She Started The Heat Wave

Only one out of the three Jeopardy contestants got Final Jeopardy correct.  “Susan B. Anthony said that it has done more to emancipate women than anything else in the world.”

Correct Jeopardy response: “What is a bicycle?”

Santa Claus brought me my first bicycle.  Santa placed the two-wheel bicycle at one end of the living room.  Our Christmas tree sat at the other end of the room.  On Christmas morning, I went to the Christmas tree to find a present to unwrap.

I unwrapped a toy fire engine.  I turned my back on the bicycle and played with the fire engine.  I kept on playing with the fire engine because I knew what having a bicycle meant. 

Once you learn to ride a bicycle, it means you are growing up. 

I was nine years old and I wanted to delay growing up. 

After Christmas, I made no effort to learn to ride the bicycle until my brother John couldn’t stand it any longer.  He put me on the bicycle at the top of a gentle slope, and sent me on my way.  He promised to run alongside me in case I fell, but I think he forgot about his promise.

After I mastered riding it, the bicycle gave me mobility and independence and became a tool for socializing.  My high school friends and I would go on long bike rides because we were too young to drive cars.  Our bike rides took us to some local beaches where we could frolic.

On these rides, I would always sing my favorite Irving Berlin song.  “We’re having a heat wave, a tropical heat wave”.  I always sang it while I was behind a female bike rider, and I was at my loudest when I came to the lyrics:  “She started the heat wave by letting her seat wave”.

For one bike ride, my friends announced that we were not going to a beach --- we were going to bike all the way to Glen Cove, a town on the other side of the harbor.  

Glen Cove?  That puzzled me.  The only thing I knew about Glen Cove is that Nat King Cole lived there, and he would probably not answer the doorbell if a bunch of high school sophomores stopped by his house on bicycles.

I went on the bike ride to Glen Cove and sang my Heat Wave song as usual.  Then I found out, to my surprise, that not only did Nat King Cole live in Glen Cove, so did Mr. Danowski.

 

Mr. Danowski was our high school geometry teacher.  He had a large collection of bow ties.  He was young and he was single.  Every girl in the sophomore class had a crush on him.

We came to his house, and the group nominated me to go ring Mr. Danowski’s doorbell.  I think that may have been the reason that I was invited along on the bike ride.

Our geometry teacher was at home and answered the doorbell.  He was certainly surprised to find a bunch of high school sophomores stopping by his house on bicycles.

We were invited in.  Mr. Danowski was a gracious host, and then he sent us on our way back to our own side of the harbor.

It is 52 years since I graduated from high school, and bike rides are still social events.  However, when I go on a bike ride nowadays, I sometimes wonder if Susan B. Anthony had a crush on her high school geometry teacher.

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On You Tube, Miss Piggy claims that it was she who started the heat wave (4-minute video)....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2he3gF5uSM

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NOTE: Doug's best stories have been collected into a book: Puppy Out Of Breath.  Price = $11.  You can purchase a copy at  http://www.puppyoutofbreath.com