by Ed Nelson
I skipped typing practice and got dressed up for the dance. I didn’t take a shower because my hair would still be wet. My cigar box hairdryer had finally fallen apart. After an early dinner I paced the floor.
I heard a car pull up at six forty five, so I was opening the door for June as she was about to ring the doorbell. She had her light brown hair done up in what I learned was a French roll. She had on makeup, but so little it appeared she had none.
It made her eyes look large and innocent. I introduced her to my family. Mum went out to the car and invited Mr. and Mrs. Hardesty in, as it would be a few minutes as she had to have pictures.
June removed her overcoat. Denny and Eddie stood there awestruck.
Mary said it for all of us, “You’re beautiful!”
June was wearing a royal blue dress with full skirts and a drop waist which gave emphasis to her slim figure. Around her neck was a double strand of pearls along with matching earrings. Her purse a tiny thing was gold mesh art deco. She was wearing black high heels that made her look much taller. She still only was heart high to me.
Chapter 23
She was a picture of perfection. The Mouse had roared.
My tie matched her dress color perfectly. She had a boutonniere for me. Everyone made a big deal about her having to stand on her tiptoes to pin it on me. June was about five foot four inches tall so I towered over her.
Denny grabbed a footstool for her to stand on. This made us nose to nose. She pinned my flower on, but got enticingly close while doing it. When she finished she gave me a light kiss on the lips. Mouse, What Mouse?
Taking my hand we posed for pictures. She held my hand and led me out to the car. All this time I was totally tongue tied.
I finally was able to say, “June you look wonderful tonight.”
Not very exciting, but try to speak when your mouth is dry.
“Thank you Rick, I have been waiting for this night for as long as I can remember. I have been awkward for the last few years both physically and socially. I suspect one led to the other.”
“My Mother and Father have been very supportive and assured me I would grow out of it. I can’t tell you how many hours of work my mother put into tonight. Making certain I had the right outfit, how to do my makeup and even how to ask you out.”
“Why me,” I asked?
“That question is one of the reasons Rick. You are considered the rising star of the school. Not only are you considered the top freshman, you are considered the top catch in the school. The older girls are conflicted, they don’t want to be seen dating a freshman, yet they would love to date you.”
She continued, “Yet at the same time you remain relatively humble. Maybe humble isn’t the right word, you just ignore it all. You are tall, dark and handsome with a reputation of being dangerous if crossed, and an excellent student with good financial prospects. What’s not to like?”
I had an urge to turn around and see who she was talking about. We got into the car so the conversation was broken up.
I told her parents, “You have a beautiful daughter.”
Her mother replied, “We know, now the rest of the world will know also. I just hope that John Madison wakes up.”
I knew John a little he was a freshman like me.
“What’s John got to do with this?”
June gave out a yell, I would’ve said screech but she was to pretty to screech, “Mother!”
It was a little incoherent in the car for a minute then it all came out. June had been mooning over John for two years. I was her attempt to get his attention at last. The ego that had got swollen with tall, dark and handsome came plummeting to earth.
I started to open my mouth, then stopped and thought. It wasn’t long but you could see the worry on Junes face. I gave voice to my thoughts.
“Well this isn’t good for my ego but at the same time all you did was ask me to go the dance. Why don’t we go to the dance and have fun?”
The tension in that car could’ve been cut by a knife. All of a sudden it was gone. Mrs. Hardesty apologized for letting the cat out of the bag. She thought I knew. June apologized for not telling me. Mr. Hardesty just kept driving, smart man.
I had to say something, so I told them it was okay, just surprising, but I could live with it. About that time we arrived at the school.
Now a Sadie Hawkins dance has a hillbilly image from the Li’l Abner cartoon. This was anything but. The high school gym was decorated like a prom was being held. We entered through an archway stopping to have our picture taken.
There was a crowd waiting for us in particular, or rather waiting for June. All of her fellow mice were there with their dates. They applauded when we entered and stopped. I had time to mentally adjust, and decided I wasn’t going to be an ass about this. I was being used, but June had worked hard for this night and I wouldn’t ruin it for her.
We sat at a table with her friends and their dates. Tonight everything centered on the girls, we guys were decorations or trophies on display. I was just the tallest trophy in every sense of the word.
Somehow it didn’t bother me very much. The girls were fighting a battle for their social standing and currently were winning. Like most people I had a soft spot for the underdog.
I danced with June for the first two dances. I went over to buy us cokes when I ran into John Madison.
“Hey John, how are you doing?”
“Fine, I see you are with June, she has turned into a bombshell. I wish I had noticed her before.”
“She has noticed you, why don’t you ask her to dance.”
“You sure man?”
He looked up at me as he asked. You could tell he didn’t want to get me mad.
“I’m sure it’s all part of an evil plot to trap you. Go for it.”
John looked at me as if I had lost my marbles, but did straighten his shoulders and march over to June. I don’t know what was said, but they danced. As a matter of fact they danced all of the slow dances together for the rest of the evening. I got several fast ones, but I was not that good at jitterbugging so was glad to sit most of them out.
When there was a slow dance I would ask some of the girls that were being ignored. The sad fact was that some of the mice would continue to be mice. They had asked boys to the dance.
These boys now had abandoned them for others. I danced with a different girl every time I could.
My neighbor Tom was there.
He made the comment, “Boy you got dumped quickly.”
“What can I say? She found someone she likes better.”
“That is one cruel…you know what I mean”
“She’s not cruel she’s in love. I don’t know much, but don’t get between a woman and her love.”
“Yeah like Lucille and chocolate.”
Lucille was the fattest girl in school. It ran in her family. She didn’t even try to control her weight.
“Tom that’s mean, you know her problems are inherited.”
“I was just trying to be funny, ease up.”
“Well I just got dumped it’s my party and I will cry if I want to.”
We both laughed at my wit. I fleetingly thought those would be good lyrics for a song.
June did give me a ride home. I think she could’ve floated home. I had a choice to pout or celebrate the victory. I helped celebrate as she gave a detailed description of the dance to her mother.
Her mother asked all the right questions including, “What made John ask you to dance?”
“I saw Rick talk to him and he came right over.”
“He told me you looked great, so I suggested he ask you to dance.”
“John has asked me to meet him at Don’s tomorrow, can I go?”
“Of course dear,” replied her Mom. In the meantime Mr. Hardesty quietly drove us home confirming that he is a very smart man. When we got there June gave me a light kiss. Mr. Hardesty got out of the car and shook my hand.
“Thank you, Rick for being a gentleman
this evening. You could have ruined it for my daughter and didn’t, I appreciate that deeply. If there is ever a way to repay you I will.”
“Thank you Judge. I hope I never have to appear in front of you and ask for repayment.”
“Somehow Rick I don’t think you will ever appear in criminal court.”
“I hope not,” thinking of a certain letter from the Department of Justice.
Of course when I went in I had to describe the dance to my parents. Again I had the choice of pouting or celebrating. I gave them a blow by blow starting with Junes Mothers accidental revelation. It went from there to me telling John to ask her to dance. How they danced all evening and were going to meet at Don’s tomorrow. Mum asked me what I did while she was dancing.
I share how I danced with as many different girls as possible. I did leave out my conversation with Tom. Some things parents weren’t old enough to know.
You could tell Mum thought the evening was like a romantic story. Dad didn’t say anything. Like the Judge he knew better than to get between women and a romantic ending. I was learning, besides I thought it was really nice how the evening had turned out, maybe I liked a romantic ending.
I was to wound up for sleeping so read about the life and taming of a three quarters wolf during the Yukon gold rush. The animal had a harsh life but ended up living in California after saving his Masters, father’s life.
All in all a good read. I especially like the authors writing style. My Aunt Merle must have liked his writing because she convinced my grandmother to give my father the middle name of London. It was being passed down through the family, because Eddie was Edward London Jackson.
Chapter 24
Dad and I worked on new rental units on Saturday. I spent most of the time hauling trash out to the curb. I couldn’t believe what people would leave behind. Well since it was really trash stuff I could understand why it was left. I couldn’t understand why they hadn’t thrown it away long before.
I asked Dad about it and he explained, “Rick there are as many reasons as there are people. But no matter the reason you can divide them into two types; down and out, and down but not out. The down and outers will live in trash, the rest won’t. Now I have simplified it because not everyone who chooses to rent is down. Actually homeownership has just caught on since the war ended. But I stand by the basic thought.”
“How are you going to keep people from trashing your rentals?”
“We will check their backgrounds carefully. The ideal renter is a long term one who takes pride in where they live. Those are who we want. We won’t always get them. That is why we will have a month’s rent in advance plus a security deposit which will be refundable, if they leave the unit in good condition. We will do a joint inspection before they move in and another when they are leaving. I will take pictures before and after.”
“If that is the normal practice why are these units a mess?”
“Background checks and security deposits haven’t really been done in Bellefontaine. It is standard procedure in cities. In small towns everyone knew of each other, so checks weren’t needed. That was all before the war. Nowadays people move in and out of towns and jobs so much you can’t know everyone. This country has changed and to be successful in business we have to change with it.”
“Boy, Dad you sure are sharp at this.”
“I have joined the National Realtors Association. Their magazine has good articles on managing rental units.”
“I still think you are sharp. How many other local landlords do this?”
“Right now none, believe it or not with eight units I am the largest landlord in Bellefontaine. Most of the others got in the business renting out a house they inherited. I wouldn’t call any of them professional.”
“That’s what I mean, you are sharp.”
“Let’s hope it is sharp enough.”
At the end of the afternoon I had carried the trash out of four units, two duplexes side by side. I left them broom clean for Dad. We went home just before dinner.
Dinner was fun. We kids talked a lot of Spanish to devil our parents. We didn’t say anything mean, just silly stuff but Mum and Dad didn’t know that. They would exchange looks and we would burst out laughing.
Dad finally told Mum, “They were all your idea.
She blushed a little as she replied, “You didn’t turn down the chance.”
Tom knocked on the door about then. He wanted to know if I wanted to go roller skating with a group tonight. They were going to the Roller Arena up at Indian Lake. This weekend was the last time you would be able to skate on the wooden rink.
They were going to replace the floor with a plastic one and all the wooden wheels with plastic. It would quieten the place down, but it was also the end of an era.
I told him that sounded like fun. I changed clothes real quick and we went back to his house for our ride. We picked up Tracey along the way. It only took about thirty minutes going through Huntsville to get there. I always liked that drive.
There was a huge curve outside of Huntsville where routes 117 and 33 split. At the end of the curve was a tourist souvenir place, and the entire outside was coated in sea shells. It was starting to look rundown since the tourist business at the lake didn’t recover after the war.
The big amusement park at Cedar Point was now easy to get to with all the new roads being built and cars able to go faster. This was killing the Russell Point amusement park. The ride took us past the Ark.
This was a small restaurant and bar shaped like the ark in the bible next to my Uncle Jims house. It too was showing its age. Next we passed Cottonwood and the old restaurant where my grandmother worked when she was alive. It was right at the dam.
It was hard to believe but Indian Lake was mostly manmade as part of the Miami canal system. Even the concrete on the dam was looking old. This was almost depressing. But hey, we were going roller skating, I wonder what girls might be there.
I did see Sue Barton but she was with a group and I had no reason to butt in. Sam Shepard and Pam Schaffer were still together. June and John weren’t here. I skated around with Tom and Tracey.
There were several moonlight skates where they turned the lights down low. I asked a couple of girls to skate. They went to school in Lewistown. This school was much smaller than Bellefontaine, so we weren’t in the same sports league and most of the kids didn’t know each other.
The moonlight skates were fun but neither the girls nor I were interested in each other. Actually the noise of wooden wheels on wooden floors made it very hard to hold a conversation. All we could do was hold hands.
I didn’t know them well enough to put my arm around them. One girl Rhonda was a very good skater and she held both my hands across our bodies. I felt lucky to avoid a disaster. I was a competent skater which meant I could go around in circles and stop on demand without falling. I had never tried to skate backwards.
I could do that very well on ice skates, but for some reason hadn’t tried it on wheels. I think it was because on an ice pond you only had your friends to see you fall, but in the public rink the whole world was watching. Also the traffic was so heavy usually that you would take a crowd down with you if you fell.
We had sodas and a slice of pizza before heading home. It was a pleasant evening. We agreed it would be fun to come back in a month or so, and try the plastic floor and wheels.
I finished up the story on the part wolf. I wondered if the dog was real and if any of his pup’s descendants were still around.
I also spent all day Sunday helping Dad and Denny clean up rental units Dad had just bought. None were as interesting as the Pit. He told me how he had hired a contractor to finish the office downtown. He wanted it to look good, as much as Mum did.
We worked for almost fourteen hours. Today Denny and I were painting. Every wall was to be white. The woodwork had to be taped off so we wouldn’t splatter it. That took half a day. Then we started painting using rollers that Dad had brought with him.
Most of the walls took two coats. We got the first coat done on two units, and called it a day. I was exhausted.
Dinner wasn’t a repeat of last night. Mum made the table an English only zone. I watched a little TV, but by nine o’clock I was ready for bed. I went to sleep without any reading.
Chapter 25
I woke up to the first snow of the year. It was only an inch deep, but Eddie was listening to the radio to see if school would be closed. I wasn’t going to disappoint him by telling him that I could only remember school being closed a couple of times since I started school.
The kids in the country who had to ride buses would get at least a week off every year, but those of us in town had to walk no matter how deep it got. Seldom was it over a foot.
Today even the kids who rode buses got to go to school. It looked like there would be a total of two or three inches. It was a nice wet packing snow so we made plans to build a snowman after school.
Mum told us she would get out the scarf and hat that we put on the snow man every year. That is when a crisis of immense proportions reared its head. Our new house was gas heated. We hadn’t any coal for the eyes or mouth!
After a hasty family confab Dad agreed to pick up some at one of the rentals that hadn’t been converted yet. I felt lazy as I didn’t get a chance to run. I was enjoying sitting at the table drinking coffee while talking about nothing with the family.
It wasn’t a bad way to start the day. That is till Dad reminded me there was a snow shovel with my name on it in the garage. The driveway and sidewalk needed cleared.
I offered Denny five bucks to do it, but he wasn’t interested. Eddie was about to take me up on the offer when Dad kicked me under the table. I can take a hint and got to work. After clearing the walks I took a shower, but was careful not to get my hair wet.
Since my hairdryer had fallen apart and I hadn’t built another I didn’t want to hear the dreaded, “You will catch your death.”
