On VJDay in ’45 I stood on a rooftop with my high school pal Frankie watching our Fairview neighbors on the street below celebrate Japan’s surrender. I suddenly realized World War II was over and my brother Jim, a battle weary Purple Heart G.I. in liberated Europe, would be coming home instead of going into a bloody campaign inside Japan.
Fairview NJ is about five bird miles from Manhattan. We could see the tops of its skyscrapers across the Hudson. “Let’s go to Times Square!” Frankie shouted. “There’ll be a big happy celebration!” So we hopped on a bus and were on the West Side in less than an hour, trotting towards the roar of the crowd.
The New York Times reported 750,000 happy people gathered that day in Times Square. I’m sure you’d see Frankie and me in a lot of the news photos if they were greatly enlarged.
Very soon, we saw a sailor kissing a girl in a white dress. Maybe it was the kiss that was photographed and widely circulated in newspapers . But there were many happy and tipsy G.I.’s kissing girls there that day. I could tell hot-blooded Frankie wanted to get into the act. He was a wolf on the prowl. One or two quick kisses in this crowd wouldn’t be difficult for a determined, quick-footed teen age boy.
“You’re going to get us in trouble,” I shouted. “You should have worn your Scout uniform. Then people might have thought you’re a foreign G.I., like from India, with the short pants and sleeves.”
Frankie wasn’t listening, too busy scanning the crowd. Suddenly I saw him stiffen. A pretty girl, about our age, was approaching. Frankie made his move, a rather awkward lunge while reaching out with puckered lips and grasping the surprised girls shoulders.
But suddenly without warning and before he could make osculatory contact, his lips were intercepted by the target’s mother (?) using her anti-kissing weapon, a very heavy purse.
On the bus ride home, Frankie complained through his swollen lips, “You should have helped me, you know. I could tell that girl was just waiting to be kissed.”
“But, Frankie,” I said. “Maybe she was just the bait. Maybe that woman was out to slug someone in Times Square as part of the celebration. Your picture might be in the Times tomorrow.”
Imagine That 