An Unlikely Romance

                                                                                                I

Springfield, Mo. Back in 1976 was like most Midwest towns. That is to say dull, conservative, and a nightmare to students like Marvin Dennis. Marvin was a natural out who up until the summer before his senior year dreamed on of one thing: leaving!

In 1976, Springfield and the surrounding Ozarks were an unspoiled area of the United States. The growth and the proliferation of drugs and crime that now plague the area did not exist in those days. The town retained its innocence for the latter part of the twentieth century before it became notorious for crystal meth. Much of this was because Springfield was not really close to any major cities. Tulsa, Oklahoma was the city closest in proximity to the area. Little Rock was a brutal drive through the Ozarks, while Kansas City and Saint Louis were on other sides of the state. The most important industry in the area was agriculture. Springfield was ringed by a number of little towns – places like Nixa, Marshfield, Ozark, Neosho, Nevada, West Plains, Republic, Willow Springs, and Willard.

Natives in those days liked to think of Springfield as the best place in the country to raise a family. Outsiders thought it was a city in the middle of the Ozarks full of hillbillies. But Springfield is not really in the Ozarks. Instead, the city lies on a flat plain just north of the hills. You cannot see the Ozarks from the city and the idea that there are any mountains or even large hills around seems ridiculous. Springfield is as flat as a pancake. There is Lake Springfield, a small lake to the south of the city that contains a picnic area, and the Wilson's Creek historic civil war battlefield. Likewise, there are a couple of fine universities. Missouri State University and Drury University provide an academic backdrop for the area. There are a couple of other religious colleges as well. But for most kids growing up in the 1970's in Springfield, those areas were insignificant. For Marvin, Springfield was a dull, conservative town in the middle of nowhere.

Marvin was a tall, thin kid with thick sandy blond hair. He was more comfortable playing the cello than playing basketball or football. Also, he was a good student. In one respect, Marvin was lucky that Springfield was the seat of Missouri State University. The university played an important role in Marvin's life because it was there that he studied music. Music provided another aspect to Marvin's life. He enjoyed learning the cello, and he even dreamed of a career a conductor or composer. Marvin's musical dreams were, of course, unlikely because they would require an expensive musical education in Kansas City or somewhere out of state. An engineering education represented a more likely option to Marvin, who was equally good at mathematics. But in a place like Springfield during the middle 1970's, a cello playing good student was not very high on anyone's list for the most popular kid in high school.

In fact, he had few friends. In his first couple of years of high school as well as his middle school year, Marvin spent a lot of time dodging bullies. In fact, bullies usually let him alone in his junior year, but that hardly made him popular. If anything, he was a loner, one of those kids in high school that you never notice. They go through the four years, graduate, and move on. No one knows that they were even there.

That was particularly true in a big high school like Parkhill high, which enrolled 1,800 students. The most popular kids, of course, were the jocks and the socialites or soshes. The teenagers who made up the socialite clique were usually pretty girls. Their fathers had good jobs and their mothers bought them expensive dresses, blouses, and sweaters. The soches joined groups like the cheerleaders and the pompom girls. They also participated in academic clubs such as the Latin, French, Spanish, or German clubs. Soches, however, did not frequently join science or math clubs. At a school such as Parkhill, science, math, chess, and other activities were for the nerdy brainiacs. The jocks dated the soshes. After school ended they married the soshes. They were beautiful, connected people who the school seemed to ordain as successful. The teachers and the administration seemed to agree. These were the kids the teachers and administrators seemed to communicate that would succeed in the isolated rural area of Springfield and the surrounding towns.