SOME ENCHANTED EVENING

SOME ENCHANTED EVENING
One warm summer Saturday evening in July 1949, Jack Meltzer phoned telling me he was invited to a sophisticated lawn party in Brookline, and he wanted me to go with him. A big crowd was expected, and though he knew the hostess, Ginny, he knew no one else, and he needed me to join him for support. When 1 protested mildly, he assured me that my crashing the party would not be noticed, that Ginny would probably be happy to have another male body in attendance. Well, not having a date that night, and not having anything else to do, I accepted Jack's invitation. He was right. No one noticed I was a "party crasher". I don't even remember meeting Ginny.

Jack and I were greeted at the front door of a very nice upper middle class house in Brookline. We were offered "purple passions", a purple drink presumably spiked with vodka, and then directed out back through sliding glass doors to the lawn party. The lawn was decorated with lanterns and there were tables with hors d'oeuvres and pitchers of more of those purple passions.

A hi-fi system was blaring music, drowning out lots of inane conversation. A few people were dancing. Jack disappeared leaving me to fend for myself. I found a small group of people who sort of included me in their conversation. They knew one another and gossiped about people I didn't know. I began to feel I had made a mistake in accepting Jack's invitation, when he re-appeared and told me he had met a girl who was perfect for me. Jack said this girl was too tall for him. Jack was just about 5 feet tall.
Well, Jack introduced me to a girl who was 5 feet 3 inches, and not too tall for me. "Beryl, this is the friend I was telling you about. Irwin, this is Beryl", and he left, presumably to find a girl his size.
I gave Beryl the "once over". She was a pretty, petite red head with a sexy body. I liked the looks of what Jack found for me.
Was it love at first sight? No. I was just glad to get away from the gossipy group, and it turned out that Beryl had the same feelings. 1 don't know what Jack told her about me. He probably told her I was a rich lawyer. I dispelled that fiction. I did have a few clients, but except for living at home with my parents, I was a "starving" lawyer. I found out a little about her. She was a pianist studying at the New England Conservatory,, she lived with her parents in an apartment on York Terrace in Brookline,- she had just broken off with a boyfriend and was quite upset, and she came to Ginny's party only to stop her mother's nagging to get out, and because Ginny sent some nutty guys driving a Rolls Royce to fetch her. She said she was glad to meet a "normal" guy. (That was me.)

I don't remember all the conversation, but it appeared that we were getting along pretty well. "Some Enchanted Evening" from South Pacific was playing on the h-fi, and I suggested dancing. While dancing I risked asking, "Would you mind terribly if I kissed you?" She was taken a bit by surprise by my "daring", but she said "No", so I did. It was a kiss that I still remember. I didn't tell her until years later, that my brother had told me to use that line. He said it always worked for him. In those days, a kiss on a first date was quite an accomplishment for a guy. When Jack and I drove her home, I walked her to her front door, got a second kiss and I told her it was an "enchanted evening". We made a date for the very next Saturday evening. By the time Jack dropped me off at my house, I was in love.

Some Enchanted Evening became "our song", slightly modified to "you will see a stranger across a crowded (room) lawn". Pretty romantic, eh? Two years later, it was the bride and groom's song played for the traditional first dance at our wedding reception.