Stories - Chapter 10
Lark Sasso and the E Phi Girls
In Lake City, Florida, there used to be, and still may be, a sorority for high school and college girls called E Phi. That may be an abbreviation. I intend to get over to Lake City one of these days and do some research and try to look up some of the girls. During my active Jax Beach lifeguard years, 1964 to 1967, the E Phi girls would rent a house in Jax Beach near the ocean for a week or two. At some point in time the lifeguards and the E Phi girls discovered each other and it was game on. The girls would usually come to the lifeguard station soon after they arrived at the beach. We would get acquainted or reacquainted, and within a day or two the girls would cut someone out of the herd for a partner while they were in town. Some girls had boyfriends and just hung out. Some girls had boyfriends and lifeguard boyfriends too. The Lake City boys weren't too fond of us, actually a lot of non lifeguard boys weren't too fond of us either. I didn't get involved with the E Phi girls until the summer of 1967. I may have had other girlfriends or been too low in seniority to date an E Phi girl. I liked Debbie Landrum and we dated for a few weeks. When I went to boot camp, she never wrote me. When I got back, I found out she and Doug Cueny, another lifeguard, were seeing each other. Doug was very apologetic and I forgave him quickly. Debbie never liked me that much anyway, I just happened to be available. I forgave her too. Debbie had a friend in E Phi, Lark Sasso, who took an interest in me. Lark had already dated two or three of the lifeguards and dropped them. I didn't want to be next on her list, so I ignored her. One day soon after, brother George and I came home from lifeguarding, Lark and a girlfriend whose name escapes me, were fixing supper for us in our apartment on 1st Street in Jax Beach. We never locked our door back then. We didn't have anything worth stealing. Some of our furniture was beer crates. Lark said, "I know you don't want to date me, and we'll leave if you say to." Right! Lark and I went out for most of the summer as I remember. She was 18 and I was 19, but she had already been married and was divorced. Lark was the first girl in my life that really took the time to teach me how to treat a lady. She was very pretty and a nice person. She drove a new baby blue Opel 2 door sedan. One night while I was seeing Lark, one of her Lake City boyfriends took the coil wire from my 1957 VW oval sedan. When it wouldn't start, checked the engine. I took a wire from one of the spark plugs and used it for the coil. The bug fired up, but ran pretty rough on 3 cylinders, it was only 36 horsepower anyway. I went to several gas stations on my way out of town, but none of them would sell me an ignition wire. I drove all the way back to the beach on 3 cylinders at 45 miles per hour. I had to be back by 10 AM to work Jacksonville Beach Patrol. We dated until I stood her up one night when I was too tired and broke to go to Lake City with my lifeguard buddies for a date. She was probably tired of me by then anyway.
Lark Sasso - RICIOLI - Hilary "Lark" Sasso Ricioli, 57,died 10/16/05. GatewayForest Lawn Funeral Home, Lake City.
July 31, 2011
