An American Tale – The Life and Misadventures of Susan Hapenny and the Boys from Company 10 (1)

The morning Sue Hapenny was born, circus elephants danced, lions jumped through rings of fire, and choirs of angels sang throughout the heavens. Or so she was told. 

After hours of labor in which Sue's mom was in a twilight sleep, out popped Susan Marie Hapenny, the cutest, chubby-faced, brown-haired, blue-eyed, 8-pound bundle of pink, baby flesh you ever did see.

There never was a girl like Sue Hapenny and there never would be one again.

Sue's mom, Meredith Coppersmith Hapenny, was an English teacher at Rapid Falls' high school, and was more accustomed to running interference for students who were slow learners than she was at teaching students bright enough to win a scholarship to the teachers college.

During better times, Mrs. Hapenny would have been the head of the English Department. But in 1950, Rapid Falls was a small town, with small town ways and small town minds. Mrs. Hapenny was a woman, and certain people didn't want her rising too far, too fast in the English Department.

Mrs. Hapenny did not discourage easily. She was the best she could be, and told Sue that if she were going to get anywhere in life, she'd better be the best, too.

Sue took her own counsel and didn't listen to anyone. She had an independent streak, sufficient for a pack of dogs straining to break loose from a tight leash.

Sue was pretty, and athletic. Well-meaning relatives gave her dolls as presents, but she cast them into a large trunk and never set eyes on them again. She preferred the outdoors, the company of boys and the pleasures of books --both reading them and writing them.

Once, Sue hung out in a thunderstorm, just to catch salamanders as they flowed down the streets from the mountains into the gutters.

In one afternoon, she caught 50, and put them in a very large bowl. She played with them every afternoon after baseball practice, until one by one they died.

Apparently, summer was not meant for salamanders.

Sue Hapenny was good at sports. Boys loved having Sue on their team. Of her skills at baseball, she could bat left or right like nobody's business. But she earned her fame as a pitcher: She pitched no-hitters. And thus, the 'no-hitter' girl-pitching sensation was born.

When the time came Sunday afternoons for the Sunday Baseball Game, Sue Hapenny was the only starter and relief pitcher "The Spitballs" wanted. Opposing teams groaned when Sue Hapenny was pitching.

Sue was 10 years old. The boys, sons of Company 10's firefighters, were between 9 and 13 years old. The match-up was perfect; Sue fit right in as one of the boys. 

There were seven boys in Company 10, and that number suited the boys and Sue Hapenny just fine. But for baseball, the team needed one more, so the boys went in search of another member.

The ground rules were clear: whoever would join Sue and the boys would be an 'honorary' baseball player, and nothing more. He wouldn't be a best buddy, he wouldn't hang with Sue or the boys, and he wouldn't join them on summer nights for prowling ventures.

Prowling ventures were all-night affairs in which Sue Hapenny and the Boys from Company 10 would run wild on the streets of Rapid Falls, a venture in which they were 'bad', but pretended to be a lot worse than they were.

One night, Sue and the boys were caught. They'd been down to the Little Mary bread factory, and had been sneaking around, trying to find an unlocked door.

In prowling around, they'd accidentally tripped the burglar alarm, which was wired to Rapid Falls' police station. Within minutes, two cruisers and four cops arrived.

"Kids, we're looking for a gang of hoodlums who tried to break into Little Mary's," said Chief Joseph Wright.

"We got a call that a gang was in the area, possibly the same gang that's been terrorizing Rapid Falls all summer. Have you kids seen anything suspicious?"

George, the oldest, spoke up. "Chief Wright, if and when we see these thieving hoods, we'll be sure to tell you right off the bat." George was the team's best ball-player, and he wanted to get in a witty baseball reference to the Chief.

George winked at his teammates. 

The sure-fire Rapid Falls' Police Department could find no hoodlums or criminals. In fact, they didn't find anybody at the scene, save for Sue Hapenny and the Boys from Company 10.

But the Boys from Company 10 still needed another ball player. So Andrew, Bobby, Carlos, Donald, Edwin, Frank and George, sought the company of  "Stinky", a large, greasy boy, shy of temperament and short on manners, but long on heart. For baseball, the Boys of Company 10 would tolerate Stinky just so they'd have a team.

On the Sunday before Labor Day, 1960, "The Spitballs" were facing "The Splitters" (short for Split-Fingered Fastballs) in Towne Field for the last game of the season. Everybody who was anybody in Rapid Falls came to see this game. It was an annual event, not to be missed.

Some kids brought transistor radios so they could listen to Major League Baseball. They usually stood off to one side, not wanting to be noticed. That was cheating on your own town, a no-no in Rapid Falls.

A few younger kids brought toys like Slinky or Silly Putty, left over from a few years' earlier when these inventions were marvelously new.

Most townsfolk came armed with lemonade and hot dogs, sun hats and fans. It was going to be a long afternoon, and everyone wanted to enjoy the game.

Sue Hapenny was warming up in the makeshift bullpen, a small area in 'The Spitballs' dugout, cordoned off with a back wall to pitch off of. She warmed up with her left arm.

The opposing team, 'The Splitters', well, they were fierce.  'The Splitters' were known as a tough team. But Sue Hapenny and the Boys from Company 10 knew they could outwit 'The Splitters.'

'The Splitters' gave  'The Spitballs', a run for their money.

During the first inning, 'The Splitters' trotted out their best hitters. But Sue was pitching, and she didn't let up a single run.  In the bottom of the ninth, the opposing Splitters hadn't scored a run. 'The Spitballs', were ahead 6 to 0, two outs. 

The bases were loaded and George was up at bat. George eyeballed 'The Splitters' pitcher, Fast Eddie. Fast Eddie was big, but he had the fastest pitching arm in Rapid Falls. 

Fast Eddie and the catcher were exchanging secret sign language, and the catcher threw in an obscene gesture for the heck of it.

George could care less. If he had his way, he'd just hit the damn ball and be done with it.

Which is what George did. Except the ball George hit arc'd over the pitcher's mound, high into the air, over the back wall and out of the park, only to land in a yard across the street.

Grand slam! 'The Spitballs' won the game, 10 to nothing. George was the MVP and Sue Hapenny had pitched another no-hitter, girl wonder that she was.

Sue and George were heroes that day. Sue was the darling of the boys, but really, the boys thought of Sue as one of them, not as a 'girl.'  Sue wasn't like the other girls in Rapid Falls.

The other girls practiced at becoming 'women,' by putting curlers in their hair, mascara on their lashes and lipstick on their lips.

Worse, these girls practiced 'wiles' their older sisters taught them. Wiles their sisters said would earn them their due in life.

Sue Hapenny regarded all of this 'older sister' learning as 'bitchcraft' – witchcraft from the bitches, as she liked to call the young ladies of Rapid Falls.

It was one of the last holdouts of childhood, these baseball games.

In truth, Sue Hapenny and the Boys of Company 10 had more in common with each other than they had differences. They were roughly the same size, height, weight, strength and physical abilities.

The boys could throw farther and run faster, but Sue was always good to her word – she pitched no-hitters every time.

If there were a Rapid Falls' Hall of Fame, Sue Hapenny would be in it long before her hair would ever turn silver.

Soon, the languid days of summer baseball would give way to a new school year.

In her dream world, Sue Hapenny and the Boys from Company 10 would hang together, grow up together, grow old together, and die together.

And so every afternoon, she and the boys would walk from school to Ladder Company 10, where they would drink tonic from the machine, eat Baby Ruth candy bars, eat homemade donuts from the corner shop, and talk about good times playing baseball.

Sue Hapenny and George Thoroughwell were especially good friends. Everybody could see that.

But Sue Hapenny and the Boys from Company 10 were growing up, and the moments in Towne Field would be left behind forever.

Next stop: 1967, The Summer of Love. Next