In the 1920’s, my ideal date would take place in New York City, and would start around noon and probably end sometime in the late night. First, I picked up my date at her parent’s house. She had a nice picnic lunch packed, and we were going to walk to Central Park. The picnic consisted of dry sausage, prosciutto, and a mixture of olives, an assortment of cheeses, some tomatoes in olive oil, and a loaf of Italian bread. It was a long walk to Central Park, but we were hungry, and we knew that once we ate, it would be a relaxing walk back. We had our picnic on a little hill in the park, overlooking a nice pond. All around us, there were trees with their leaves changing colors, and children throwing a ball around. On the walk back, we talked about many things, like life, politics, jobs, business, and what we eventually would want to do with our lives. After that, we talked about what we would like to do later. We decided to stay at her parent’s house for dinner, and then maybe go to a nightclub afterwards. When we got back, I helped her parents set up the table for dinner while she got changed and freshened up. After a nice Italian dinner of broccoli rabe and sausage, some more Italian bread, and a dessert of cannolis and gelato, my date and I decided to go out to a nightclub. We took the New York City subway, and I could have sworn that we saw Henry Ford standing not too far away from us. When we got to the club, The Back Room, we found that it was already quite crowded, and that everybody else was dressed like us. The guys all wore suits and ties, some with hats and some without. The women, however, were a different story. They all wore clothes from the new “flapper” fashion, but that’s where the similarities stopped. My date was wearing a sleeveless dress that ended just before the knees, shoes and stockings, and she had her hair cut short, was wearing a pearl necklace and carried a purse. We spent most of the night there, smoking and drinking beer…
