School Days

by Ed Nelson

  It made me think back to Bill Samson. I could see that men had many different ways of coping or not coping with war. I wondered if any of them had faced Normandy Beach like Mr. Samson, but knew better than to ask.

  I felt slightly unsettled by my thoughts after lunch but quickly shook it off. My attention was caught by two girls about my age in period costume. I had thought those old dresses were ugly. They may be ugly, but those girls wearing them were sure cute!

  They were looking my way and both smiled so I walked over and introduced myself. They were Cindy and Barbara, daughters of two reenactors.

  They told me it was traditional for them to come to the Christmas outing but this year was boring because there were no boys their age until I showed up. I asked them what grade they were in.

  Cindy told me she was a freshman and Barbra was a sophomore both at Ohio State. I gulped but sadly informed them there were still no boys their ages. I was a freshman in high school. They laughed at their error, but soon found reason to move on.

  The Colonel took us over to one of the sutlers who had stacks of uniforms. He introduced us and told them I was to be a brevet lieutenant so outfit me as an officer. I was convinced to buy two shirts and pairs of pants but only one hat and tunic.

  The tunic had shiny brass buttons. I was provided shoulder tabs for the tunic which demonstrated my rank and army affiliation. There was also a 6th OVI pin which went on my officer’s hat.

  The shoes were handmade and were actually a pretty good fit. I wouldn’t care to go for miles in them but they would look authentic in camp. It all came to seventy seven dollars.

  We went to a different sutler for my weapons. What every teenage boy needs; weapons! For a side arm I bought an 1860 Colt Army black powder pistol. It was a .44 caliber. To think this pistol was almost one hundred years old.

  The sutler also had the powder, ball and patches to load. That and a cleaning kit came to ninety dollars. He had a beautiful almost mint condition 1850 foot officer’s sword for sale. It cost me eighty dollars but was worth every penny. I purchased a red sash to hang it from.

  Altogether I had spent almost two hundred and fifty dollars but was very happy with my purchases. After talking it over with Colonel Tolson I decided to pass on such camp items as a housewife or a bedroll. If I ever became serious about reenacting I would need those camp items but could pass for now.

  The Colonel was surprised that I had spent as much money as I had and that Dad had never said a word. Dad took him aside and explained a little about my making money and that I even had a movie coming up with John Wayne.

  That caused a change in attitude. He wanted to know about the time period the movie was set in and if any Union soldiers were in the script. I told him that I had a Nondisclosure Agreement with the studio and couldn’t talk about the script, but that I didn’t think any soldiers would be involved. He respected that and left the subject.

  I had not changed back into my civilian clothes choosing to keep the uniform on. As we were heading towards the car I heard,

  “Hey, soldier, looking for a good time?”

  It was Cindy and Barbara. They laughed as they waved goodbye.

  Dad commented, “I see you have several admirers.”

  “They are in college so they are just teasing.”

  “Hmm, wish I had been teased like that.”

  “Dad,” I squeaked!

  “Gottcha,” he grinned.

  As we drove home he told me he would really be glad when I obtained a driver’s license. If he had his way I could start driving tomorrow. He was getting tired of driving me around.

  One thing led to another and the next thing you know I was driving us home. I made the car jump around a bit using the clutch but after a while it seemed natural.

  I had to think about what I was doing when shifting but only ground beef once. I asked if he was worried about my not being old enough, for a learners permit. He told me that since I would be fifteen and a half in April not to worry as long as I was with him.

  The police were lenient with parents teaching their children to drive in farm country. It was different in the big cities as there was too much traffic. I wasn’t to try this with any friends even if they had a license. I told him I wouldn’t and meant it.

  Dad continued, “If there was a way to get you a hardship driver’s license I would. Since I would have to die for that to happen I will pass.”

  I agreed with that thought whole heartedly. I drove us home without wrecking or making Dad a nervous wreck so he told me that I would have more opportunities in the near future.

  I would be taking Mum grocery shopping.

  “Why doesn’t she drive?” I inquired.

  “She doesn’t drive, not that she can’t. She has a license and actually is a very good driver. Think about it, I was there to drive her or had the car with me at work. If we had two cars, like rich people, she would be driving everywhere.”

  That started me to thinking maybe we could afford a second car. I wondered if she would like a red and white 1956 Bel Air Chevy convertible. Well, I could dream.

  When we returned home the kids were all impressed with my new gear. Of course Denny and Eddie wanted to sword fight. I let them hold it, but wouldn’t let them wave it around. The blade had never been sharpened, but it could still do damage.

  I had asked about sharpening and was told that was up to the officer’s preference. The reason was gruesome. A sharp blade might hang up on bone. A dull blade could be used to break bones and beat someone to death. Not an image I wanted in my mind.

  I read again that night. This time it was the Spanish Main and treasure. He married, but you could tell that it wouldn’t last. He was destined for great things and the English class system wouldn’t accept her. It still was sad that she died.

  Sunday was ice skating most of the afternoon. I spent as much time by the fire as on the ice. Skating even with figure skates is hard on the ankles at the start of the skating season. It wasn’t bad duty.

  Cheryl and I skated around holding hands. We then sat next to the fire with her cuddled up to me. The city park people had set up an urn of hot chocolate so many kids were in and out all day long. It was really a fun day.

  Chapter 35

  Why does time stand still while you are going to class and flies when you are on Holiday? Another thing that is unfair is that on Holiday you can sleep in all you want, but I keep waking up at my normal time.

  Once I was up and had done my exercises life did slow down. I sat and talked to Mum and Dad. We discussed my patents and how we just had to be patient. We went over the rental situation. It was coming along nicely. Apparently there had been a dearth of good rental properties in town. As fast as Dad could get one ready someone was moving in.

  The phone rang off the hook that morning. Well, we received three phone calls. Mum took the first call. She handed the receiver to Dad and told him it was Jingles Meyer.

  I asked her, “Who is Jingles Meyer?”

  She told me he was the water taxi driver who took me to the boathouse.

  He was introduced as Dick Meyer to me. “Why is he called Jingles?”

  “If you’re around him very much you would know. He has a nervous habit of jingling the change in his pocket. It will drive you to distraction.”

  When Dad hung up he told us it was good news. Dick Meyer had unpacked the new Chris-Craft boat hull and it was in perfect condition. If we put one of the engines in the good hull the whole boat would sell for four thousand dollars.

  He had managed to salvage the controls and gages from the old boats and they might be worth five hundred dollars to someone rebuilding boats. The hulls sitting there were rotten, from not being cleaned before storage, and would have to be taken to the scrap yard or burned.

  The crates with engines in them had never been unpacked. Dick had gone to a boat dealer and looked up their cost in a catalog. They sold new for six hundred dollars apiece. He figured we could get four hundred dollars each
at least.

  At the dealer he visited he described the chain hoist in the building. The dealer said he would give one thousand for it if it really worked. There were also tools and welding gear in the back room which must be worth another five hundred.

  All in all we were ahead of the game. The only question was whether or not to keep the boat. It wasn’t really a question because we were all for it. Dad told us he was going to give Dick several hundred dollars for his efforts. From the way Dad called him Dick and Mum Jingles, I knew who was driven to distraction.

  The next phone call was for me. It was Doctor Costin. My Dads application for the country club had been approved. He had the temporary family membership cards at his office and would leave them with the receptionist for my pickup. He also suggested we plan on going to the New Year’s Eve party. I told him I would talk it over with my parents.

  We discussed it and they decided they would like to go. That meant a new suit for Dad, a new cocktail dress for Mum. They decided that I should go with them but they would get a baby sitter for the other kids. If Mrs. Hernandez was back in time she would be perfect if she wanted the job.

  This brought up another subject.

  “Rick you know that we haven’t attended an organized church since we moved to Ohio,” Dad began. “There were reasons then but things are changing. I hate to be cynical but with the housing business it would be best if we were seen in church.”

  I didn’t remember ever living anyplace but Ohio.

  Mum broke in, “Your Dad never attended church as a child. I am Church of England. The closest they have to that here is the Episcopalian. I talked to the priest when we first moved here and when he found out that your father had never attended church on a regular basis he wanted to know if Jack knew how to act in church.”

  “I am afraid I said some un-Christian things to him. I also told him that if Jack could have you baptized in a real church like the Church of England with Princess Elizabeth and General Eisenhower present then he would know how to act in his jonnie come lately religion. That ended any chance of us attending that church.”

  “We didn’t miss it but now is the time for business reasons to attend church. It will do the younger children well. At least I have seen you reading the bible, so you have a general idea of what it is all about.”

  “Jack and I talked to Pastor Bowers at the Lutheran Church. He seems nice and that church is one thing the Huns have done right.”

  With Mum the Germans will always be the Huns and let’s don’t even talk about the French.

  “To make a long story short the family is joining the Lutheran Church here in town. We are going to Christmas Eve services to make our first appearance. That will get us lost in the crowd but some people will recognize us so we don’t feel so strange the following Sunday. You are old enough that if you don’t want to go every week we understand, but we would appreciate your support at the start.”

  How could I say no to that?

  “Of course Mum I will be there, with bells on.”

  She just shook her head. With bells on meant I would be dressed up. Taken in context of Dad not knowing how to behave in Church it had a different take.

  “Mum, I do get confused about this whole religious thing, it is supposed to be good, but there has been so much wrong done in the name of religion.”

  “Rick it is more than I want to get into right now, but think. An organized church is different than a religion. Religion is a belief system. An organized church is a method of facilitation of that belief and its sub-tenets.”

  “Sub-tenets,” I inquired?

  “If you believe you should help others, then the organized church facilitates that help by running a soup kitchen. Now you can have good or bad religions and good or bad organizations, and of course they never are pure good or bad, they have to be rated on a scale.”

  “How would you do that?”

  “Well a religion that only believes that its members will go to its version of heaven might be described as bad to a certain degree, but it would be nothing compared to a religion that believed its members would get to heaven by cutting out the living hearts of children.”

  “I see what you mean, but no religion would do that!”

  “What did the Aztecs do, not to get to heaven, but to appease an angry God?”

  “Oh,” I said softly.

  “That is the belief system, now how that organization is used is another thing. As an example the Catholic Church has done many good things, but it also sponsored the Spanish Inquisition.”

  “Rick, the last thing to consider is the efficiency of the organization. A small town church that exists only for the life of its preacher is certainly different in efficiency from the Catholic Church which has been worldwide for thousands of years.”

  “Your father and I have always been more concerned with teaching our children basic right from wrong rather than organizational requirements or religious dogma. And no, I’m not going to discuss what is right or wrong or what may be basic about it.”

  “Thanks Mum, that all helps... I think.”

  I could see that I would have to really give some thought to this religious deal, but for right now I would be happy to treat our new church with respect and consider it an act of fitting into the community.

  The last call was the most exciting. Again it was for me. It was an Alex Redfoot from the Shawnee Indian Tribe. He had received my letter and was very excited about what the pictures showed. We discussed the details of what I had found and where I found them.

  He knew nothing about the theft reported in the Bellefontaine Gazette and thought that might explain the mystery of where everything went. It was doubtful we would ever know who the thief was.

  He was very interested in why I wanted to give them to the Shawnee. They were worth a lot of money if I sold them. I told him that the money wasn’t really an issue. My only concern was to get them in the hands of the rightful owners. He asked me what the tribe could do for me in turn.

  I told him that I wasn’t looking for anything. I would just be happy to get the medals and letters where they belonged. I explained that I had read so much on Chief Blackhoof that I felt like I knew him and that he would want these to go to the Shawnee. He had been a selfless worker for the tribe his entire life and I respected that.

  The soonest he could get to Bellefontaine was January 6th. After a quick check with Mum and Dad it was fine with us.

  After lunch I went to the ice pond. It was across the street from the tennis courts at Mary Rutan Park. They had been talking about putting a municipal swimming pool there for years but nothing ever happened. I doubted that it would.

  I went home and did my typing as usual. Mrs. Hernandez was visiting relatives in Miami for the Holidays so we had no formal Spanish class. Out of habit we kids met together at the regular time and played Monopoly, but only spoke Spanish as we put in our daily practice. Mary insisted on being banker.

  I noticed she never ran out of money no matter what. I finally took her aside and asked her if she wanted to win so bad that she had to cheat.

  She said, “Yes, you boys always beat me and I want to win for once.”

  I told her she could do it this one time.

  Denny and Eddie had good properties and were pretty cocky about how they were going to win. It worked out well. Mary won for once and the two brats lost. Now I had to be careful and never let her get away with that again.

  That evening I was sailing the Sutherland in my book.

  Chapter 36

  Tuesday the weather streak continued clear and cold. The ice at the skating pond yesterday had been like glass. Now it was all marked up by skates, but it didn’t have those little ridges from snow and wind.

  Denny and I went over right after lunch with the intention of spending the day at the ice pond. We walked to the pond with our skates slung over our shoulder. Denny had the family hockey stick and a puck. It was the family stick because it was the only one we had and we
all shared it.

  If the truth be known hockey was not a Bellefontaine sport it was just something to do on the ice. There were no goals at the pond. Denny might be the only kid there with a stick. The others would use their hands. They still had a lot of fun and it involved a lot of falling down.

  There was no one from the city there. The city worker who watched the place in the evening didn’t come till after dinner every night. He worked his day job at the city then was paid overtime for his evening work. I heard someone say that the only reason he was there was that the mayor’s wife remembered what she did in the evenings in that little shed.

  We were there about half an hour and a guy I didn’t know showed up on a red Moped. He rode out on the ice and did donuts. He kept going around and chasing the little kids and scaring them. I skated towards him to have a word, but before I could get there he hit a rough patch of ice and went over. It was ugly. His right leg was trapped under the scooter and he was screaming like a banshee.

  I quickly took charge and had two seniors lift the bike off him. His ankle had become pinned under the bike then bent. He had a compound fracture with the bone sticking out of the skin. He wasn’t bleeding, so no major veins had been torn. You could see the white of the cartilage.

  He was wearing standard low cut shoes. His sock had been shredded and was the only reason I could see the damage. Undoubtedly there were fibers in the wound that would need to be cleaned out, but I knew enough first aid to know what I had to do. Send for help and treat for shock.

  The Barnett twins were standing there watching. I asked them if they had their bikes. They did. I gave them each a dime and told them to ride to the gas station across from the Dairy Queen and call for an ambulance.

  Bill Barnett asked what number they should dial. I told them to dial zero for the operator. She would get them to the hospital ambulance service. They took off like the devil was on their heels.

  I then asked Mary Giles to check the shed for any blankets or if anyone who had driven had some in their car. The kid with the busted ankle was trying to move so I informed him he had to stay put. Help was on the way and we were getting blankets.