That summer, I spent my nights with the rest of the incoming senior class, at one of several popular spots in town.

A lot of us would go to the ice cream parlor, the drive-in, the hamburger joint, and the town park after dark. On weekends, one of the local bands would play under the pavillion, and sometimes that band was Frankie Delorsy's rock and roll band. Jane didn't usually come, although once or twice she showed up with Johnny Vilchrist. It was for these pleasures I largely abandoned swimming in the moonlight. In truth, there wasn't much at home, as Charlie had moved out and Peter was usually out at the ballpark with his own friends.

It was here that I learned to smoke cigarettes, hanging out with Ginny Rhuler and the guys in denim jackets who adored her. Ginny had a sort of mystique that way - her sweaters were always a little too tight and she liked to sit on picnic tables with her legs crossed, swinging the top leg slowly up and down. I never saw her in a skirt. Ginny didn't have a boyfriend from what I could see, though she was althernately rumored to be attached to Benny Jones and a guy I knew only as Biff. That summer, these two were always fighting, and I was the sympathetic ear to which Ginny vented her frustration. She often suggested that I would like whichever was currently out of her favor, though. In fact, I once got a ride home from Benny, and before I got out of the car I'd found his lips pressed against my neck, his hands moving on my knees. Whispering, he asked if I didn't want to go to the lake. I think I said something about work in the morning and left, and he laughed, revved up the engine and sped out of the driveway. When I told Ginny the next night she just laughed, and that night she went home with Benny.




"Yeah I'm the type of guy who roams from town to town. I'm never in one place, I don't wanna settle down..."