She heard him laughing through the door before she ever saw his face and she knew he was the one she would marry. Edie had just moved to Berkeley from Oregon and the other girls from the Five and Dime were always finding blind dates for each other from the Fraternities at University of California, Berkeley.
These boys were from the Jewish Fraternity, Sigma
Alpha Mu, the Sammies. Edie and her sister Ethel had never met any Jewish
people that they were aware of. But moving to the Bay Area meant new people and
new experiences and a very different Cosmopolitan life than the one they left
in Oregon. They were grown up shop girls now and were looking forward to trying
new things and seeing the world. Their girlfriend Miriam had accepted an
invitation from her beau, George, to go to San Francisco and go dancing with
his Fraternity brothers, Sam and Morty.
Edie pulled on her white gloves and checked her hair
again in the mirror, they were going into the City so white gloves and a hat
were de rigeur. She pulled the soft dove grey cloche a little farther over one
eye and winked at Ethel in the mirror. "Off for fun," she said, one
of their Mamma's favorite sayings.
Miriam introduced the boys all around and Sam gave
Edie a special smile. Sam's hair was pomaded within an inch of its life,
plastered down on his head like a painted on wig form. Sam was quick witted and sweet, when Edie saw
those big brown eyes that went with the laugh she was completely smitten.
"Are you girls ready for the big City? You got
your coats?" He clapped his hands and made a large gesture. He was wearing
a giant fur coat that could have been a little too warm for March. Edie gave the fur a look, "What a
beautiful coat!" she exclaimed.
"Thank you," Sam boomed, "My father is a furrier- he made
it just for me. It's foggy in San Francisco-
almost year-round. You'll especially need to keep warm on the Ferry!"
They piled into the old jalopy that the boys had all
put in $20 to buy and prayed it would get them to the Ferry. "It's getting up the hill to Nob Hill
that will really be the test," Sam said. They swooped down to Jack London
Square at the end of Broadway in Oakland
and got in line with the other cars waiting to board the ferry. They
could see the sun sinking over the hills and the Bay and the Golden Gate, it
was just breathtaking. "Beautiful!," Edie exclaimed, "I've never
seen anything so lovely."
"This'll warm you up," Ethel's date, Max,
said as he pulled out a little silver flask.
"My, aren't we the jazz babies!" Ethel
laughed.
Her carefully marcelled blond hair came a little loose in the breeze
as she took a long swig from the flask.
"Careful, Ethel, that's not coca-cola!" warned Max.
"You drink it like that and we'll have to buy
stock in Coca Cola" Sam laughed.
"Oh no," said Edie, "I'll keep my
money in a shoe box under the bed, those stocks are just pieces of
paper." "Wise lady, Miss
Wilson," Sam said, smiling with an extra glint of awe.
They arrived at Hyde Street Pier on the San
Francisco waterfront and made their way out into the bustle of Saturday night
in the City by the Bay. Sam kept up a running commentary of interesting facts
about the Barbary Coast madams and hooligans and robber barons.
"Remember Mama telling us about her brother
Charlie in the 1906 Earthquake?" piped up Ethel.
"Yes, she said he was looking for his wife and
he thought he saw her body lying in the street and then the police conscripted
him into a work crew," said Edie.
"He never saw her again," said Ethel,
reaching for the flask again and taking a long sip.
The old jalopy fought valiantly up the little rise
of Columbus street towards North Beach.
Morty almost side-swiped a Cable Car by whipping around it trying to
beat the light.
"Oh we'll never make it up Nob Hill- let's see
what jazz club we can find around here," said Morty, cigar jutting out of
his mouth towards the giant hill on the right with the sky scrapers lighting
the fog an impossible glittering spires of light.
"That car has some pioneer spirit," said
Edie.
"It
certainly has seen its share of ups and downs," winked George, Miriam's
date.
"Sam, isn't that where we waited tables last
week?" He pointed out a fancy dining room, with a crowd of merry makers
dancing inside a gilded restaurant.
"Yes, that's why I keep the coat on, so they
won't see me wearing my waiter's tux about town," Sam said.
They found a parking space and with much maneuvering
and Fraternity brothers hoping in and out of the car, managed to ease the
battered old workhorse into a spot.
"Wow, I feel like this has been enough of an
adventure for a week," Edie whispered to Ethel behind her compact and
puffed a little more powder on her nose, after all that exertion her freckles
would show again.
They entered a smoky club ballroom and a great
fussing of coats and furs were piled up on the poor coat girl.
"Drinks, ladies?" Sam asked as they girls
found a table.
"Bourbon and Soda," piped up Edie, the
first to chime in with her order.
"Same for me," said Ethel.
"I'll have a Coke" said Miriam.
Sam returned with the drinks as the band started
playing a lively Charleston.
"Oh my favorite," exclaimed Edie, "Do
you dance?" she asked Sam. Sam
proffered her a hand and off they went to the dance floor.
They were almost winded after a few turns around the
ballroom. Edie's shimmery green beaded dress had been shaking up a storm.
"What a lovely dancer you are," Edie said to Sam. "Yep, all the
charm money can buy," he joked.
"Where did you learn your skills, charm school, too?"
"Well, there weren't any charm schools on our
Socialist Commune I was born on," she laughed. The band shifted into a slower number,
"Let's Do It, Let's Fall in Love," by Cole Porter. The singer wore a long white beaded gown and a magnolia in
her hair.
"It would be rude to stop dancing now,"
Sam said and twirled Edie around.
On the way home on the ferry, Sam wrapped his big
coat around her and she said, "Won't you be cold?" and he laughed,
"I'll be warmed by the light of your smile."
