| window just enough to shove the bottles out. It wasn't long until Mrs. Talbott knocked at the door. We were all relieved as she told us the doorman had reported someone was throwing ice out the window to the street below. Even though he was mistaken about what it was, somehow he knew which room it was coming from, or left our sponsors to figure it out. Our behavior needed to be addressed before it got any worse so we were ordered down to Mr. and Mrs. Talbott's room to be lectured. As we were filing past Mrs. Talbott, I was feeling giddy with anticipation. All of a sudden she put her arm up in front of me and said, "Not you, Ruth." There I was, alone, left to ponder over what had just happened. Not being included as one of the "bad girls" who had misbehaved made me feel really left out. Actually, I knew why. Back in the 1950's with a minister and teacher for parents, a kid was automatically branded as one who knew how to act, made good grades, and stayed out of trouble. At times this stereotype caused me to be taken advantage of by "friends" who sometimes spent the night at my house just to meet boyfriends their parents didn't approve of. But that's another story.
The other significant thing that happened in our room also took me by surprise. Suddenly seeing a flash out of the corner of my eye, I turned just in time to see one of my roommates in the nude striking a provocative pose while her friend snapped her picture with my camera. We really did have a good time on
that trip. We went to Radio City |
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Music Hall to see the Rockettes, lunched at the Automat, sat in the studio audience during the TV quiz show "Break the Bank", saw China Town, the Statute of Liberty and many other things. My Brownie Hawkeye with its flash attachment took a lot of good pictures.
So, we got back to Berkeley Springs, settled into our familiar routines and lived happily ever after. Wrong!! I was faced with how I was going to tell my parents what was hidden in the film waiting to be developed. After I confessed and assured them I wasn't the one who took the picture, it became obvious Ruppenthal's Camera Shop was not the place to go. We contacted a friend who said he had a college professor with his own darkroom who would be happy to develop the pictures and destroy the one bad negative. That was a fine idea!
A couple of days later I sneaked out to my friend's car and he pulled an 8 x 10 photo from under the seat. Wow! I don't know how many copies were circulated around the community and the campus of Shepherd College. If it makes the subject feel any better, she did have a great body! I'm posting two pictures that were taken on the trip. I'll not expose the names of the two naughty girls, but they appear in both photos. You figure it out. It was a trip we'll never forget. Second New York Picture
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