Eugene And Flag Day Elita Sohmer Clayman

My first boyfriend was born one week before me on June 14^th
1934. I was born on June 21^st. We were in kindergarten together and
then in first grade together.

His name was Eugene and I heard in later life he shortened
it to Gene. I remember him always saying he was born on a holiday, that of Flag
Day.

Flag Day commemorates the adoption of the flag of the USA
which happened on that day in 1777. It was by resolution of the Secretary of
Continental Congress. In 1916 Woodrow Wilson issued a proclamation establishing
June 14^th as Flag Day.

When the kids were small, I always put the flag out for the
whole week to honor the date. Most of the neighbors did that too. Some of them
still do it and it is a nice honoring of the date. When it would rain that week,
the flag always got tangled around the pole and the piece holding it to the
pole.

Every Flag Day of the fourteenth, I somehow remember the
little boy who was six and I was six the following week. When he was six, he
kissed me on the lips in the hall of School number 62. Wow, I thought way back
then, I must be quite special because all the little girls liked him. He had a
sparkling personality, he was exactly my height then and everyone made a
comment. “Elita and Eugene are boyfriend and girlfriend.” We hardly at that age
knew what sex meant other than if you had a brother, he was a boy and different
from you. I did have one who was five years older than me and he was still in
the same school as I was. In those days, our schools consisted of kindergarten
through sixth grade. He would walk me home from school most of the time. Once
he was kept after school for talking out of turn. So I had to wait for him in
the lobby. He told the teacher that he was in charge of walking his little
sister home and that I might be scared waiting for him since everyone had left.
She relented and told him she would let him go earlier and not to talk out
before raising his hand. In those days, they had stricter rules and we kids
were scared to death of the teachers. Things have surely changed.

In the second grade, my brother was already in junior high
school (now called middle school) so I would walk home with some of the other
kids. One day Eugene asked me to walk with him; his house was closer to the
school than mine. I said yes and called my Mom from his home and she said she
would come for me in one hour because she did not want me to walk alone. She
did and Eugene introduced my mom to his mom. His mom gave me milk and cookies
when I arrived home with him. He once said that he was glad he was ‘older’ than
me.

We went up to his room where he had toy soldiers and puzzles.
My mom arrived after about fifty minutes and we walked home together. No car
did we have then. We either took a transit bus, streetcar or walked.

The next day some of the little girls said “Elita had a date
with Eugene.” I thought I was quite a classy youngster.

When we were in the third grade, we did not bother with one
another; we hardly spoke. When we graduated the elementary school, he went his
way and I went mine and I never had anything to do with him.

Through the years after high school I heard he became an
interior designer. Many years ago, I saw a death notice for him in the obituary
column. He had died young. He had not married and his folks were gone too and
his brother had survived him.

I always remember his birthday on June 14^th as
the little boy who kissed a little girl and who was honored his birthday
happened on an important day. His birthday and the flag’s birthday were the
same, he always said. He was so proud of that. Way back then, I was happy he
selected me for his ‘girlfriend’ in 1940.

So his brother I think may have passed on, I am not sure. If
not so, then his brother I believe his name was Bernard still remembers Eugene
later known as Gene. If his brother is gone, I still remember him with a smile
and the cookies were tasty and I had a fun hour with him after school. I do
recall that he was not very tall in later life, but to me he will always be my
‘boyfriend’ who was tall in my eyes, because he had the good sense and great
taste in choosing me as his ‘first’ girlfriend.

Happy Birthday Eugene, Gene and our Flag.