Interesting story. ( for me) 1950 at ten I started exhibiting symptoms. Loss of weight, fevers, infections and soak and wet night sweats. Slum kids on welfare don’t get much medical care. Leukemia was the answer and a horrible struggle until 1957 into the spring of 1958. Remission out of nowhere and my hair started growing back and I regained my mobility just in time to go back to school for the first time in years. A move from the project slums in San Francisco to Campbell, California and the first day I saw her with her boyfriend going to classes. Later that day I found her going into my English class with Mrs. Couch. A one-sided Love Affair at first Sight. Three months later she was walking to class without the boyfriend, so my hair was back and trained into a pompadour and a DA comb in back. Dark Blue nylon waist length jacket with white fuzzy lining, white t-shirt, tight pegged dark blue jeans and white buck shoes. From time to time I would flirt with her and call her beautiful as a nick name. I started walking her to class and carrying her books and running like hell to get to my class before the tardy bell rang, all very coolly. Finally, just before Xmas I was walking her to class and we stopped just across from the snack bar and I asked her if she wanted to go steady. She said she didn’t know and asked why she should. I was a bit stung. I had one pair of Levi’s, three T-shirts. 5 pair of socks and one pair of white buck shoes and my confidence dropped for a moment until I caught myself and said “If you don’t you’ll never know what you missed”. Really dumb, but it worked and she said alright. She gave me her phone number and I took her hand and we walked to her next class. Happiest day of my entire life now and then. She was intelligent, gorgeous and the most beautiful girl I would ever see again and for six months, mine. I never laid a hand on her, but my eyes adored her. It was always two drop dead gorgeous teens who looked like they were born for each other, but it was always a one sided love affair. 

I wanted to tell her that I had cancer and one day while we were walking she stopped, turned around and said she had a confession to make. My heart stopped, I thought “Oh No, she realizes I’m a loser and she’s going to dump me, why didn’t I see it coming”. Instead she told me that because of her English name no one knew she was half Mexican and her real mother had died of cancer when she was seven. Well now I couldn’t tell her about my secret and cause her to be afraid of going on with me and my dying from cancer. So for the next 6 months life was great. She was unfaithful a few times and left me without warning on my following birthday. I was stunned but I realized she took my mind off all my previous bad luck and the deep deep fear of dying for a 9 month period. Long enough to start to survive again and for that I will always thank her profusely and any pain I may have caused her I deeply regret and apologize. 

Well the cancer returned alright but not until I was 76 years old.

natejaeger@natejaeger.com

Interesting  story, (to me) Remember when we were heading to see my mother at my apartment across from the school on Dunster Dr? We stopped behind the Baseball Bleachers and we kissed. Out of nowhere comes Mr. Culp telling us to "stay right there". He came up and pretended to write down our names and sent us to the office. I told you to tell him that I caught you by surprise and it was a forced kiss. I don't know what you did do but our lunch periods were changed till the end of the school year. I ran into Mr. Crawford at San Jose State in the 70's and Mr. Crawford in the 80's  and had a casual conversation about how it all came to be. Mr. Clup said it was no accident. Your parents were very concerned about me, generally a loser at the school in many ways. So they worked out a supervision program with Mr. Ercig, Mrs. Couch and Mr. Crawford. Culp knew where my apartment was and watched us every day after the call from your parents. This was for weeks. He was advised of our movement toward the apartment which was a considerable distance from the school building area. When he was told that it looked like we were leaving Campus, he jumped in his car just behind his office and drove to Latimer and Dunster and parked. We came along, stopped and kissed and he rushed over to catch us. They were right and all of them did the right thing. Mr. Crawford said he had been successful in the past with other teenage romances. He said "Separation"  and  "Out of Sight and out of mind was a good formula until they could passively separate us" with the summer.  Me being Me and that plan worked. Mr. Crawford said Ms. Bull once told him you and your parents had a meeting at the start  of September 1959 to plan your classes  where Ms. Bull laid out my terrible Academic Record and advised all concerned I would probably interfere with a beautiful and intelligent girls success going forward, I was an outsider from the Ny and San Francisco slums in a beautiful Middle class Community that stood out like sore thumb with a greasy Elvis hair doo, dark jacket , t-shirt, pegged levis and white buck shoes. I remember the day we broke up and I took back my ring and dropped it over the outside walkway rail onto the dirt. Later that morning I went back to get it and it was gone? The next day we gave back each others  pictures and letters and you blurted out in a sweet way "You fibbed to me". "I said about what?" You said "Your grades last year". That alerted me to the fact that my grades had been discussed recently and had never been a problem before. I was so angry I demanded my delicate gold necklace back and I shoved  it into the adjacent garbage can because I knew you liked it. We only spoke two weeks later, on my birthday, on the school bus going to the Santa Clara football game when you said you broke up with me because your father said it was him or me. I spoke to the boy you brought with you to do the exchange, Ponce, and he told me some information about what was said after I left. I have always wondered why you came to school that morning wearing my ring, what happened to the ring after I tossed it

63 years ago you said yes to my offer to go steady!

62 years ago on 9/14/1959 you got off the school bus and said it was over. On my birthday 9/25/59 you made it final.

We didn't make it through the Summer ( seriously, my behavior with the school and your family) and the six months Dec 17, 1958-June 17, 1959

were the happiest and the saddest  days of my life.

 

NO, I DIDN'T FORGET OCT. 4, 2021 "HAPPY 77TH BIRTHDAY!

 

 

From 1960-2019 N0 One Ever Wanted to go on stage before me or after me, I wonder why!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

POWER AND PRESENCE