1975

Newark's Pennsylvania Station waiting room during summer time. 

After having stayed in S.Paulo for 2 years I thought it was about time to have another go and headed back to the States to catch up where I had left off in early 1973.

It was really painful to realize there's no such a thing as a 'second time around' and I learned it the hard way. I thought I would go back to the same job at the record factory. Things had moved on and I was sort of lost - all by myself - in a room I'd rented in Columbia Street, right opposite to Enriqueta's house which I had lived in mid-1972. It seemed like life had given a full circle and I was back in the same street of 3 years before. 

Newark with my cassette-stereo playing  'Love will keep us together' with Captain & Tenille, #1 at Billboard.

Billboard's Top Five on 5 July 1975

1. Love will keep us together - The Captain & Tenille

2. The Hustle - Van McCoy & The Soul City Symphony

3. Listen to what the man said - Paul McCartney & Wings

4. Love won't let me wait - Major Harris

My old friends and acquaintences in Newark, N.J. were all gone or had moved on to better things. Guto had married Rose Nevoso and was living in Englewood, in Bergen County, Northern New Jersey, in the same house as Rose's parents, far away from old Brick Town! Damazio was back in Brazil. Everyone I knew in the record factory had moved somewhere else.  

I phoned Guto and told him I had brought a gift from his sister Alice in São Paulo; she lived on Avenida Brigadeiro Luiz Antonio, two blocks passed Av. Paulista heading towards Ibirapuera. He said he'd meet me after work; he'd drive his car from Englewood to Newark around 5:00 pm. I waited for his car outside my boarding place on Columbia Street. Rose came along with him. Guto introduced her to me and I knew instantly Rose was a special person. I gave Guto his sister's packet and they invited me to go back with them and visit their place which was in a leafy neighbourhood starkly different from barren Newark.

Guto drove, Rose sat by his side and I stayed in the back seat. We would not stop talking during the drive north. The radio was constantly on and I remember distincly well Paul McCartney's 'Listen to what the man says' playing along. Rose mentioned that some of their friends would go and see Paul, Linda & Wings at some arena in N.J. very soon. I had an idea everyone of their friends was either married or in a relationship.    

That's when I realized Rose was a pop culture freak. She knew a lot about rock bands, Motown hits from the 1960s, show business and current affairs. She was also an expert in the progressive rock scene which is how she met Guto in the first place. They had met in a nightclub in Orange, NJ where British band Supertramp used to play before they became mainstream rock-stars. They were both sort of Supertramp-groupies and met weekly until they started going steady.

Rose was a dynamo! I never forget when she mentioned Trade Union boss Jimmy Hoffa's corpse had probably been dumped near a local waste incinerator and a landfill in the swump-land area in Jersey City. I was impressed with her knowledge. 

When I mentinoned Don McLean's 'American pie' had been much scrutinized by the public in 1971-1972, she retorted Melanie's 'Brand new key' had been much more thouroughly figured out by the media and the populace during the same period and she went on to explain that when Melanie sang 'I've been all around the world' it was double-entendre for having perfomed all kinds of sex positions. I was tremendously impressed by Rose's knowledge and my own utter ignorance. 

Guto and Rose lived with her mother and the rest of the family. I think she had a sister. They were from an Italian background. Her mother had been born in the United State and spoke English as a native. I remember she used the form 'ain't' freely. I thought it quaint and gave me a notion she was a wise lady who knew what she talked about. At that particular summer they were hosting Guto's younger brother who had been visiting the USA for some time. He apperead to have become part of the family and could even speak some English which he attempted at every chance. Rose's mother seemed to have had a good rapport with Guto's brother. I felt that was a happy family. That was the only time I saw Rose's mother but I never forgot her. They were Catholic and very Italian in some way... but Americans nothetheless. 

When Guto & Rose brought me back to Newark I had a sinking feeling in my stomach I was at the bottom of a pit which would be quite hard to climb out of ! I remember distinctly well Guto's car radio playing Carly Simon's 'Anticipation'. Rose mentioned the tune & and singer who had risen to popularity with 'You're so vain' in late 1972. Funny, I remember myself & Guto in a car driven by a Paraense friend of his who had lived in the US since childhood. We were in the New Jersey Turnpike heading towards Manhattan on a Saturday night and 'You're so vain' with a duet that famous duet by Carly Simon & Mick Jagger came on. I thought Rose was glamorous in a pop culture sort of way.  

When Guto left me back on Columbia Street I was dispirited. I felt dejected but I knew I shouldn't allow myself to wollow in self-pity in such a juncture in my life. I thought of Newark itself and the Ironbound as not belonging to me. Too much had happened these past 2 years in Brazil and I felt I had been left behind. Guto might probably be tired of having worked as a lathe operator in the scissors' factory the whole day and then having to entertain an old friend in the evening until pretty late.

i

Thelma Evans aka Bern Nadette Stanis actress from 'Good Times'.