Fourth Lake, Chapter 6

Judy woke Monday morning from a sound sleep, fully refreshed and fully alone, again.  She looked around for any signs of life and found none.  She called out Phil’s name and received no response.  She said it two or three times, to no avail.  Finally, she got up and searched the cottage.  Nothing!  She started to worry a little, again.  It was like twenty-fours hours had passed and nothing had changed.  Had he abandoned her on Fourth Lake?  Had he run off with his secretary?  Had he...

Judy looked out of the window with a view of the lake and saw Phil dressed in beige bermuda shorts and a white Penn t-shirt squatting by the shoreline looking out at the clear, blue water.  She put on her bathrobe and slippers and walked down to the lake to greet her husband who had not abandoned her after all.

“Good morning, darling.”

“Good morning, Judy.  All this nature’s so fantastic.  I’m glad you talked me into coming.”

“I wish you’d have wakened me.  We could have made love and then come down here together to enjoy all this.”

“Oh, you were sleeping so soundly, Judy.  I didn’t want to disturb you.”

She grabbed his t-shirt and pulled him towards her.

“Please, Phil, promise me that you’ll wake me the next time.  I want us to spend as much time together as possible over the next two weeks.  This place is beautiful.  I know that.  But, we came here because I want to know where we stand and where we’re headed.”

“Look, Judy, I guess I haven’t been the best husband to you, but I’m trying.  I’ve been working hard and I have a lot on my mind at the office.”

“I hope you’re not talking about your secretary.”

“Please, not again.  There’s nothing going on there.  Stop it.”

Tears came to Judy’s eyes.

“Phil, you’ve got to admit that she’s young and beautiful and I’m getting older and have had two kids and ever since she started working for you, you seem to have lost interest in me.  You never tell me you love me and never put your arms around me and you never say you want to make love to me.”

“Of course, I love you, Judy.  I wouldn’t be with you if I didn’t.  Maybe I’ve forgotten how to treat you and maybe I’ve been taking you for granted.  But, believe me, I love you, not my secretary.  Beside, you’re far more beautiful than she is.”

He kissed her lips like he meant it.

“Are you sure?”

“Sure, I’m sure.  Are you hungry?  Let’s go to the local market and we’ll buy some food.  And then I’ll make you a great breakfast of pancakes with butter and maple syrup.  What do you say?”

“Okay!  I need you, Phil, and I love you.  But, you’ve go to show me.  It’s important.”

“I know, Judy.  Let’s go.”

In the U.S. House of Representatives that day, the Judiciary Committee approved, by a vote of 28-10, a second article of impeachment as follows:   “President Nixon repeatedly engaged in conduct violating the constitutional rights of citizens, such as (1) endeavoring to obtain from the Internal Revenue Service confidential information contained in income tax returns for purposes not authorized by law, (2) by directing the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Secret Service and other governemental agencies to conduct investigations not related to national security, the enforcement of laws or any other lawful conduct of his office...”

When Phil heard it on the car radio, he said to Judy that “I’m sure every president has done something like that against one of his political opponents.  That’s nothing to get kicked out of the White House for.”

A presidential spokesperson denied that Nixon would resign.  He was confident that the House would not vote to impeach.  “We do not feel that it will go to the Senate.”  However, Senators Mike Mansfield, Hugh Scott, Robert Byrd, and Robert Griffin met to plan for the first trial of a U.S. president since 1868 (Andrew Johnson).  In addition, House Minority Leader John Rhodes estimated that the votes against the president would reach about 300, well over the majority necessary.  Rhodes was not a happy camper.  In a final piece of bad news, Howard Phillips, Nixon’s former Director of the Office of Economic Opportunity, announced the creation of a new organization called Conservatives for the Removal of the President.

Judy and Phil drove to Inlet’s only food store, which was smaller than anything like it in Little Neck.  After they had loaded their wagon they had to wait in line several minutes at the store’s only check-out counter.  That gave May Flanagan, the check-out girl, plenty of time to check out Phil, the handsome, new tourist.  She was a cute, 35 years-old brunette with relatively short hair.  Her husband had abandoned her about four years before to move back to Syracuse.  She loved living near Fourth Lake more than she loved him.  Unfortunately, there was a scarcity of men in the area.  As she was recording their purchases on the cash register, May kept an eye on Phil, who returned awkward glances at her.  Luckily, Judy was too occupied with packing groceries to notice the predatory female who was giving her husband the once over.

They loaded up the trunk of their car with enough bags of food and other necessary household supplies to last for a week.  Judy wanted to return one day to Woods Inn for dinner and perhaps go to the Laughing Loon for a drink, but she wanted to cook their meals in their cottage as much as possible to create a more intimate atmosphere between the two of them during their vacation on Fourth Lake. 

Later in the day, they took a swim in the lake from the píer in front of the cottage, which was built to accomodate the many boat people who liked to frequent this part of the Adirondacks with its many lakes.  In spite of the heat of the day, the water was neither hot nor cold, just very refreshing.  Judy was wearing a very small red bikini that showed off her flat stomach, especially for a woman who had given birth to two children.  Phil had on a pair of black Speedo swim trunks which showed off his manly physique. 

Judy swam over to Phil and put her arms around his neck and kissed his lips.  She looked into his eyes as adorably as possible.  Under the water, she wrapped her legs around his waist.  She wanted his full attention. 

“I love you, Phil, very much.  Do you love me?”

“Of course, I do.  You know I do.  I was just about to tell you.”

“How much?”

“You and the kids mean everthing to me.”

“Let’s not talk about the kids.  This trip is for us.”

“Okay.”

“Do you know what I’m talking about?  I don’t just want us to be our kids’s mom and dad.  I want us to be lovers, passionate lovers.  That’s what I want.  Is that what you want?  Maybe it isn’t.”

“Sure.  I want to be your lover.  I love you.  You’re a hot-looking woman.”

“I’m hot-looking, Phil?  Okay!  But am I too hot to touch?  Are my lips too hot to kiss?  Are my breasts too hot to hold in your hands?  Is my body too hot to feel on top of yours?  Am I too hot when you’re inside me?”

“Sure!  Sure!  Sure!  What do I have to say to satisfy you?”

“You have to prove it to me, Phil.  I can’t just take it for granted any more.  You have to prove to me how you feel about me.  This is your chance.  There are no kids here.  No clients, no colleagues, no family, no friends, no family nor neighbors to interfere in our lives.”

“You make it sound like a test.  You’re putting pressure on me, Judy.”

“Every day when you go to work, you have to prove something to your clients.  If you don’t, they go somewhere else.  Well, think of me as your most important client.  You’ve got two weeks to prove that you’re the best.  Otherwise,...”

“Otherwise what?”

“Look, it’s real easy, Phil.  If you put out the effort, I’ll meet you half-way.  But, you’ve got to show me.  If you just act on what you said, that you love me and that you want me, everything will be okay.  The problem has been that you haven’t shown me this over the last couple of years.”

“You know that’s because of my work.  It’s exhausting.  By the end of the day, I’m sapped.”

“Bullshit!  If you want me, you find the time and the place and I’ll be there.”

Judy got out of the water, went into the cottage, and then into the bathroom and closed the door.  She was dripping wet.  She had left her towel by the lake.  She sat on the toilet, leaned forward, put her face in her hands and cried.

Phil got out of the water and sat on the edge of the dock with only his feet dangling back in the water.  He stared out to the west where the sun was starting on its downward arc reaching near the peak of the mountain that stood on the opposite side of Fourth Lake.

Later, after dinner and after enjoying a gorgeous sunset together on their deck, Phil and Judy, without saying a word, went inside and headed toward their bed.  Judy pulled down the covers and started to disrobe.  Without taking her eyes off Phil, she slowly removed her blouse and then her bra.  Following her lead, he took off his tight-fitting t-shirt.  They laid down on the sheets from opposite sides of their king-size bed.  Phil got on top of Judy so that his well-toned pectoral muscles rested on her firm, but soft breasts.  With their arms wrapped around each other, they pressed their lips together and slowly began to make love.  Judy slept well that night.  She thought progress had been made.

________________________________________

I will be on vacation for the next two Sundays.  Watch for my next post on July 19th.    

                

Birth of a Nation

On May 10, 1775, the Second Continental Congress convened in Philadelphia to discuss the fighting that had erupted in Massachusetts between colonists there and the British Army.  Delegates from all thirteen of the original British Colonies were at the Congress.  On June 7, 1776, Richard Henry Lee of Virginia, based upon a resolution passed by his Colony’s Convention, proposed to the Congress that “Resolved: That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States.” On July 2, 1776, Lee’s resolution was approved by twelve of the Colonies.  New York gave its approval one week later. 

On July 4, 1776, the Second Continental Congress issued the Declaration of Independence which refers to the “Unanimous Declaration of thirteen united States of America.”  It concluded that “We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America...declare, That these United Colonies are...Free and Independent States.” 

The reference to thirteen, to an uncapitalized united, and to independent States is proof that the original thirteen British Colonies came together in the Declaration of Independence for the purpose of declaring independence from the British, for each of the thirteen States. 

The declared independence was, of course, rejected by the British.  It took until the signing of the Treaty of Paris on September 3, 1783, after seven years of war, for the British to finally accept the independence of those thirteen American Colonies.  In the first article of the treaty, “His Britanic Majesty acknowledges the said United States, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia to be free sovereign and independent states.”  

The original document, ratified on March 1, 1781, that governed the relationship among the thirteen newly independent States was the “Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union Between the States of New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia.”  Article 2 of that document declares that “Each state retains its sovereignty, freedom, and independence.”  Article 3 proclaimed that “The said states hereby severally enter into a firm league of friendship with each other.” 

As this league of friendship ultimately proved unsatisfactory, representatives from the thirteen independent States reconvened in Philadelphia to draft a new document, the Constitution of the United States of America.  The Preamble of the Constitution declares that “We, the people of the United States...establish this Constitution for the United States of America.” It was now the United States, not the thirteen united States. 

Article 7 of the Constitution proclaimed that, “The Ratifications of the Conventions of nine States, shall be sufficient for the Establishment of this Constitution Between the States so Ratifying the same.”  On June 21, 1788, New Hampshire became the ninth state to so ratify the Constitution, thereby establishing a Union between it and the other eight States (Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, South Carolina, and Georgia) that had previously ratified it.  Today is June 21, 2015, the 227th anniversary of the birth of a nation, the United States of America.  Please celebrate this anniversary today and every June 21st.    

The other four non-ratifying independent States (Virginia, New York, North Carolina, and Rhode Island) could have been considered to be foreign nations by the United States of America.  However, Virginia ratified the Constitution four days later on June 25, 1788 and New York followed suit the next month on July 26, 1788.  North Carolina joined the United States of America the following year on November 21, 1789.  Finally, Rhode Island, which had at first rejected the Constitution, ratified it on May 29, 1790, almost two years after the establishment of the Constitution of the United States of America.  The thirteen previously independent States had now given up their independence to form one independent united nation.

Please note the following from Dr. Richard R. Beeman, John Welsh Centennial Professor of History Emeritus, Department of History, University of Pennsylvania: 

“There is no question but that the thirteen American colonies, when they declared their independence, considered themselves "united States" in that common cause, but NOT The United States.    And the Articles of Confederation reinforced that notion of thirteen independent and sovereign states--making it clear that the states, not the "central government," was supreme.  Indeed, the Articles of Confederation are properly considered more of a "treaty" among those sovereign states than America's first Constitution.    The drafting and ratification of the U.S. Constitution was an important step in creating the United States, but, in fact, if you look in the public press during the period between 1789 and 1865, most of the references to the central government are spelled "united States," not "United States."  It is only after the Civil War, when the notion of a perpetual union is enforced by force of arms, that the American nation is regularly referred to as the "United States.””

 

Mirage

One summer afternoon in 1965,  I was in New York City with my parents.  As tourists, we were wandering around the streets of Manhattan looking for something to do.  We passed a cinema on Broadway and decided to go in and watch a movie.  It was called Mirage and starred Gregory Peck.  In those days, his name on a marquee was enough to attract the movie-going public.  This black and white film was directed by Edward Dmytryk and had an excellent supporting cast of Diane Baker, Walter Matthau, George Kennedy, Kevin McCarthy, Leif Erickson, and Jack Weston.  The screenplay was written by Peter Stone, who two years earlier had written the screenplay for the very successful film, Charade (which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song), starring Cary Grant, Audrey Hepburn, along with the same Walter Matthau and George Kennedy.

When we entered the cinema that day, Mirage had already begun.  But for us, this was normal.  When we would go to the Oswego Theater in my home town, the decision to go would usually be a spur of the moment one and our arrival would have no relationship to any movie schedule.  We would watch the movie from the point at which we arrived until the end.  Then we would sit through previews, newsreels, cartoons, serials, and sometimes a second feature, until finally our movie would begin again.  When the point of the movie arrived when we had entered the theater, we would get up and leave.  One of us would say, “This is where we came in.”  To me, that was normal.  Today, I think it a very strange way to see a movie.  Today (and for most of my life) I am guided by the movie schedule.  I would not think of entering a theater after the movie had started.  

However, that day in 1965, I am glad we entered the cinema when we did, after the movie had already begun.  Why?  It had to do with the story and how it should have been told.

Mirage begins when David, a chemist who works for a private foundation, has discovered a way to neutralize nuclear radiation, which is a good thing.  However, it creates the possibility of radiation-free atomic bombs, which can be a bad thing.  He takes his yet undeveloped discovery to the office of the president of the foundation, which is on the twenty-seventh floor of a New York City skyscraper.  David believes his discovery is too dangerous and decides to destroy the only copy of its formula.  He opens the window and starts burning the paper it is written on.  The president of the foundation, a humanitarian who believes in the formula’s peaceful uses, tries to stop him, loses his balance, and falls out of the window.

David, utterly shocked at seeing this man whom he admires fall to his death, suffers “unconscious amnésia.”  He walks out of the president’s office forgetting who he is and what he has just witnessed (this is where film actually begins).  At exactly this point in the movie, my parents and I entered the cinema.  Like David, we had no idea what had just happened.  All four of us were confused.  However, the rest of the theater audience knew exactly what had happened (wrong).  Slowly over the next hour and a half the mystery is solved.  The shock gradually gives way and David’s memory slowly returns.

In my opinion, the story should have been told in this manner (and it was):  both the protagonist and the audience equally in the dark.  It would have created a more interesting detective story similar to an earlier Gregory Peck movie (Spellbound directed by Alfred Hitchcock in 1945) where his character also had amnésia.  There, both Peck and the audience had to simultaneously try to put all the pieces together. 

Mirage plays out as a Hitchcock-like suspense thriller.  After the shock, David doesn’t remember who he is, but a beautiful woman tells him they have a relationship.  That is a good thing.  On the other hand, two gunmen threaten him for some unknown reason, which is a bad thing.  It all relates to sinister forces that are trying to obtain his formula, which he has forgotten all about.  However, by the end of the movie, good triumphs over evil.  If you get a chance to watch Mirage, which I recommend, it will be a good lesson in how movies should be edited.    

 

Happy Half-Birthday

In the Walt Disney full-length feature cartoon, Alice in Wonderland (1951), Alice enters the house of the Mad Hatter, attracted by the sounds of a celebration inside.  The Mad Hatter, along with the March Hare and a very tired Dormouse, is celebrating their respective unbirthdays.  These obviously are all the days of the year which are not their birthdays. 

This gave me idea.  Celebrating every day (but one) as an unbirthday is a bit much.  But, celebrating only once a year on your birthday is too little it seems to me.  Therefore, I invented the half-birthday.  And today, June the 7th, is my daughter Rachel’s half-birthday.  Happy half-birthday, Rachel.

After all, people will say to you, “How old are you?”  If you want to give out this information, you tell them your age as of your last birthday.  But that birthday could be ten months ago.  So the age you provided is thus misleading.  You are actually closer to your next birthday.  But you are not there yet.  So breaking the year in two halves makes more sense.  Now when you tell them you are say, thirty and a half years-old, with a half-birthday only four months ago, you are providing more accurate information.

In addition, think of the advantages of this extra day of celebration.  The economy will benefit from people spending money on half-birthday cards, store-bought presents, gift cards, chocolate and ice cream half-birthday cakes, half-birthday parties, pizza parties, surprise parties, etc., etc., etc.  We will all be a little happier as we receive more personal recognition from our spouses, children, siblings, aunts, uncles, grandparents, cousins, friends, acquaintances, neighbors, and colleagues.  I don’t see any downside to my idea.  Do you?  So when is your half-birthday?