Jimmy’s Conundrum

Did You Ever Have to Make Up Your Mind?

The Lovin’ Spoonful

Jimmy’s Conundrum

Jimmy was in love.

We were about 19 years old; it was the summer of 66, between our freshman and sophomore years in college. We were all home working at whatever summer job we had found that year. I had a factory job working night shift. I’m not quite sure what I started doing, but whatever it was, my job functions changed when my boss realized that I knew the alphabet and could type. He moved me off the night assembly line and put me in an office where I finished up work which the day shift clerical staff hadn’t gotten to. I liked working nights, but it did cut into my social life. Not that it mattered. I had no girlfriend to speak of.

I have no idea what Jimmy was doing that summer, where he was working. I do know it was a day job, and I suspect he got it through a family connection. That’s about how we all got our summer jobs. That’s all I know. Our shifts made it harder to get together, so when we did, we all had to make the most of it.

Jim did not have a girlfriend either. But he did have his eye on someone. Jimmy was smitten with the beautiful daughter of a prominent, old family in the community. She was a year or so older than we were. All of our families had known each other for decades. But different towns, different schools, different interests, and different ages had kept us socially apart. Her family was well known in the area. Her parents, aunts and uncles were close friends of my parents, aunts and uncles. They were a close-knit family, hard-working, and Irish. There was something else about them, as well, something which nobody who did not know the backstory would ever suspect. They were filthy rich. I mean filthy. Rich.

As the story goes, back in the day, during the Great Depression, their grandfather, a hard-working machinist, had been given a piece of advice by a friend. The friend had told Grandfather to scrape together every penny he had, any way he could, and buy up as much of a certain stock as he possibly could. The grandfather’s friend said that the stock was going for just pennies, but that it was guaranteed to grow later on.  Grandfather took his friend’s advice and did just that. No one knows just how much he got together, but it was a lot, given the circumstances. The stock was going for a couple cents at the time. He purchased all that he could afford. Over time, the Depression ended, and the stock grew in value. The company was Coca Cola. The family was loaded.

Somehow that summer, Jimmy met Kathy, the old man’s granddaughter.  She was beautiful and petite, with long, dark brown hair and bright blue eyes. She was as nice and friendly as could be – and unattached. Jim fell in love. Fell hard; fell deep; fell head over heels. He was giddy from that point on.

“Sometimes there’s one with deep blue eyes, cute as a bunny
                 With hair down to here, and plenty of money…”

We, of course, teased the hell out of him. Was he nuts? Why would a girl like Kathy fall for a guy like him? She was too nice a person to ever be mean to anyone, but she probably did not really know that he was even alive.

Jim was not a jock, not a stud or natural-born chick magnet. What he was, though, was brilliant, funny, and cool. Blond, sharp-witted, and charismatic, he was a natural-born leader simply with his presence.  People loved to be around him. That established his prominence in our friend community. His natural confident all but guaranteed that Kathy would fall in love with him.

We gave him hell all summer long over the dilemma he had gotten himself into. In the evenings, after our summer jobs, the guys would cross the PA border into NY, and hit our current favorite bar, Tommy’s In Crowd. All the guys and several of the girl friends would commiserate with him and share their best advice. All that advice was based on our collective world of experience, of course.  And all while the Lovin’ Spoonful played on the AM dial and on the juke box. I joined whenever I could. Working night shift, I was always caught up on the latest news on the weekends.  By then, there was always a lot to catch up on.

By this time in our lives, we were all well old enough to drive. That helped Jim’s situation. Having summer jobs provided a bit of cash, and our proximity to New York state allowed us to go into bars for a drink.  As I remember, Kathy was working at the same plant where I was working but had a day-shift job like most of our friends. It will forever be a mystery, but somehow, somebody invited Kathy to meet up with friends at our favorite pub, Tommy’s. And somehow, Jim happened to be there, too.

As the story went, they had a drink with the group and got to know each other a bit. Kathy had no idea that it had all been planned. She was there with friends and enjoying herself. Almost unimaginably, Jim was one step shy of tongue tied. But he pulled it together and they talked.

With work the next day, Kathy and her friends left early. Jim and the boys stuck around – to debrief, as it were. The guys were having a great time giving him hell, but he was numb. All he could think about was the next night. For sure, she would be back the next night. He had be better prepared the next night. And so it went for a few nights.

One night, after the initial shock wore off and he’d had a couple drafts, Jim gathered enough courage to ask Kathy to go out on a date, a real, just-the-two-of-us date. She said yes. When I heard about it, I volunteered to double with them. That way they’d each have backup if the conversation lagged or anyone felt uncomfortable. I wasn’t surprised when he declined my offer, though.

They set a time and planned to go to dinner at someplace nicer than Tommy’s. Jim borrowed his sister’s car, a light blue, unsafe-at-any-speed Chevy Corvair. He washed it, gassed it up – and did just about those same things to himself. He was primed and ready for the first real date with the love of his life.

That was just before disaster struck.

Jim drove to Kathy’s house, parked the Corvair and went to the door. Kathy’s sister Ann answered and let him in. Ann and Jim had not met previously. Like her sister, she was beautiful. Petite. She, too, had a sincere, warm smile. And as she was another year older than Kathy, she had just a touch more ‘maturity.’ Jimmy was in love. Again.

“Sometimes you really dig a girl the moment you kiss her
  And then you get distracted by her older sister…”

Jim and Kathy went out on their date and had a good time. It was only good and not great because Jim, now, had a real conundrum to deal with. Which sister did he want to like more? Which one would he have the better chance of wooing over? That was cause for some heavy discussion at Tommy’s for many nights to come.

“When in walks her father and takes you in line
And says “Better go home, son, and make up your mind.”

Kathy and Ann’s dad did not step in and take Jim aside. The only people who knew about his problem were Jim, every guy in town, half the girls, and, of course, Tommy, the bartender. Tommy, though mature and experienced in the ways of the world, did not step in with any advice.

Summer was coming to a close. Jim was no closer to a solution top his predicament than he had been all season. Remember, this whole thing played out over the course of not much more than one month. Six weeks, max. Jim went from not knowing Kathy to falling desperately in love to having a real date to meeting Ann to falling desperately in love again to, to, to – to who knows what! School would be starting up for the fall semester soon. Jim, Kathy and Ann would all be heading back to their separate universities spread up and down the east coast. Jim’s big predicament then was deciding which sister to write to or to call once everybody had split. If he wrote or called one, the other would know. And vice versa.

Over beers at Tommy’s, we finally persuaded him to just let it – let them – go for now. If it was meant to be with Kathy or Ann, somehow he’d know. Somehow. And there was always Christmas break. With one long semester in the middle.

That September, we all made it back to school. Jim had not made up his mind; Kathy and Ann were both out of his life, at least temporarily. And that’s when the Fates stepped in one more time.

It was the first party of the year. We had all gathered in a pair of rented rooms at the back of a local motel. Although we were in PA, people knew people who were 21. We had secured enough ‘stuff’ to make a bucketful of our special party blend which we called Sneaky Pete. A couple of the girls who had helped Jim survive the summer brought a new friend, Melody, with them that evening. She was beautiful, petite, with long blond hair. She was friendly and outgoing without being outrageous. She fit right into the group. As it turned out, she had no sisters, only two younger brothers.

Before we’d made a dent in the bucket of Sneaky Petes, Jim was smitten. It was going to be one hell of a semester.

“There’s so many changes, and tears you must hide
Did you ever have to finally decide?”

Coda: Ultimately, Kathy married the son of a prominent dentist in our hometown. Ann married an attorney and moved away, as I remember. Jim and Mel dated for a year or two before they broke up. Jim never married.  

Sure, he dated; he had girlfriends. 

But he never made up his mind about anyone after that summer.