For the Duration: The War Years (9 page)

I don't want to brag, but the audience really loved King Neptune. There was so much applause. I was flabbergasted! I could see Dad and Tom standing up clapping.

The same was true of “Uncle Sam Gets Around.” It was very patriotic. Billy Burns stood on one side of the stage and I was on the other. Most of the Dancing School students were in the middle. Billy and I took turns reciting our parts. Then everyone sang, “Uncle Sam gets around, but he don't just drift. He's a-workin' and a-givin' everybody a lift.” The audience cheered. “Don't forget, we are at war,” the song seemed to say. “It's hard, but we WILL win!”

Everyone was doing a really good job with their dance numbers. Finally, Carol and Patty and Billy and I stepped out on stage doing our fox-trot box step. We sang, “We're the couple in the castle, way up high in the air . . .” “ Then we did our tap number. We were the stars of the recital!

When we came out into the auditorium after the recital, all the chairs had been moved aside so there could be dancing. Miss Leah always did that!

I could tell that Dad and especially Tom were very, very proud of me and Carol, Patty, and Billy.

“I think Cousin Morton had better watch out,” Tom said. (Morton Downey was our cousin and a famous Irish tenor who had a radio program.) “You might show him a thing or two.”

Then Tom slipped a SILVER DOLLAR into my hand. “This is for a great job, Timothy, me bucko.” Tom slipped a silver dollar into Carol‘s, Patty's, and Billy's hands, too. “Boy, Buddy doesn't know what he missed!” Tom said.

The small orchestra started to play and Carol and I did the fox-trot. Lots of people were dancing and having a good time. When the song was over, I went up to Miss Leah, who was wearing a long, beautiful gown.

“Miss Leah,” I asked, “may I have the next dance?”

“Why, of course you can,” Miss Leah said with a smile. So we danced all around the floor.

Soon it was time to go. We picked up Buddy at the Y and then went to Verdolini's for a pizza. Carol and her mom and dad were already there. We all squeezed into the biggest booth in the place and Carol and I ordered birch beer on tap, which was delicious. Dad said to the waitress, “We have some hungry performers here. We'd better have three large pies. A regular, a sausage, and one with the works.”

You'd think that I would have fallen fast asleep when we got home, but I didn't. I could hear Buddy snoring over in his bed, but I was still too excited. I thought about King Neptune. I thought about oysters. I thought about Billy Burns and me and Uncle Sam, and I thought about our dance, “A Couple of Couples.” Maybe I should be a dancing star instead of an artist, or maybe—just maybe—I could be both. Why not?

I wish I could write this all down in my diary.

Chapter Eleven

Every Sunday morning after the nine o‘clock children's mass at St. Joseph's, the Sisters of Mercy had Sunday school for all the kids that didn't go to St. Joseph's Catholic School. We were getting ready to make our First Holy Communion. I was in the beginning class. We were studying the beginners' Baltimore Catechism and had to memorize certain prayers like the Our Father, the Hail Mary, the Glory Be to the Father, and most important, the Act of Contrition. That was a prayer you had to say when you went to confession.

None of us had ever been to confession. Right before our First Communion we'd all make our First Confession. This was when you asked the priest to ask God to forgive all your sins. To do this, you have to go into a special place called the confessional.

It's like a big box with three sections. The Sister told us that the priest sits in the middle part and the people going to confession go in either side. She said that there is a little window that the priest opens (one side at a time) and then you tell him your sins.

You have to be very careful not to forget anything. Some of the Sunday school class are afraid that they'll do their First Confession wrong, because there is so much to memorize. I'm lucky I don't have to worry about that because I memorize things fast.

Next weekend is the Memorial Day holiday, so we won't have Sunday school on Sunday. We are going to have it on Friday after “regular”“ school. That's so funny—SUNDAY school on FRIDAY! We'll get to meet the kids from St. Joseph's School who will be making their First Communion, too.

Also on Friday we are going to have our Memorial Day assembly in King Street School. I will be in the Special Choir, which will sing the songs about the Army and Navy, Marines and Army Air Corps.

Before our rehearsal on Friday morning, Miss Mulligan, the fifth-grade teacher who plays the piano, asked me quietly if I would be all right. I told her that I thought I would be fine this time. And I was.

It was time for the assembly and our Special Choir sang our medley. Some of the other classes recited patriotic poems. One class did a Military Drill with cardboard rifles and a girl as the drum major twirling her baton.

Then Miss Burke, the principal, got up and spoke about the war. She said, “Boys and girls, I want you to know how important it is for us to tighten our belts
for the duration
.” She said we had to “support our troops” not only with “food and warm clothing, mittens and scarves, but with post-cards and letters.” She spoke about Victory Stamps and Bonds that we would be able to buy next school year right in school. Then she ended her speech by saying, “We should all support President Franklin D. Roosevelt even if we don't agree with him.” (I couldn't imagine ANYONE not agreeing with MY president.) All the teachers clapped.