This is the story of THE STRANGEST ROMANCE I ever encountered. It didn’t involve me because I was then TOO YOUNG TO GO STEADY. I hadn’t even purchased my FIRST FORMAL GOWN yet. MOST PEOPLE GET MARRIED, under the ALLEGHENY MOON in this part of the country, but this couple said no to that. I kept telling them to GO ON WITH THE WEDDING, but they insisted it would be ANOTHER TIME, ANOTHER PLACE. I then suggested OLD CAPE COD, but they said THE WALL has ears, and if anyone found out they were eloping, it would be GOODBYE CHARLIE. I told them to TRUST IN ME and I wasn’t FIBBIN’ when I said it. They said: REPEAT AFTER ME: “I’LL REMEMBER TODAY and keep your secret. I swear this on a CROSS OF GOLD” Swearing on a gold cross made my heart go PIDDLY PATTER PATTER and I now felt like WITH MY EYES WIDE OPEN I’M DREAMING. They told me to HUSH, HUSH SWEET CHARLOTTE, and to GO ON HOME. I had my Walk-man on, so I trudged home with THE SOUND OF MUSIC in my ears, but the walk seemed like TWO THOUSAND, TWO HUNDRED, TWENTY THREE MILES, and as I thought about their rejection of me, I WISH I’D NEVER BEEN BORN. Being brushed aside like that left me with A BROKEN HEART AND A PILLOW FILLED WITH TEARS. EVERY TIME I think about that day, I want to throw MAMA FROM THE TRAIN for not letting me even go to their wedding when it finally happened. I had kept their secret and told no one. I’m proud of me. ljm
All in full caps are song titles from Patti Page records. You young whiper-snappers won't know from P. Page, but us ole farts will.