|
|
 |
 |
|
| Ruby Dee, actress |
Plucking the Cherry Berry |
|
|
 My first beau was the son of a friend of Mother's. I liked him enormously but at first I thought he was coming to see my sister. I couldn't imagine that this handsome man with the big, clear brown eyes and curly lashes had a heart that was lub-dubbing for me . . . Soon we were holding hands and going for walks . . .
One day, we walked to his house, but his mother wasn't home. We started kissing and groping. Part of me wanted to leave, but my curiosity and excitement dictated otherwise. It was then and there that he harvested the cherry berry. "Whoever plucks the cherry berry," it was said, "wins your heart forever. You can never forget him, no matter what." (Now what was that boy's name?)
There had to be more to it all than this. It's supposed to be mesmerizing, a bell ringer, a beautiful time in a young woman's life. All I had truly felt was some pain, a raging indifference and great disappointment with the whole business, which I tried not to show. Although he still came to the house, my main ambition now, it seemed, was not to hurt his feelings. I concluded that Mother was right when she said, "A girl doesn't need to spread her legs until she's married, except to wash or pee." (New York, late 1930s)
from With Ossie & Ruby: In This Life Together by Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee (Morrow, © 1998)
© 2001 Nerve.com, Inc.
|
|
|
|
|
