All right, girls, yesterday you heard about those miscreants, the Gonnellas. Poor Janice, a middle aged spinster; you know, the kind who humbly sits at the back of the church after every Mass, and you better believe lights the candles and helps set up. For spinster Janice, this is action!!!!!!!!!!! And atonement for her high school sin.
Now, this community of mine, Highland Park, prided itself on being so much. Cultural, enlightened--located not far from New York City, and near two colleges, Rutgers and Princeton, and so attractive looking (at least the right parts of town) that butter would not melt in its mouth. Gag me with a spoon. Because, as one sage would eventually write, it seemed like Lumberton, the fictional town in David Lynch's 1986 film, "Blue Velvet," where everything was not as it seemed. That is because it WAS!!!! Girls, I am telling you, the very first time I saw "Blue Velvet," I said to myself, "THAT is Highland Park!"
And what I am now to relate bore this out. For, in the spring of 1987, an event took place that shook the foundations of this traditionally staid community, and caused such a sensation it made the front pages of the Daily News and New York Post, which I discovered for myself, darlings, living now well beyond Highland Park, in the far off land, of Bay Ridge, Brooklyn.
The incident involved one of the best known citizens, Mr. Donahue, and his family. Mr. Donahue taught history while I was in high school (I believe he at the time was Department Chairman, but eventually worked his way up from the ranks, becoming a guidance counselor, Administrative Aide, Assistant Principal, Principal, and then Superintend ant--the whole gamut. I never had Mr. Donahue in school, but recognized him by sight from when I was a child, and would go to Mass at St. Paul's Church, with my father. Mr. D would be there every Sunday, overseeing the collection plates. He was an active community participant. As one writer stated later on, "He was the epitome of small town virtue." Which was true. And this is what, unfortunately, did him in.
Mr. Donahue had a teen aged daughter, in 1987, who at one time, had been dating this boy, who clearly was a "bad boy" type, and whom had been helped through high school by him; as one person said, if not for Donahue, this boy would not have graduated. Things went south with the young couple, and I suppose the daughter broke things off. At one point, on a Valentine's Day, of all things, darlings, he was arrested for, basically, stalking her. It went to court, and the option was given--prison or counseling. Mr. Donahue pleaded for counseling, believing, as he would, that it could help. Which it seemed to, for a time, until that fateful May night in 1987!!!!!!
What triggered the young man at the time I can not say, but before you could say "Fatal Attraction," he and the girl (he must have approached her) got into an argument outside the house. She wanted him to go away. She tried to go in by the back door, but the boy forced his way in, and Mr. Donahue, intervening, got between them on the stairs, when, suddenly, the boy pulled out a hunting knife (now what was he doing with THAT on him, I want to know????) and before anyone knew, plunged it into Mr. Donahue's stomach. Screams and such followed, the boy ran off, attempted suicide, failed, was arrested, while Mr. Donahue was rushed to the hospital (St. Peter's, I am sure), where he eventually died at the age of 55!!!!!! Younger than yours truly is, right now!!!! (Though my PROFESSIONAL age, lambs, is still 24!!!!)
A classmate of mine, who became a prominent journalist, wrote a piece on this incident, and how the community was touched and pulled together in the wake of this tragedy and the funeral/Memorial that followed. It was well written, but, as typical of someone who was accepted by this community (which I never felt I was) idealized. Had I written the piece, it would have been darker, more penetrating, and might have gone something like this.
Mr. Donahue truly did personify small town virtue. But by buying into the myth, it destroyed him, because he could not see the evil that was about him. I have already questioned the possession of the knife, but what I also questioned at the time was the daughter's behavior. Why would she have gone out in the first place with so unsavory a character???? Could she have had "bad boy" syndrome??? Could she have been choking and straining at the bit her traditionalist father was forcing down her adolescent mouth, and this was her way of rebelling???? I cannot prove this concretely, but I would guess this is pretty close to truth, because children of ultra conservative parents ultimately DO rebel!!!!! Again, look at Janice Gonnella!!!!!!!!
So my dream was triggered mainly by subconscious recollections of this incident, coupled with the legend of Janice, coupled with my extremely ambiguous feelings about the town I was raised in!!!!! Were Mr. Donahue alive today, he would be 79 (and he should be alive!!!!) and I have no doubt still residing in Highland Park!!!!!!!!!!
Which goes to prove there is always a secret underbelly to the seeming tranquility of American suburban life. Grace Metalious knew the score, honey!!!!!!
And, thanks to moi, my girls do, too!!!!!!!!!!!
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