A Tale of Two School Girls

An experience in growing up.

  Once upon a time in the small town of Rosy Hall, Maryland dwelled a child named Monique.  Rosy Hall was a tiny town but boasted a bank, general store, feed store, a dance studio, and a post office.  At the time, the B and O Railroad made daily stops picking up passengers.  Most of the people who used the train worked in Baltimore City.

  Monique lived in a beautiful Victorian house with twinkling stained glass windows.  The house was situated in the middle of well-manicured lawns, shaded by two hundred year old Oak and Maple trees.  A six-foot high hedge encircled the perimeter of the yard.             

  Next door to her house was a general store owned by the Piccard family.   Mr. and Mrs. Piccard had two children, Carol, who was much older than Monique was, and Jimmy, who was six years old.  They also had two beautiful dogs, a collie named Susie, and a big old sloppy boxer known as Max.

  There were very few girls for Monique to play with in Rosy Hall.  The one other girl, Fiona, lived past the bank and Monique was not allowed to leave her yard.  Her mother did not want her playing with the next-door neighbor, Jimmy or his friend Rodger, and rightfully so.  Jimmy was a soft, fat, bully and ruled over the other neighborhood children.  Since his parents owned the general store, Jimmy would steal candy to use as a teaser to get the other children to do his bidding.

  One summer Saturday a stately strawberry blond woman came to visit at Monique’s house.  Monique’s father, Jack refinished metal antiques.  He polished and repaired lamps, brass beds and all types of items for the churches in Baltimore City and the surrounding area.  The woman who came to visit was Mrs.  O’Donnell and she had brought her daughter, Ginny along with her.

  Mrs. O’Donnell thought she was very important, and walked about with her nose very high in the sky.  Whenever she came to pick up items, she had left for Mr.  Winter to polish, she smelled of horse poop.  She would be dressed in gray overalls, riding boots covered in mud, with her hair combed into an upswept French twist, which was very fashionable at the time, and bright red lipstick.  O’Donnell’s hands were always red and her completion was a ruddy harsh pink color.

  She would park her old pickup truck in the driveway.  As she walked past Mrs. Winter’s flowerbeds, she would pull a bloom from the hibiscus bush or a rose from the garden.  Mrs. O’Donnell would place it provocatively behind her ear.   She would flirt outrageous with Monique’s father.   Mr. Winter would just smile, and indulge her silly antics.   Mrs. Winter was far more attractive than Mrs. O’Donnell.

  Unknown to Monique, Mrs. O’Donnell, and Mrs. Winter had discussed the girls becoming playmates.  As Ginny had three brothers, she was left to her own to play.   Since the girls could not walk to each other’s homes, Mrs.  Winter would sometimes drive Monique and leave her to play at Ginny’s house.

  Ginny lived in an old run down farmhouse.  There were cows and horses in the fields.  The old barn was in need of paint.  They would play with their dolls in the barn and search for kittens.  Mr. O’Donnell was a Chief Petty Officer in the Navy and was seldom home.  Monique never saw Ginny’s father the entire time she knew her.   The girls became close friends during the summer.  When school began in the fall, they would see each other during the school day.  At the time, Monique was in the second grade and Ginny was in the first grade.

  They would play dodge ball with the other children and walk holding hands   as young girls do.  They were assigned to the same school bus route and always sat together.  Monique was a very trusting child and did not see the mean teasing Ginny indulged in with the other girls.

  As the grade school years passed, Mrs. O’Donnell would include Monique in trips she would take with her children to York, Pennsylvania, one Saturday each month.   The O’Donnell’s were Catholic and went to St. Joseph’s Church In a little town called Texas north of Baltimore.  Mrs. O’Donnell did not want the priest at St.  Josephs to know what their sins were, thus they went to confession at St. Mary’s Church in York.  Monique’s family was Episcopalian, and went to St. Thomas Church in Parkton, Maryland.

 

  Monique relished the Saturday trips to York with Ginny and her brothers.  She thought Ginny was pretty and clever.  She loved being included in her activities.  Mrs. O’Donnell would drop the children off and disappear for hours.  She would be shopping at the BonTon or Jacks Department Store downtown.  Monique would sit in the last pew at St. Mary’s waiting while Ginny and her brothers said their confessions.

  The church was exquisite with gigantic stained glass windows and hundreds (or so it seemed) of red candles flickering in the semi-darkness.   After confession, they would walk a few blocks to the playground.  As they got older, the girls would walk downtown to window shop.  Monique and Ginny would make their way back to the park and wait with Ginny’s brothers for Mrs. O’Donnell.  The day would be topped off with a stop for ice cream at Mac’s Ice Cream Parlor.

  When Monique was ten years old, her mother decided to leave her father.  By now, she had a little brother, Robert, who was five years old.   Mrs. Winter left Rosy Hall in May of 1958.  They moved into a little house in Catonsville, Maryland, a suburb of Baltimore.  Mrs. Winter had gotten a job at City Hospital, and she had a boyfriend, Sam.  He was an extremely pleasant man, but not interested in raising two more children.  Sam was divorced and had three children of his own.

  In September, Monique and Robert enrolled in the Baltimore city school system.  Robert did not have any problems getting into the first grade groove.  Monique, on the other hand, was way behind in the work the fifth graders were doing at her new school.   She did not know the lessons and was “let back” a year.  To make matters worse they would move again the following summer.  This time Mrs. Winter moved to Cockeysville and Monique would go to another school for the sixth grade.  Robert, again, had no problems with a new school or making friends.          

  During the summer of 1961, Monique’s parents reconciled, and they moved back to Rosy Hall.   She would be going to Parkton Junior High School in the fall for the seventh grade.   As chance would have it, she would meet up with Ginny on the school bus.  However, her relationship with Ginny would never be the same.

  While Monique was not living in Rosy Hall, Ginny became best friends with a girl named Maria.   Maria was very pretty and an accelerated student, who also lived in Rosy Hall.  Maria lived about five miles from the center of Rosy Hall and was one of the last stops for the school bus.  When Monique got on the bus the first day of the new school year, she saved the seat next to her for Ginny.   When the bus approached Ginny’s stop, she got on with two of her brothers, Buster and Lenny.   To Monique’s surprise Ginny sat in front of her, turning to Monique, she said, “I am saving MY set for Maria, we are best friends now.” Ginny quickly snapped around in her seat, turning her back on Monique.  Monique was crushed.  Ginny had not even said hello.  When Maria got on the bus she sat with Ginny, they giggled and whispered glancing back at Monique, but never speaking to her.  That was the first and last time Monique ever cried over the loss of a friend.

  As the high school years passed, Monique only saw Ginny in the hallway corridors going to and from classes.  Monique was in a Commercial program and Ginny was in Academic studies.  Their social circles would never meet again.   The only time Ginny ever spoke to Monique for six years, was to ask her as they passed in the hall, “Have you seen Maria? Have you seen Maria?”  Monique always told her the same thing, “No, haven’t seen her,” even if she had.

  There was some justice for Monique in her senior year.  Ginny was a cheerleader.  In their senior year, a new teacher was hired for twelfth grade English, Miss.  Hoffman.  She was young and in command of the journalism class; she was also the Cheerleading coach.  Apparently, Miss. Hoffman did not like Ginny, and kicked her off the cheerleading squad.   That was about all Monique ever heard about Ginny.   During Monique’s years of high school, Donna, Sandy, and Joy had replaced Ginny’s friendship.  Monique’s friends were always kind to others and never stooped so low as to make fun of anyone.

  That is the tale of two schoolgirls, who would eventually meet up forty years later.  Monique would try to rekindle a friendship that never was.  She would be horribly hurt by Ginny’s razor sharp tongue and mean gossip.  It seems that Ginny, in all the years that had passed, never moved on from senior high school mentality.  She was still a mean little girl who relished in the hurt she inflected.

  Monique, on the other hand, had revisited that age-old lesson… you can never go back.   However, you can go forward.            

December 14, 2009   Judy M Crouse

Reviews

[Eileenws]

This is an amazing story of how Monique's parents' break up and reconciliation made an impact on their daughter and her life. I kind of want to hear Ginny's side of the story but she will have to write her own story! I'm not sure I agree with with that the friendship never was. It changed. I like the ending, you can never go back, only forward. Eileen

[Judy]

Thanks for reading my story and your very kind words. Regarding Ginny..we will never know will we. I remarked, with a smile. Thanks again.