The Dancing Will Never End: A Short Story of a Love Affair

By Hugo D. Menendez

I have titled this short story The Dancing Will Never End; A Short Story of a Love Affair. If a person takes into consideration the time we began going steady till Cleos death, we spent over Sixty Years together. Ours was not the type of love which is written about in fictional love stories. The romantic love left after a while. As this superficial romantic love faded true love took hold. The romantic love was but the soil and fertilizer which allowed our true love to flourish and grow so deeply.
Having said this, our relationship and love affair was not a life spent kissing or lovie dovie, never having an argument or agreeing on everything. Our love if viewed by an outside observer would not manifest itself as any different as the relationship one may observe of any other married couple. But it was different we had become truly one and this was our love affair.
In our relationship, we learned to listen to each other, make compromises and respect each other. We not only listened to each other, we made decisions together. Separation or divorces were words which were never part of our vocabulary. This action was one we would never have contemplated. We learned to accept each others faults, adjust our own behavior so as to meld with each other. We loved each other enough to work out any problem or disappointment even when something hurtful had been said. Our love was like poets have written, An unconditional love that is most understanding and a vulnerable love that supports, comforts and is DETERMINED TO TRIUMPH OVER EVERY CHALLENGE OR ADVERSITY IT MAY ENCOUNTER.
I first fell in love with Cleo at the Sadie Hawkins Dance. We professed our love to each other at our high school Sock hop dance. We danced all of our lives till Cleos medical condition did not allow doing so. As long as I am alive and neither my memory or mental acuity fails me, the dancing will never end.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Feb 13, 2015
• ISBN: 9781503533790

Hugo D. Menendez

(to follow)

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Copyright © 2015 by Hugo D. Menendez.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

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Rev. date: 02/13/2015

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Contents

Foreword

Chapter 1    The Beginning

Chapter 2    Wooing Her

Chapter 3    Goings Steady While In High School

Chapter 4    The Relationship Maturing

Chapter 5    A Difficult Separation

Chapter 6    Cleo’s Efforts To Save Me

Chapter 7    You Are In The Air Force Now

Chapter 8    The Dreaded But Expected Notice

Chapter 9    The Second Separation

Chapter 10    Cleo’s Faithfulness

Chapter 11    Beginning Of Our Life Together

Chapter 12    Settling Down In Our Profession

Chapter 13    The Unexpected

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Poems For Cleo

About The Author

FOREWORD

I have titled this short story The Dancing Will Never End; A Short Story of a Love Affair. If a person takes into consideration the time we began going steady till Cleo’s death, we spent over Sixty Years together. Ours was not the type of love which is written about in fictional love stories. The romantic love left after a while. As this superficial romantic love faded true love took hold. The romantic love was but the soil and fertilizer which allowed our true love to flourish and grow so deeply.

Having said this, our relationship and love affair was not a life spent kissing or ‘lovie dovie", never having an argument or agreeing on everything. Our love if viewed by an outside observer would not manifest itself as any different as the relationship one may observe of any other married couple. But it was different we had become truly one and this was our love affair.

In our relationship, we learned to listen to each other, make compromises and respect each other. We not only listened to each other, we made decisions together. Separation or divorces were words which were never part of our vocabulary. This action was one we would never have contemplated. We learned to accept each other’s faults, adjust our own behavior so as to meld with each other. We loved each other enough to work out any problem or disappointment even when something hurtful had been said. Our love was like poet’s have written, An unconditional love that is most understanding and a vulnerable love that supports, comforts and is DETERMINED TO TRIUMPH OVER EVERY CHALLENGE OR ADVERSITY IT MAY ENCOUNTER".

I first fell in love with Cleo at the Sadie Hawkins Dance. We professed our love to each other at our high school Sock hop dance. We danced all of our lives till Cleo’s medical condition did not allow doing so. As long as I am alive and neither my memory or mental acuity fails me, the dancing will never end.

The Dancing Never Ends;

A Short Story of a Love Affair

Where should I begin to write the story of two people that loved each other unconditionally for over sixty years? It is not a love story such as Romeo and Juliette, Abelard and Eloise or Anthony and Cleopatra. The story of Cleo and Hugo is a true story about two simple and ordinary people who loved each other passionately all of their lives. Poets will not write poems about our love affair; neither will authors write a book or song writers compose a song about it. The fact that our love story will not be memorialized by them does not diminish the love and passion we shared.

I beg God that he never takes from me the memories of our love affair and the wonderful life we led. Even in death I still speak to her, she consoles me, advices me and when I feel lost her hand is there to guide me.

Where should I begin to tell our story? I will begin where it all began.

Chapter 1

THE BEGINNING

I n the 1940’s on up to the early 60’s there was a comic strip, which was called the funnies. One of the most popular comic strip was by Al Capp called Lil’ Abner. Lil’ Abner lived in Dog Patch, There was a girl by the name of Daisy Mae who was always pursuing him but never quite catching him. He was a strong fellow but very bashful. He was the best catch for any girl in Dog Patch. Once a year, Dog Patch had a holiday called Sadie Hawkins Day. On this day any fellow who was captured by a girl would have to marry her. Needless to say Daisy Mae was never quite able to capture Lil’ Abner.

This comic strip became extremely popular all over the United States. All over the country High Schools and social organizations would have a Sadie Hawkins day dances. It was sort of like Halloween. The costumes worn were similar to those worn in the in the comic strip by Lil’ Abner, Daisy Mae or those worn by the other citizen of Dog patch. Most girls dressed as Daisy Mae. The boys would dress as Lil’ Abner. In the comic strip, Daisy Mae wore very short shorts, a polka dot peasant blouse cinched at the waist which emphasized her voluptuousness. In those days there was still some innocence left among our youth, Daisy Mae’s costume could be considered provocative. She was a good looking babe but Lil’ Abner was sort of retarded as far as girls were concerned. He would never let Daisy Mae capture him even though he really liked Daisy.

During the late 40’s till the very early 50s the city of Tampa had a youth program for high school students. The program was a Saturday night dance at the city of Tampa Recreation Center better known as the Rec". The Coca Cola Company sponsored these dances. The dances were attended by students from all of the high schools in Tampa. There were only three high schools at that time.

I am not providing the history of Lil Abner to use up space. This is where our long lasting love affair began.

I was at the Sadie Hawkins dance at the Recreation Center in 1948 dancing particularly the Jitter Bug which I enjoyed. I was always a good dancer and never had any problem finding a partner to dance with. Half way through the evening this beautiful girl and her friend approached me. She was dressed as Daisy Mae, the peasant polka dot blouse and skin tight shorts. She was about 5' 2", brown-auburn colored hair, a beautiful face and body. Before she even spoke, I knew that I had to make this girl my girlfriend. She introduced herself as Cleo and her friend a Lou Ann. She mentioned that she also attended Jefferson High School. The fact was that I had never seen her around the campus.

I was well known at Jefferson High school. To begin with, Jefferson had a small enrollment of less than 1,000 students. I was one of the first male cheerleaders in the city and maybe even the country. After introducing herself, she told me she was interested in becoming a cheerleader when the student body voted for the new squad. I told her that I thought she should try out since I felt she had the looks and personality to make the squad. I told her I was willing to work with her after school on the techniques and the different chants. She immediately indicated that she would love it if I did. We agreed to meet after school at the front of the school so that we could practice together the cheers and the acrobatic techniques.

I took advantage of the situation and asked her if she wanted to dance, she said yes. She was an excellent dancer. I never would have imagined that after this first dance, we would dance not only during that Sadie Hawkins dance but for more than 60 years afterwards. We did not skip a dance that night. We truly enjoyed dancing with each other. I loved to dance the Jitter Bug but with Cleo, the slower dances were more enjoyable. Holding her in my arms was like no other experience I had ever had with any other girl. I felt as if I was holding an angel in my arms. I could tell by her response that she too was enjoying dancing with me.

After the dance was over, I invited her and Lou Ann to Ayres Diner which was located one block from the Rec Center. Cleo, Lou Ann and I walked to the Diner. The facts were that I did not have much cash. My father and mother were cigar makers and earned very little, however I did some part time jobs here and there for a little pocket money. My financial situation was not unique in those days. Most of my friends had a similar situation. We each had a cold drink and French fries. Through the years French fries were always our favorite since eating them that night in 1948 brought us together for over 60 years.

Chapter 2

WOOING HER

I could not wait for Sunday to end so that I could