Read Online More Room in a Broken Heart: The True Adventures of Carly Simon by Stephen Davis - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Stephen Davis
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She was developing curves, ironing her hair, allowing her madcap sense of humor to win friends and influence people. She made the cheerleader squad in her sophomore year. One of her first dates, in 1957, was with a tall and very popular Riverdale boy, a couple of years older, named Chevy Chase. Carly remembered: “I was invited to ‘the hop,’ our school dance. Chevy was two years above me, and I was surprised that he asked me. I wore a red bouffant dress, and he came to collect me in a pin-striped suit that was slightly too short. He had a corsage for me, and was a perfect gentleman, telling me jokes, and making me laugh all night. After our night of dancing, he took me home and we sat in the kitchen with the dogs, waiting for the evening to end. He made me laugh by offering a biscuit to one of our dogs, and then eating it himself instead.”
Carly: “I was a typical cheerleader, a very rah-rah high school girl, out to be the most popular. It was a very Ivy League trip…. But, in matters of both substance and style, I followed my sister Lucy. I emulated her life. I wanted to
be
her. I lived Lucy’s life all during high school. In fact, I have such a pure recall of the details of Lucy’s life that it still amazes her. I studied every detail. I copied her style, to the letter. I wore tight skirts and tight sweaters. When she wore her hair with a dip over her eyes like Veronica Lake did, I did too.
“Basically, I
was
Lucy for a number of years. Then, when I was in the tenth grade, she went off to Bennington College, and she became a beatnik. Lucy had her ears pierced. Black leotards. She started wearing peasant blouses and blue jeans that were slightly cut off and frazzled at the edges. She grew her hair long and played the guitar. So, immediately, I became a beatnik too. I started a trend at my school: ethnic clothes and long braids down the back. Other girls started copying my look, and I seemed to be an innovator, but in reality I was still following Lucy.
“The big change in my life happened when Lucy left Benningtonand went to nursing school at Cornell. I somehow couldn’t see myself as a nurse. She had changed a lot in that phase, and I grew to love her even more, but not identify with her as much. At that point, finally, I became much more myself than ever.”
Carly has said that her mother had her fitted for a contraceptive diaphragm when she was fifteen, which, if accurate, certainly says something about teenage Carly in the generally repressive sexual atmosphere of the time. It also speaks volumes about the eroticized atmosphere of the Simon household, in which Andrea was living more or less openly with Ronnie. Birth control was extremely avant-garde, and made Carly something of a sexual pioneer at her school, where rumors of heavy petting and “going all the way” could stain a girl’s reputation. But Carly Simon could give her classmates (if they had something going with a boyfriend) the name of the doctor who had fitted her diaphragm. Certainly Andrea Simon’s notion of preventing pregnancy, instead of ignoring the risk, was a decade ahead of its time, and also spoke to the sexual aspects of her own life.
The Simon family’s animals were a big part of Carly’s childhood. Carly’s Scottish terrier, Laurie Brown, was very dear to her and inspired an early dog ditty, “Lorelei Brown.” Lucy’s dog, a terrier called Bascomb, suffered from seizures and inspired Lucy’s caring and maternal instincts. (The family accused Lucy of spoiling Bascomb.) Peter had a mutt called Besty, because her owner thought she was the best dog. Prowling the house were a variety of cats, including Guarder, Slinky, and Magellan. The comforting presence of these and other pets was one of the touchstones of Carly’s somewhat fraught adolescence.
Odetta Holmes, Carly Simon’s idol, had released her first album,
The Tin Angel
, in 1954. A stolid black Alabama native (born in 1930) with a big guitar sound and a burnished
Carly: “I was a typical cheerleader, a very rah-rah high school girl, out to be the most popular. It was a very Ivy League trip…. But, in matters of both substance and style, I followed my sister Lucy. I emulated her life. I wanted to
be
her. I lived Lucy’s life all during high school. In fact, I have such a pure recall of the details of Lucy’s life that it still amazes her. I studied every detail. I copied her style, to the letter. I wore tight skirts and tight sweaters. When she wore her hair with a dip over her eyes like Veronica Lake did, I did too.
“Basically, I
was
Lucy for a number of years. Then, when I was in the tenth grade, she went off to Bennington College, and she became a beatnik. Lucy had her ears pierced. Black leotards. She started wearing peasant blouses and blue jeans that were slightly cut off and frazzled at the edges. She grew her hair long and played the guitar. So, immediately, I became a beatnik too. I started a trend at my school: ethnic clothes and long braids down the back. Other girls started copying my look, and I seemed to be an innovator, but in reality I was still following Lucy.
“The big change in my life happened when Lucy left Benningtonand went to nursing school at Cornell. I somehow couldn’t see myself as a nurse. She had changed a lot in that phase, and I grew to love her even more, but not identify with her as much. At that point, finally, I became much more myself than ever.”
Carly has said that her mother had her fitted for a contraceptive diaphragm when she was fifteen, which, if accurate, certainly says something about teenage Carly in the generally repressive sexual atmosphere of the time. It also speaks volumes about the eroticized atmosphere of the Simon household, in which Andrea was living more or less openly with Ronnie. Birth control was extremely avant-garde, and made Carly something of a sexual pioneer at her school, where rumors of heavy petting and “going all the way” could stain a girl’s reputation. But Carly Simon could give her classmates (if they had something going with a boyfriend) the name of the doctor who had fitted her diaphragm. Certainly Andrea Simon’s notion of preventing pregnancy, instead of ignoring the risk, was a decade ahead of its time, and also spoke to the sexual aspects of her own life.
The Simon family’s animals were a big part of Carly’s childhood. Carly’s Scottish terrier, Laurie Brown, was very dear to her and inspired an early dog ditty, “Lorelei Brown.” Lucy’s dog, a terrier called Bascomb, suffered from seizures and inspired Lucy’s caring and maternal instincts. (The family accused Lucy of spoiling Bascomb.) Peter had a mutt called Besty, because her owner thought she was the best dog. Prowling the house were a variety of cats, including Guarder, Slinky, and Magellan. The comforting presence of these and other pets was one of the touchstones of Carly’s somewhat fraught adolescence.
Odetta Holmes, Carly Simon’s idol, had released her first album,
The Tin Angel
, in 1954. A stolid black Alabama native (born in 1930) with a big guitar sound and a burnished
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