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sons (anD Mostly DauGHters) of tHe Blue anD WHite
other hand, had all been freshmen at Kensington during the prior year and thus had had experience with putting on a class Sing. Far more important, virtually all of them had already turned fifteen and were, therefore, going on sixteen. That’s pretty impressive, not to mention intimidating, to someone who had probably not even reached his full height and certainly didn’t yet shave. (For my sixteenth birthday, in November of my senior year, I was given a surprise party by, among others, a number of the girls who had been at the Lyric Committee meeting that day. My gift? An electric razor.) And it seemed as if every one of them smoked. They terrified me. All I could think was: how can I keep up with this group?
But Eddie Ornstein had served me well, at least in the very short run. I had done some smoking after the summer in Starlight when I had his Viceroy virtually forced on me. So, when I decided that one way to keep up with the ladies would be to smoke along with them, I was some- what prepared. I doubt that that strategy had an entirely positive effect, however; given the length of the meetings, I smoked a huge number of Marlboros, only to come home with both a headache and a strong dose of nausea. In addition, I would be reeking from nicotine, which my (smoking) parents ultimately picked up on. They actually bribed me to stop, but, unfortunately, I continued to smoke anyway; and I managed to be caught doing so by my father, who happened to be driving past Mid- wood at an unfortunate time. Most unfortunately, I paid off my debt to my parents, ultimately overcame the headaches and the nausea, and became a habitual smoker (until I was thirty-nine years old)—and a heavy smoker at that. How I broke the habit will be described at the appropriate time. (See Chapter Twenty-Four if you are overwhelmed with curiosity concerning this important point.)
My real breakthrough with the Lyric Committee—and, thus, with many of the girls—came when we finally got down to business to pro- duce the Sophomore Sing. Meeting after meeting went by with much discussion and no resolution concerning the theme, the premise for our musical playlet. Midwood Sing should not be confused with Color War Sing, although both were competitions. Each of the classes at the main
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