The Dancing Will Never End

About the Book

I have titled this short story “The Dancing Will Never End; A Short Story of a Love Affair”. If a person takes into consideration the time we began going steady till Cleo’s death, we spent over Sixty Years together. Ours was not the type of love which is written about in fictional love stories. The romantic love left after a while. As this superficial romantic love faded true love took hold. The romantic love was but the soil and fertilizer which allowed our true love to flourish and grow so deeply. Having said this, our relationship and love affair was not a life spent kissing or ‘lovie dovie”, never having an argument or agreeing on everything. Our love if viewed by an outside observer would not manifest itself as any different as the relationship one may observe of any other married couple. But it was different we had become truly one and this was our love affair. In our relationship, we learned to listen to each other, make compromises and respect each other. We not only listened to each other, we made decisions together. Separation or divorces were words which were never part of our vocabulary. This action was one we would never have contemplated. We learned to accept each other’s faults, adjust our own behavior so as to meld with each other. We loved each other enough to work out any problem or disappointment even when something hurtful had been said. Our love was like poet’s have written, “An unconditional love that is most understanding and a vulnerable love that supports, comforts and is “DETERMINED TO TRIUMPH OVER EVERY CHALLENGE OR ADVERSITY IT MAY ENCOUNTER”. I first fell in love with Cleo at the Sadie Hawkins Dance. We professed our love to each other at our high school Sock hop dance. We danced all of our lives till Cleo’s medical condition did not allow doing so. As long as I am alive and neither my memory or mental acuity fails me, the dancing will never end.

About the Author

Mr. Menendez was employed by the U. S. Department of Labor's Labor Management Services Administration. He enforced the provisions of the Taft Hartley Act. He was later transferred to the U. S. Department of Justice's Miami Organized Crime Strike Force. He became the Special Agent in Charge of the Organized Crime and Labor Racketeering Section. Special Agent Menendez was appointed to President Reagan's Commission on Organized Crime as a Staff Investigator. Mr. Menendez served as Secretary of Labor for the State of Florida, 1987 to 1992 Mr. Menendez participated in a joint venture with the Law Firm of Holland and Knight, a national law firm, providing investigative services to the law Firm. Upon his retirement, his federal service history was read into the Congressional Record of the first session of the 100th Congress. He was featured in a Reader's Digest article, "Union in Bond Age", August 1987, Mr. Menendez was a visiting lecturer a t the F. B. I. Academy at Quantico, Virginia on the subject of labor racketeering.