D. C. Donahue Books

Be Thankful, Grateful, Patient, Charitable, Kind, and don’t forget to smile, as it is infectious. HAPPY VALENTINE’S WEEKEND!!

I remember in the Fall of 1971, the local Catholic Boys’ and Girls’ High Schools (Monsignor Bonner and Archbishop Prendergast) were having a computer dance. They would enter your name and interest details and give you a number that corresponded to one of the girls’ numbers. I was a student at Upper Darby, the local public school. My parents allowed me to go because it was a school night. Just as an observation, it seemed then that if one of the teaching Brothers or Sisters at the Catholic school got up on the wrong side of the bed, they would get the day off.

A friend of mine stopped by, but before going, wanted to stop at the local hangout to see if the other guys in our crowd were going. I was at the time breaking away from hanging with these guys as they were doing some of the dumb things I did hanging out on the street corner in SW Philly a few years earlier. I blame it on the city water and the sheer number of kids, since my class was about 500 in a grade school of 3700 kids.

We stopped by the corner, and since I was one of the taller and older-looking guys, my friend Kevin—who I learned passed away a few years ago—and I were talked into going to get a beer with a friend’s older brother, who would drive us. We went, but no sooner had we gotten out of the car than a police car showed up. A chase through a schoolyard and back alleys ensued. We might have gotten away, but they have these things called walkie-talkies, and as we exited the alley, an officer was just leaning against his car, waving us over to have a nice chat.

Thankfully, his shotgun partner, also known as the chaser, was not happy. He was quite winded and had torn his pants during the pursuit. If it hadn’t been for his calm demeanor, I might have ended up with a serious injury from the large black flashlights they all seemed to carry back then. Looking back now, I can laugh at the foolishness of my youth, but I also feel a sense of regret, especially since the beer wasn’t even for me and left me feeling used. I apologized numerous times at the station and on the drive home to talk with my dad, which made for an interesting conversation. I can still see him sitting in the high-backed blue chair, reading his St. Joseph novena as I walked into the house with him, saying, “Why are you home so early?” I also wish I had a picture of his face when two cops walked in behind me and him, saying, “What did you do now, you creep!”

In the end, I decided not to hang out with most of that crowd anymore, and I learned that after their shift, the two cops wouldn’t need to buy beer because they split four quarts—two Budweiser and two Schlitz. Hopefully, that eased the pain of the chase and the torn pants.

Through it all, my biggest regret of the night was that I never made it to that dance. Interestingly, my wife of 50 years was allowed to attend that computer dance. She said her computer match never made it or showed up. Makes me wonder today if the computer would’ve got it right! Well, God and only the shadow knows