cast a soft glow and, with that thick black hair encasing those perfect porcelain features, she seemed like a great artist’s conception of the perfect woman.
“Esther, you are the most beautiful girl I have ever seen. What in the world are you doing with me?”
“That will be the first and last time you will ever say that. Do you understand me?”
“Are you scolding me?”
“Yes. I think you’re wonderful, Ruben.”
“Esther…”
She touched his lips. “Don’t speak,” she said. “I want to tell you something.” She dropped her hand but continued to look into his eyes. “You underestimate yourself, Ruben Barlow. I wasn’t at that dance by accident. I’ve seen you play before. The first time I saw you, I wanted to meet you but didn’t know how. I asked someone I saw talking to you and he told me who you were. I wasn’t at all surprised to hear you were Jewish. I’ve gone to three of your dances since then, hoping to meet you, and found out I had to get in line. You wouldn’t believe how girls talk about the Mustangs in the ladies bathroom. The first time I heard that talk, I walked out of there looking like a beet I was so embarrassed. Each time I went, I tried to get up the courage to talk to you. Last night, I resolved to introduce myself. I thought that you would consider me just another girl but I was going to try anyway. I’ve built you up a great deal in my mind.”
“Whoa,” he said. “Talk about pressure.”
She smiled. “When you tapped me on the shoulder and I turned around, and really saw you for the first time, I was very glad. I see right through you, Ruben, and I like what I see.”
The next Sunday, he took his mother and the Rosenbergs to the best restaurant in Fresno. After meeting Mrs. Barlow, the Rosenbergs, even Ben, had no reservations about their daughter spending time with Ruben. They went to movies, ate hamburgers, went to parks, anything they felt like doing. She took him to museums and classical concerts. He took her to shoot pool at Moe’s Pool Hall in Hanford and to Lake Millerton to watch the Gypsies.
She sometimes wondered why he didn’t try to make their relationship more physical and even asked him about it. Without hesitation, he answered, “Because you are one of the great miracles of this world. And to bring something like that in before marriage would be the worst kind of blasphemy. Even if you asked me to, I wouldn’t do it. We’ll wait until we’re married.”
He then told her about the episode with Georgia and how he had vowed never to put himself in that situation again. “It was a mistake,” he said. “Now that I know what it feels like, I can’t help but think about it. But that will not happen with us until we are married.”
Esther was angry about Georgia. She tried to reconcile it with the fact that it happened before she met him, and what other seventeen-year-old boy would have been able to stop like that? But she was still angry.
Esther even met Georgia once at a dance. Ruben introduced them and Esther was cordial but actually felt hatred toward her. Georgia was with someone in his mid-twenties and both had obviously been drinking. She was a very beautiful girl but not Ruben’s type. Esther thought she was far too showy and dressed too provocatively. She was incensed when Georgia threw her arms around Ruben’s neck and kissed his cheek. Ruben broke away quickly and looked apologetically at Esther. Try as she might, she couldn’t help but imagine every detail of Ruben’s encounter. Whenever she thought about it, she became livid and it was all she could do not to heap reprimands upon Ruben. Finally, she couldn’t help herself. He was taking her home after eating dinner at his house when she turned to him and said, “What possessed you to go with that tramp?”
He looked at her. “Who?”
“That Georgia person.”
He understood. “Oh, her.” He pulled over and said, “It was a huge mistake and I’m sorry. I’m also sorry I told you.”
That shocked Esther. She reached over and turned off the key. She guided his lips to hers and kissed him. “No,” she said, “don’t say that. You should tell me everything. I’m sorry I got so upset. It’s just that I love you and the thought of you with another girl….well…it drives me insane.”
“I know,” he said. He took her face in his hands. “I am so, so sorry.”
She thought about Georgia again and was angry all over. “I don’t like her one bit, and all of a sudden I wish I didn’t know about her. I hate what happened between you. It’s almost like you were with a…a…prostitute!”
Ruben knew why she was angry but there was nothing he could do about it. In fact, her unwillingness to forget it made him angry. With a raised voice, he said, “What else can I say? I didn’t even know you then. If you want me to do that to you, I will. OK? Is that what you want?”
Esther felt very foolish and very hurt at the same time. But she was also mad. “You’re being a beast,” she said, “a real beast!” Tears came to her eyes and he was immediately sorry. But when she scooted all the over to the passenger door, he was totally subdued.
“Oh, wow. I’m sorry.” He reached out for her but she pulled away.
“Don’t touch me!” she screamed. “Right now I hate you!”
He didn’t know what to do. “I sorry,” he said, softer. “I’m really sorry.”
She took out a handkerchief and wiped her tears. “She’s had a part of you I’ve never had, and it drives me crazy. That’s all. I can’t help it.” She began sobbing which made her even more frustrated. She waved her handkerchief up and down as if she was trying to dismiss something. “Oh, never mind!”
He reached out to her and pulled her to him. This time she didn’t resist. “Esther, let’s not fight. I hate it when we fight. But I don’t know what else to say about it. I’m sorry.”
She buried her face in his chest. “I know. I just love you so much. I can’t stand thinking about it.”
When summer came and their days were free, they went swimming in the Kings River and took day trips to places like Three Rivers or Hume Lake. Ruben wrote songs for Esther which the Mustangs put into their regular sets. The fame of the Mustangs was growing and they were making more money. Ruben and Esther began hinting to their families about marriage and record companies were talking contracts. Ruben averaged a thousand dollars a week for the first months of summer and marriage became a serious subject.
Both families thought they were too young and, after much cajoling, the couple finally agreed to wait a year. Esther had been accepted at Fresno State College as a music major and Ruben was studying theory from Mrs. Rosenberg. He insisted on paying her for teaching him.
The band cut a record that made it to the top 25 on the charts, then another, then an album. Ruben was also taking classical guitar lessons from a man in Fresno and was progressing rapidly. He was getting offers for good-paying solo gigs playing classical guitar. He played at several Jewish functions but refused money for them.
All was right with the world until, one day in August, 1967, Ruben received a letter. He saw the envelope on a Saturday morning and could not imagine what it could mean.
When he read the draft notice, he went into the bathroom and threw up. His mother rushed in and he handed her the notice. When she read it, she cried.
He
