In high school I met a young man named Herbert Kick and we became friends. He had just moved with his family to Phoenix from Youngstown, Ohio and hadn't made any friends yet. We had one class together. It was called THE ORATORIO SOCIETY. It was a high falutin' boys glee club. Since neither of us were athletic nor played a musical instrument we ended up in THE ORATORIO SOCIETY. Girls were in the SOCIETY too but our classes were separated by gender. We only came together when rehearsing for a program. The teacher for both classes was Milton K. Rasbury. We staged Handel's Messiah; sang the popular selections from the Broadway production of OKLAHOMA on the local radio station KOY; performed in various department stores during the Christmas season; and usually performed musical numbers in our high school dramatic productions, if they were musicals.
Herbert attended the First Nazarene Church at 5th avenue and Monroe in Phoenix and in doing so he learned that several teens attending there also attended Phoenix Union High School. On occasion I would go with him to church. It soon became a habit for the Nazarene Church kids to gather on campus at school and they welcomed me to be among them. One of the girls in this group who gathered with us was a girl named Roberta Burris. I soon noticed that she became intensely aware of me which caused me to become aware of her. The Nazarene kids were an active bunch of kids and I was always included in their activities although I often slept in on Sunday mornings and not joining them in worship services. They did have an altar call with emphasis on me but I sat stonily still and embarrassed until the preacher realized I was not going to make a move. Nevertheless, I was always a welcome member of the youth group.
We had many picnics at Papago Park. None of us had access to a car. The city bus line ran as far as 48th St.. and Van Buren. So we would all board the bus with our sack lunches and thermos bottles at the city bus terminal in downtown Phoenix and get off at the end of the line at 48th St.. and Van Buren and have a fun and hilarious walk to Papago Park. We would climb up into Hole In The Rock and explore the lagoons, etc. and eat our lunch in one of the ramadas and just have fun until time to return to 48th and Van Buren to catch the bus back to downtown Phoenix. Roberta and I were always together looking rather like a couple at that time! She was acting like she was in love with me but I felt no such intensity of feelings. I liked her as a girlfriend but "love" was not in the picture. There was also a time when somehow we obtained a car or two and the whole bunch of us made it to Apache Junction for a hike and picnic. Somewhere I have photos of that event but I can't find them after a disconcerting search through a ton of photos.
I rather think this one sided love affair lasted two years and Roberta's Dad lost his job in Phoenix and he found another one in a steel mill or foundry in Gary, Indiana. Roberta was teary eyed and she started writing long passionate love letters to me from Gary, Indiana. I liked to get the letters and was flattered to think she was in love with me. I will admit that her letters did fan the flame of love that was flickering around my heart but I was not ready for something that serious and she was putting on the pressure by telling me that she wanted to return to Phoenix and marry me. By that time I was out of high school and very much in love with a girl named Joan Cormier with whom I worked at Arizona Public Service Company (known as CALAPCO) at that time. I don't remember how I rid myself of Roberta or she rid herself of me (whichever was the case). In any event, many years later I learned from a mutual friend of mine and Roberta's that she did marry and had children and died at a young age of breast cancer. I hate to think of that being her fate and I hope her marriage was full of love and happiness. The friend did tell me that she did have children but I don't remember how many.
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