Throwback Thursday - The Notebooks

To clear up some confusion, the Notebook passages posted on Throwback Thursday were written by my father and found by me after he passed away. They were his attempt to tell the family history. He was in his late 80s or early 90s when he wrote them. Today's chapter:

At that time, the Arnolds lived in a two family house, a short distance from the bus barn and next door lived a family that owned their house and they had two daughters and a son. The younger of the daughters was my age and we began to get friendly. She was a nice blue-eyed blonde. They were Irish and her name was Elizabeth. "Betty". At the time, she worked at New England Telephone and Telegraph.

On some nights that I was off, I would ask Doris to go to the movies with me while Charlie baby sat. Sometimes I would babysit.

Eventually, I asked Betty if she would go to dinner and the movies with me. She accepted.

I told Doris about my date and she said "wonderful" and also said to get her a little corsage, not expensive and to make sure that I held doors for her and not to let the restaurant waiter seat her. She said make sure you do this.

So when the hour came I went next door to pick up my date and it was a nice evening.

And other nights, I would play ball with her brother.

Betty and I began dating more often and we began to become a two-some.

In the Fall, I began taking college courses, which was the start of my getting credits for graduation in the future. Anyway, it put me on the route to become a social worker. Which made Charlie happy, that I would follow in his footsteps. He was also becoming more and more my mentor.

In the meantime, Betty and I began dating more often and this would cause some fears for her parents. That our relationship would lead to a situation where they felt that it would take time for me to complete my studies and while she and I did not consider any future plans. Her parents were not happy that she was not dating other young men.

Our relationship continued and it looked like more of a courtship.

Anyway, unbeknown to me at the time, her parents talked to Charlie as to my prospects and how much time would it take for me to complete my education. Of course, at m y rate it would take more than 4 years. [ed: Dad was enrolled in Portia College and taking classes at night]

The talk with Charlie occurred in December of my second year. We were still minors at the time. [ed: under the age of 21]

At that time, Charlie had moved much earlier that year, after some difficulty with his landlord and most of the year was spent at Brigham Road in Waltham. A much better place as it was a single family house.

I had bought some presents for her and gave them to her. Not long after Christmas of that year, I went home. When I got back to the Arnold's, I went directly to my room and saw on my bed, the gifts that I had given Betty and wondered what the hell the problem was.

I went downstairs and Doris was distressed. She told me that I had gone up too fast and she didn't have time to be able to talk with me. And she explained. But that crushed me. I wondered why for weeks. And that was when Charlie explained the confrontation with Betty's parents. But he did leave it with them. That if we disregarded the decree of her parents. Who were concerned that it would take too long a time for me to finish my college with a daughter that would also be older who was ready for marriage at that time. And in the interim would I still be there for their daughter as I would find someone else at school.

The situation shattered me and Charlie said I should not hold anything against Betty as she probably felt the same way. Big deal it didn't help me.

[ed: Dad had told me this story before, but had mentioned something else that concerned Betty's parents. He didn't put this in the Notebook. The main reason Betty's parents wanted to break up the young couple was that Dad was Italian. There was a lot of prejudice against Italians at this time. The sensational trial of Sacco and Vanzetti was probably still fresh in people's minds.]