I was feeling disappointed as I dropped my coins into the fare box and walked towards the rear of the bus. Back in those days, it was not uncommon for a guy to send out a reconnaissance mission to see if a girl was interested in “going out” with him. I had heard that John was thinking of asking me to go with him to the “wedding of the century”. I thought he must have changed his mind, because he walked with me to the bus stop but never said a word about the wedding. As I was walking towards a seat at the back of the bus, John signaled from the sidewalk to open the window and when I did, he yelled up at me, “ Would you like to go with me to the wedding?” As the bus pulled away from the curb, I answered, “yes”. My cousin, Nancy, had a bit of a crush on John (she knew a good thing when she saw one) and she immediately expressed her disappointment that I accepted John’s invitation. I didn’t know what to say to her other than a quick, “gee, I’m sorry”, but I certainly wasn’t going to turn down the invitation!
Let me explain why I called this “the wedding of the century” although I guess you could say I am using a bit of hyperbole. So here is my explanation: The McKenna Family lived across the street from my cousin, Tom, and due to his proximity and the fact that he was the closest in age to me, I got to know the youngest of the 3 McKenna boys, Jimmy, quite well. To put it mildly, Jimmy McKenna was a bit of a wild child. He was as interesting as they come. I never forgot that he once told me that he hadn’t washed his hair for a year. Could this possibly have been true or was he just trying to shock me?? When he danced to one of his favorite songs, Cara Mia, he would have me stand on the tops of his feet, so we could rock back and forth in an exuberant, lively manner. It was amazingly fun! Although our connection was always platonic (I’m not sure if he ever really had a girlfriend back in the Popp’s Ice Cream Parlor Days as that didn’t seem to be on his radar at the time), nonetheless, I always liked Jimmy McKenna. He was energetic, enthusiastic, friendly and not the least bit boring. And, although I described him as a wild child, he was probably the tamest of the three McKenna boys. I still have a vivid snapshot in my brain of the first time I ever saw the middle McKenna boy, Jimmy’s older brother, Kenny. He was standing and leaning against the front door entrance to the Shamrock Bar and he was looking like nothing I had ever seen before. He was wearing cowboy boots and a cowboy hat tilted to one side of his head. He could have been the picture under the word, “brazen” in the dictionary. He had a devilish, shit-eating(excuse my unladylike adjective)grin across his face. He was handsome, too, in an out of control, wacky, insane way .
Once, for some reason, I sat at the same table with Kenny McKenna and Jack Cassidy in some little cafe-type place in Woodhaven, and I can’t explain why, but I remember actually feeling really scared - the energy radiating from the two of them was truly frightening. I remember wanting to get out of this place and away from Kenny and Jack as quickly as I possibly could. I’ve had several psychic experiences in my lifetime so perhaps it was a bit of a premonition. To be continued...
By the way, I met up with Jimmy McKenna and his lovely wife at Bob and Sharon Smith's 25th Anniversary Party and just had to take a photo. By the way, his hair looked just fine! LOL
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