A Secret Revealed
This is the story of a secret, which lived for many years within the heart of someone without the person it was about, even being aware that the events occurred or that it existed. Now it is time to tell this story to that person so that they may also know the events that happened so many years ago.
The year was 1963, the month at the beginning was January and the place was in a far off land called Tacoma, Washington. It was a fairyland place called McCord Air Force Base and Ft. Lewis Army Base. The events, which are related here, actually happened and the names are real for I know since I was there.
An announcement was made that the base commanders of both McCord AFB and Ft. Lewis had decided to hold a dance to honor St. Valentine’s Day and a contest was to be held to select a Valentines Sweetheart to reign at the dance. Much discussion was done to determine how the Sweetheart would be selected and the final decision was to be a vote by all enlisted personnel would determine the winner. All personnel were encouraged to submit a picture of their sweetheart as a candidate.
For several years I had carried a picture of a High school sweetheart whom I had disappointed and let down in a way that was typical of the stupidity of a teenage boy. In my heart I regretted many times what I had done but had never said I was sorry or apologized to that person. Many times I looked at the picture and wished I could take back those stupid words I had uttered years before. My roommate saw me looking at the picture one day and said “why don’t you enter her into the sweetheart contest”. I truthfully told him that I had no idea of where she was or what she was doing and it had been several years since I had spoken to her. He continued to talk to me about this over the next several days. After a while I decided that the only way that I would get him to stop was to enter the picture and then I could forget about it.
I guess that I should mention that the person selected to serve as Base Sweetheart was to reign at the Valentine Ball and would be flown by military transport to the base. She was also to be sent a dozen red roses to announce her selection. The submission period was one week and followed by two weeks of voting to allow everyone to view all the entrants and make their selection. During the voting it had been decided to not let anyone know how the voting was going and would not be any announcement until it was final.
I was working a midnight shift and received a call at work from my roommate about 2:00 A.M on February 6th, 1963. He informed me that the picture I had submitted had been selected to represent both McCord and Ft. Lewis as Sweetheart of the Valentine Ball. It seems that everyone had fallen in love with that picture and she had gotten over 70% of the votes out of several hundred candidates.
I was horrified when I heard this since I had no idea of where she was or what she might be doing. When I received a call from our Base Commander the next day I did not know what to do but decided that honesty was the only way to go. When I reported to him that I had no idea of where the person was or how to contact her he was initially not very happy. Needless to say he had several things to say to me, which I will not repeat at this time. However, after giving the matter a little thought he decided that no harm had been done and my candidate would still reign at the Ball. He did say that I could sent the dozen roses to whomever I chose so they were send to my Mother who is my favorite lady of all time.
The Base Commander also decided that I had to make an announcement the night of the Ball explaining what I had done and why. Needless to say I would rather have done anything rather than get up in front of all those people and tell them what I had done not only during the contest but those years before. Over the next week I did not sleep much thinking about what I had to do but decided that I had created the situation so I had to live with it.
The night of the ball a blow-up of the picture I had submitted was displayed on the stage for all to see and everyone was waiting for the announcement of who she was and who had submitted her photo. She was also to be introduced to the gathering at that time with her escort. Well when I walked out on stage by myself it really started a lot of whispering among the crowd. I started by introducing myself and then explaining how I came to submit the photo. Then I went on to explain what I done so many years before and also that I had no idea of where the person was at the present time.
I then went on to proudly announce to the crowd that the reigning Base Sweetheart for McCord AFB and Ft. Lewis for the year of 1963 was Miss Susie Bergman of Center Line, Michigan a 1962 graduate of Center Line High School.
Now you know the story of the secret I knew about you all these years and could never find you to tell about it or to apologize for what I had done.
Please forgive me for all I did.
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