In the nature vs. nurture debate, my view is that in a long twisting DNA chain of genetic material, character traits kick-in even as an infant kicks in the crib.
Back in the day, I watched what might have been the first bloom of leadership in a teen destined decades later to be our Baltimore County executive and Democratic U.S. Rep. Charles A. “Dutch” Ruppersberger.
Recently I ran into Dutch when we crashed our baskets in the entrance to Graul?s Market, Mays Chapel. As we negotiated together through the produce section and waited at the deli, we reminisced about the one outstanding memory we shared of our youth.
In 1965, at the tender age of 19, Dutch astounded us by hiring top of the charts celebrity musician and soul superstar, Wilson Pickett. Dutch convinced the R&B great to bring his band to the still small fishing village of Ocean City, Md., not for a sold out concert but to perform for 93 lifeguards and their dates at the 33rd annual Lifeguards? Ball.
Leadership rises from adversity, and so it was with Dutch. The ball almost didn?t happen when the owner of the Pier Ballroom declined to make it available for the ball and the captain of the Beach Patrol decided to forego it. This was a big deal. Girls dreamed all summer of being invited and guards sat on their stands like Rodin?s “Thinker” in swim trunks contemplating the perfect choice among many beauties.
So Dutch rose up from his 6th Street post, semaphore flags in hand, and jumped into the breach.
Engaging a 2006 A-list artist entails courting an entourage of managers, agents and union stewards who hold light meters and check room temperatures and then give you the list with the artist?s quirky demands. In today?s parlance, our “peeps” would have a sit-down with their “peeps.”
In the summer of 1965, Wilson Pickett didn?t have “peeps.” Dutch made a phone call and Pickett?s manager answered. They decided to meet on a summer?s day in a non-descript row house at Charles and Preston streets in Baltimore City. On the phone, Pickett?s manager sensed a problem and questioned Dutch?s age. He was 19, not old enough to sign contracts. Undeterred, Dutch enlisted best friend and Lieutenant Lifeguard Ray Knowles, 24, to impress the manager with a solid citizen in his last year of medical school. Dutch cajoled his normally cautious buddy into signing all contracts and carrying the fistful of cash needed with signing. They described for me being welcomed into this soot-stained building and ushered down steep basement steps of moist mossy covered stone where the odor of summer dankness from lack of sunlight grew stronger with descent.
Dutch?s eyes shone as he recounted, “? and there, stepping out of the darkness to personally shake our hands was the man himself ? Wilson Pickett.”
Inspired and energized, Dutch persuaded Ray to sign another contract for the Maryland National Guard Armory in Salisbury and yet a third for buses to transport everyone. Providence protects babes in woods. Neither dreamed of the need for liability insurance. Thankfully no nightmares developed.
So on Monday, Aug. 30, 1965, Dutch danced “In the Midnight Hour” with Kay Murphy, his high school sweetheart. They married in 1971. Ray spent the evening collecting money. Every inner and outer pocket of his blue sports coat and white pants was stuffed to the ripping point with 2,000 wrinkled dollars in collected ones, fives, tens and twenties to pay the band.
Dutch became an elected leader, Ray a physician, and Wilson Pickett now rides forever in our hearts with “Mustang Sally.” May she never slow her mustang down.
Stephanie Esworthy was director of Media and Public Relations and the Baltimore City Film Commission for former Mayors William Donald Schaefer and the late Clarence “Du” Burns and served as head of Baltimore City?s Bureau of Music in every city administration since Mayor Theodore R. McKeldin. Her personal experiences in local politics started in the early 1950s as the daughter of state?s attorney and chief judge of the Circuit Court for Baltimore City, Anselm Sodaro, now deceased. She may be reached at [email protected].
