of the Rabbi at Adath Israel, the synagogue in Avondale which they attended.

Fran was extremely happy that the dance was on a Thursday, as a Friday evening dance would have been difficult for Ben to attend. The fact that Friday was a day off from school due to Veterans Day meant they could stay out until Fran's weekend curfew of 11:00pm. Had it been a school night, she'd have had to be home by 9:00pm, which would have been before the dance ended.

Ben didn't go to Milford, but she'd invited him to take her to the Sadie Hawkins Day dance, and he'd agreed. The best part, beside him being a total dreamboat, was his 1959 Cadillac Sixty Special. Well, his dad's, but he'd be driving later that evening. Fran finished putting on her makeup, tied back her long black hair with a pink ribbon, then left her bedroom.

"Morning, sleepyhead!" Joshua Sorkin, Fran's dad, called out.

"She wasn't sleeping!" her younger sister, Elizabeth said. "She was primping even though Ben won't see her until after school and she'll have a chance to put on more makeup!"

"Hush!" Esther Sorkin said to her thirteen-year-old daughter. "I can't think of a nicer boy to take her to the dance."

"Fran and Ben, sitting in a tree, k-i-s-s-i-n-g! First comes..."

"Shut up!" Fran ordered.

"Francheska!" her mom exclaimed. "That's not ladylike!"

Fran glowered at her mom. Once again, her little sister got away with teasing her about boys.

"Yes, Mom," Fran said, not wanting to do or say anything that might interfere with her date with Ben, which meant Elizabeth could get away with it.

Elizabeth smirked and made loud kissing noises.

"That's enough, Liza," Joshua Sorkin said. "Fran will behave like a young lady should, and Ben will behave as a young gentleman should."

Fran kept silent and focused on eating her Corn Flakes, because she really liked Ben, and if he asked her to kiss, she would, but that was something she did NOT want her parents, or in many ways worse, her sister, to know. That would be the biggest benefit of going to the High School - not being in the same building as her bratty little sister! And then Fran was going to college, and definitely not living at home.

She wasn't quite sure what she wanted to study, but she'd found psychology and philosophy very interesting. She didn't want to teach, so most likely she'd study psychology, but she still had a year to think about it before she had to apply to colleges. Fran pushed that out of her mind, finished breakfast, and after rinsing her bowl, she grabbed her books, kissed her parents, and left for school, not wanting to walk with Liza.

"Hi, Frannie!" her friend Allison, who was a Senior with flowing strawberry blonde hair, called out as Fran stepped onto the sidewalk.

Allison, who had Beverly with her, hurried to catch up so they could walk together. Beverly was one of the wildest and craziest girls in school, and was a lot of fun, but Fran's parents didn't like Beverly because she had a 'reputation', one which Fran knew from Beverly's stories was well-earned, and Beverly wore it like a badge of honor. Every boy in Milford hoped to get a date with Beverly, but most of them never had a chance.

"Hi, Allison! Hi, Beverly!" Fran called out.

"Cute dress!" Beverly observed. "Is that what you're wearing tonight?"

"No, I'm wearing my pink blouse and gray skirt," Fran replied. "The skirt with the rose on it."

"Careful you don't get pricked!" Beverly teased.

"I'll 'prick' you if you want, Beverly!" Bobby, a boy who lived on the same street as Allison, and who was wearing his usual blue jeans, white t-shirt, and leather jacket called out.

"Fat chance, Bobby Block!" Beverly said. "Stick to Allison, she's more your speed!"

Allison rolled her eyes, "As if I'd go out with him after that comment!"

"You asked him to the dance tonight!" Beverly said, laughing. "So, if he's playing 'backseat bingo' it's with you, not me!"

"Your bingo card is full!" Fran teased.

"You can play more than one card!" Beverly laughed. "They do that at the Catholic church next to Milford Main on Bingo Night."

"Hi!" Jennie Peters said, coming out of her house.

Jennie was in second grade, so they had to stop their 'unladylike' conversation.

"Hi, Jennie!" the three girls said.

"Are you all going to the dance tonight?" Jennie asked.

"Yes," Fran replied.

"I wish I was fourteen!" Jennie replied wistfully. "Then I could ask a boy to the dance!"

"You're seven!" Allison protested

"So! I didn't say I'd kiss him. Yuck! But I'd dance with him!"

"Who?" Beverly asked.

"Kent McGrath!" Jennie giggled. "He's cute!"

"What grade is he in?"

"Third!"

"Ooh, an older man!"

Other kids joined them as they got closer to school, and by the time they went in the front doors on Lila Avenue, the group had swelled to fifteen. Fran and Beverly said 'goodbye' to everyone else and went to their homeroom with Mrs. Oligee, who Fran thought had been teaching since dinosaurs roamed Milford. She was an English teacher, and was really strict, but if you did your work and learned what she taught, you had an easy time writing papers for your other classes and not losing points for grammar or spelling.

"Beverly Thompson!" Mrs. Oligee reprimanded when Beverly gave Al Franks a kiss as she went by.

"Sorry, Mrs. Oligee," Beverly said. "Won't happen again!"

"That's what you said yesterday, young lady. And the day before!"

Beverly laughed softly, "Slow learner, I guess."

"And your grades in my class show it!"

Everyone in the class laughed, but Beverly simply didn't care. The most important part of school for her was her social life, which involved boys, and everything else took a backseat to that. Well, unless she was IN the backseat, a place she very much enjoyed being. And Al had a fast car with a big back seat, not to mention his other important attributes.

The school day dragged for Fran and her friends because they were all looking forward to the dance. Fran and Allison were good students, and liked school, but the day simply couldn't go fast enough for them.

"Do you think I should go parking with Bobby?" Allison asked Fran as they at their lunch in the cafeteria. "Beverly thinks I should."

"I think you should pay less attention to Beverly and do what you think is right! Beverly is lucky she hasn't gotten herself knocked up or had a dose of the clap!"

"Do you think she really does all that stuff she says she does?"

"I don't have first-hand knowledge, but given how happy her boyfriends are, I'd say she does. I mean, how does she know some of the stuff she knows? They sure didn't teach that in health class and my mom sure didn't tell me about it!"

"Health class?" Allison laughed mockingly, "two minutes about that time of the month, then the rest of the hour about not doing anything 'inappropriate' without actually saying what it was we aren't supposed to do!"

"Well, at least both our moms thought having the 'birds and bees' talk was OK. You know most of our friends learned from us or Beverly who decided to take matters into her own hands!"

"I don't think it was her hand!" Allison giggled and blushed. "Though maybe at first."

"Just be sure," Fran said. "It's not like you can undo it! And you don't want a reputation like Beverly's."

"But she's popular and has a lot of fun!" Allison replied.

"What would you do if you got pregnant?" Fran asked.

"Curl up and die! The old man would totally lose his mind!"

"Then don't be dumb!" Fran warned.

She totally understood Allison's feelings, as thinking about Ben made her squirm when she sat in the bench at the synagogue. And it made her squirm in her seat in the cafeteria, as those strange feelings in the pit of her stomach made her want to do exactly what she's just warned Allison about.

"Do you think Beverly really was with Mr. Carlton?" Allison asked.

Mr. Carlton was the gym teacher and Fran thought he was handsome.

"I think Beverly talks WAY too much," Fran said. "They could get in real trouble if it's true, even though Mr. Carlton isn't married."

"But do you think?"

"I think she probably did," Fran said. "She said she was going to get an older guy to be her first when she was a Sophomore and we were Freshmen."

They finished their lunch, and then went out to the playground to hang out with Bobby and his friends who were smoking. Allison accepted a cigarette but Fran declined. Most of her friends smoked, but she'd never had even one cigarette because she thought it was a nasty habit. Nobody in her house smoked, for which she was grateful, but her grandmother, who'd grown up in Russia, was a chain smoker.

It was her Russian grandmother who'd insisted on her middle name - Vladimirovna. Vladimir was her grandfather's name, and her grandmother had decided that had Fran been a boy, her name would have been Vladimir. Fran's dad had put his foot down against naming Fran 'Vladimira' or some such thing, and her mom had chosen 'Francheska', though she always went by 'Fran', or, occasionally, 'Frannie'.

The warning bell rang about five minutes later, and everyone trooped back into the building for afternoon classes. They didn't have gym class, though, because the gym was being decorated for the dance, which was going to be a 'sock hop'. Instead they had a study period, which Fran appreciated, because she could do her homework and not worry about it during the long weekend.

On Saturday morning, they'd line Main Street for the Veterans Day parade, but other than that, and their usual visit to the synagogue, Fran planned to read _Island of the Blue Dolphins_, a book Mrs. Oligee had recommended. It was the story of Juana Maria, the 'Lone Woman of San Nicolas Island', who had been left behind alone on an island off the California coast, and Fran was really looking forward to reading it.

The day finally ended, and Fran and her friends walked home. Fran was skipping dinner with her family because Ben was going to take her to Frisch's Big Boy before the dance. It was her first real date, even though she'd gone to dances before, it had always been just the dance. But now that she was sixteen, her dad would let her go on dates with approved boys, and Ben, being the rabbi's son, had no trouble receiving her father's approval.

"What time is Ben picking you up?" Esther asked Fran, later in the day, as Fran dressed for her date.

"6:00pm. That gives us plenty of time to eat before the dance. We might go for ice cream after the dance, if Allison and Bobby want to."

"Don't miss your curfew, Fran, or your dad will take away your dating privileges."

"I know, Mom!" Fran replied, annoyed that her mom felt the need to remind her.

"Don't take that tone with me, young lady, or the only thing you'll be doing tonight is sitting in your room!"

"Sorry, Mom," Fran said as sweetly as she thought she could without getting in trouble.

Fran finished putting on her blouse, then tied her hair with a gray ribbon which matched her skirt, then went to the bathroom to fix her makeup. She didn't use a lot, just lipstick, eye shadow, and a bit of mascara. She went back to her bedroom and checked herself in the full-length mirror her dad had installed on the back of the door to her closet, and was happy. She put on her saddle shoes, grabbed her clutch purse, and a white sweater, and went to the living room to wait for Ben to arrive.

At five minutes before 6:00pm, Fran heard a car in the driveway, but knew her dad would expect her to sit, ladylike, until Ben came to the door. Her dad would answer, and then bring Ben to her. Doing anything else would make her dad nervous, and that was the last thing she wanted to do. So while she was excited that Ben had arrived, she couldn't show it.

A minute later the doorbell rang and Fran fought the urge to get up. Her dad went to the door and greeted Ben, and reminding him of Fran's curfew, and asked what they planned to do for dinner, even though Fran had already told him. It felt like he didn't trust her and was looking for any difference in what she'd said from what Ben was telling him. After two minutes, her dad was satisfied and brought Ben into the living room. Fran stood up.

"Hi, Ben," she said demurely, trying to impress on her dad that she was acting 'ladylike'.

"Hi, Fran. Ready?"

"Yes. Dad, is it OK if we go?"

"Yes, Fran. Remember, 11:00pm. Not one second later. And dinner, dancing, and ice cream."

"Yes, Dad," Fran said, trying to sound sincere.

"Then you kids have a nice evening. I'll see you when you get home."

Which made it clear to Fran that he would wait up for her, which wasn't a surprise. She and Ben left the house, and he helped her into the passenger side of his dad's Cadillac, and then got into the driver's seat. Neither of them bothered with the newfangled lap belts as they were uncomfortable and Fran was worried they might snag her skirt. Fran's dad's Ford didn't even have them, and nobody she knew wore them. And it was silly, really, as they were only going about five blocks to Frisch's.

When they arrived, Allison, Bobby, Beverly, and Al were waiting for them, and they got a corner booth. They sat alternating, with Ben to Fran's left, and Bobby to her right, then Allison. Beverly sat next to Ben, and Al was next to her. They all ordered Cokes while the perused the menus and decided what to have. For Ben and Fran, it was a 'Big Boy Platter', though she didn't order it as a cheeseburger because it wasn't 'kosher'.

She'd sometimes order one when it was just her and Allison, but otherwise she tried to at least look the part of a faithful Jewish girl, even if she wasn't sold on the whole idea of religion. The traditions and rituals were nice, but otherwise, she wasn't sure any supreme being actually existed, let alone cared about what anyone did.

They ate, and after the boys split the check and paid, they left for the school which was close enough to walk to, though Ben and Fran drove so that Ben's car would be in the school parking lot. The other four walked, though Fran was sure Al's car was parked somewhere close, as she expected Beverly and him to disappear partway through the dance.

At the school, Fran handed over the two tickets for which she'd paid 25¢ each, which helped cover the costs of decorating the gym. The PTA was providing punch and cookies, so there would be no charge for those, though if you wanted a Coke, you had to pay for it.

They had a great time at the dance, and just before 9:00pm, the DJ put on slow songs and Fran and Ben danced close. She loved how strong he felt, how his arms felt around her. The feeling in the pit of her stomach grew strong, and when Ben tried to kiss her during the last song, she didn't resist. He kissed her a second time, and she felt woozy, and sighed deeply, resting her head on his chest.

She decided then and there if he wanted to go parking, she was going to say 'yes'.