by Ed Nelson
If we had any questions we were to raise our hands. Since it was every other problem at the back of the chapter I had those done and correctly.
I raised my hand and Mr. Buckley came to my desk. I showed him what I didn’t understand. He started to get a little huffy about working the problems at the end of today’s chapter.
I quickly showed him that I had worked ALL of the problems. He got a great big smile and invited me up to his desk and showed me what I was missing on tomorrow’s homework.
I wasn’t able to finish all of tomorrow’s Algebra problems, but it wouldn’t take that long at home or study hall. I had two study halls on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Tuesdays and Thursday only had one because of gym class.
World History was a revelation. Mr. McMillian told us we could pick any one question at the back of the chapter to write an essay on. All the references quoted in the book were either in the school library or the study hall library.
Since I was excited about school work I decided to do every question that was at the end of the chapter. Fortunately we were doing one chapter a week, so I only had to do one essay a day.
Mr. McMillian then really made my day by saying we would get extra credit for every essay we turned in over and above the one required.
One interesting thing other than school work was girls. They noticed me! It was nothing exciting (other than to me) or sexual. Just that the girls that sat next to me in every class would say, “Hello” and make inquiries about my summer or the fact that I had grown so much. I gave nothing away about my summer and made polite conversation for the one or two minutes before the teacher started.
Thursday is when it all started. The beginning was when I got my English paper back.
It had the comment, “Well written but I did not ask for a work of fiction.”
The grade was an “F”. I was totally crushed and I didn’t know what to do, so I did nothing. Well I guess I flushed very red because Miss Bales glared at me like she was waiting for me to open my mouth. She was well known for assigning detention. I kept my mouth shut.
After thinking very evil thoughts for a while I realized that the Bellefontaine Examiner article would make it clear that I was telling the truth. I would approach her with a copy of the paper and ask her to revise my grade.
The rest of the day went by quickly. I had to hustle to keep ahead in my reading and answering all of the questions. I was doing about twice as much as most students.
I say most students because I realized that other kids were in the libraries every day and working diligently in study hall. Until I had stumbled into that orientation session at Berkley I had never known that this level of schooling existed.
I hadn’t planned any goals in life, but it did not take much to figure out this would keep a lot of options open.
After school were football tryouts. I would like to report that I was a natural and the Coaches wanted me to play on the Varsity team for Friday’s first game.
What the reality was that I was strong, I could catch the ball; I could pass the ball fairly well, but couldn’t run worth a darn. I didn’t have the stamina needed and was too slow to boot.
My discouragement must have showed because Coach Crowley took me aside and explained that stamina could be earned. I just had to run every day.
I had to run long distances to build my wind and do sprints to work on speed. As he pointed out I had grown a lot recently and my body hadn’t had a chance to catch up.
“What time do you get up in the morning Rick” he asked.
“Seven o’clock to be at school at 8:30.”
“Try getting up at Six o’clock and see how far you can run. Don’t push it, just get a comfortable speed and keep at it as long as you can. At first you will be doing good to go for five minutes before you have to walk for a while.
Keep that up for several weeks and I guarantee that you will be able to run for the whole hour. Not real fast but your stamina will have increased that much.”
“In the meantime we will carry you on the squad and let you practice. We aren’t really limited on how many we can carry for the first month.”
I decided that I would get up early and run. I’m not certain to this day what was driving me, but I was taking control of my life and making good things happen.
When I got home that night, Mr. Weaver had dropped off a copy of the story that was going to run in the paper for three days starting Monday. It was all correct, but it made me look like some sort of super kid.
All the high points were there, but none of the low points like camping in the desert because of no ride or that first lonely night on the road or how falling off of a horse got me in a John Wayne movie. I wondered if this was how most hero stories really went.
On Friday I set the alarm for 6:00 o’clock and crawled out of bed. I did wonder how anyone could jump out of bed. I ran and walked till 7:00 o’clock.
Okay I walked more than I ran.
When I came into the house; Mum said, “PU, up to the bath with you boy.”
The bath in my room also had a shower with it. I tried it for my first shower ever. I don’t think I have taken a bath since.
My hair was still wet when I left for school. I wished I had one of those industrial dryers I saw at the gold mine.
At school before I went to my home room I stopped into Miss Bales room and asked her if she had a minute. She did.
I handed her a copy of Mr. Weaver’s story and explained that it would be published in the Examiner starting next Monday. She took the papers absently and laid it on her desk. I didn’t get any reaction from her.
When I went to English class late in the day I did get that reaction. She started out with a statement.
“There is a student whom I owe an apology. Mr. Jackson turned in his paper on his summer vacation and I gave him an F. I had asked for a factual report on your summer. He turned in a well written piece of fiction, or so I thought. His grade has been changed to an A and I urge all of you to read the Bellefontaine newspaper Monday evening.
This of course had the school speculating for the rest of the day on what would be in the paper. More kids came up to me and asked what was going on. More than I usually talked to in a month.
I told everyone, “Just read the paper, it is too long to tell here.”
Chapter 14
Friday night was quiet. I went to the youth center, but for some reason couldn’t get into the conversation or antics of the other kids. The only cute girls there were traveling in packs, and I couldn’t get close to them, so I went home early. Being in at ten o’clock when I had an eleven o’clock curfew about floored my parents.
They wanted to know what was going on. I told them it just was boring.
Dad laughed and remarked, “After your summer, the rest of your life might seem boring.”
That was really frightening, had my life peaked at fourteen?
Mum said dryly, “I suspect he will get up to something to relieve the boredom.”
I went to my room and listened to records on my portable stereo record player while reading the latest from Robert Heinlein. I made a mental note to get some more of the plastic inserts for my forty-five rpm records. The insert went into the large center hole of the 45’s so they would adapt to the spindle which was made small for 33’s.
On Saturday I was up early and did my exercises, including my new one hour run walk. My stamina was getting a lot better. I could now run the whole distance without getting winded. The first couple of tries I would get a stitch in my side, but Coach had told me to run through that. It worked. I guess that was the second wind.
The bad part was, I couldn’t seem to run any faster, no matter how much I practiced sprinting. After running I mowed the lawn. Once I got cleaned up the rest of the day should be mine.
After taking my shower I went downstairs to look for some breakfast. Mum was there and came out with a typical Mum statement.
“Your hair is still wet. You will catch your
death.”
Since it was a beautiful fall day I didn’t think it would be a problem now, but when it got cold out, I would have to rethink the situation. I remembered that handheld industrial dryer I saw at the gold mine. I should check up on that. It would be neat to be able to dry my hair quickly.
I had a Boy Scout meeting at the Lutheran Church so I rode my bike down the hill coasting most of the way. The whole town of Bellefontaine was on the side of Campbell’s Hill. It is the highest point in the State of Ohio. At fifteen hundred feet above sea level it wasn’t really that tall.
At least it didn’t seem that tall going from east to west in town. Going from west to east you realized that it was long and steep! I could pedal all the way going home but it was a strain.
The scout meeting was to plan for an upcoming camporee. There would be contests such as knot tying, chopping logs, and fire building, swimming and orienteering. I was a patrol leader and had to decide who in my patrol would compete in which contests. The trick was to pick the best at each event, but also not leave anyone out. If my patrol didn’t have someone that was good or wanted to perform I had to do it.
My Scout Master cornered me. He asked, “Rick, when are you going to complete your Citizenship in the Nation merit badge? You have twenty nine badges so you have more than the twenty-one required for Eagle, you just don’t have the last required badge, or would you rather switch to the Brother in the World one?
You were the Senior Patrol Leader last year, and still are a Patrol Leader, so you have met the leadership requirements. That spring cleaning we did at the church took care of service so you only need the one badge for Eagle.”
“I will complete the Citizenship in the Nation badge within two weeks,” I promised.
“Why the push to do it now, I have till I am eighteen?”
“Simple Rick, it is well established once a boy discovers girls and cars all thoughts of Eagle Scout go out of their head.”
I couldn’t disagree with that, as he was talking, a couple of girls walked by the window distracting me.
“What is holding you up Rick?”
“The tours of two federal facilities requirement, I have to do that yet.”
Mr. Geist, my Scout Master shook his head. “Rick, remember that tour of the radar base on top of Campbell’s Hill we took last year?”
“Yes.”
“What about the tour of the Post Office? If I remember right you organized that when you were Senior Patrol Leader.”
“Yes, I had to call the Post Master Mr. Williams to make arrangements.”
“Who owns the airbase and the Post Office?”
“Oh, I have been dumber than dumb.”
“Who is your merit badge councilor for this?”
“Mr. Wolfe my eighth grade history teacher.”
He rummaged around in his ever present brief case and came up with a blue merit badge card. He then signed off on the federal facility tours.
“Take this to your teacher and if he has signed off on everything else you are good to go. By the way whom did you write to, a Congressman or Senator?”
“I wrote to Senator Taft about the Russians getting to space before we did with Sputnik. We need to get serious or they will get to the moon before we do. His reply was that he was supporting a bill to do just that. I was able to use the letter and his reply for an extra credit in class.”
“That is the way we want you to think, how to get the most for your efforts. I expect to see the signed off card next week now that I know you are so close.”
“Yes Sir.”
Sunday was a nothing day. We didn’t attend church as a family. I got in a pickup football game early in the afternoon. That evening my parents told me I was babysitting while they went to my Uncle Ross’s house to play cards.
I was able to get Denny and Eddie playing with tinker toys while I played house with Mary. While it was still light we all went outside and tried out the new toy Dad had picked up. It was called a Hula Hoop.
Before long half the kids in the neighborhood were there, trying to make the hoop go around. Eleanor Price really looked good as she twisted around. She was sixteen and had really filled out.
We then started a game of Hide and Seek but since I had Mary with me it wasn’t that fun. Hiding with your four year old sister isn’t the same as hiding with Eleanor! Of course Eleanor had never paid any attention to me, as she considered me one of the little kids.
Monday morning opened the school week. I didn’t worry about any of my classes as I had read ahead on all of them, and done all the problems. I didn’t even have any questions for my teachers.
I walked to school with Tom Morton and Bill Cairns. They lived further from the school than I did so I just blended in with them as they walked by. They were sophomores but were friendly enough.
Tom started out with, “Knock, Knock.”
I played straight man and came back with, “Who’s there?”
“Butter”
“Butter who?”
“I butter not tell you, it’s a secret!”
At my age we were great wits.
They had heard that a story about me was going to be in the Examiner tonight. Both of them tried to get me to tell all. I was able to hold them off until Eleanor Prices house. She came out in front of us kids and swayed down the walk. We were so mesmerized that there were no further questions.
Before going to my homeroom I went to the middle school side where Mr. Wolfe taught. He was already in, so I was able to explain to him about the Federal facilities I had already visited. I gave him the blue Merit Badge card that my Scout Master had signed off. He stapled that to his copy which had everything else signed off.
He asked me if I had ever been in a bank, our local National Guard Armory, or out to a Civil Air Patrol show. Of course I had been to all of them.
“Ricky all of them under special circumstances are part of the Federal infrastructure and can be called on at time of need. Even the New York Central Railroad was nationalized at one point.”
I really felt dumb again because I knew of all of this but never thought of it that way.
“I remember Dad was so mad when President Truman seized the railroads to avoid a strike in 1950.”
For me to remember, Dad must have been really mad because I was only six at the time.
I told Mr. Wolfe that I now had everything to turn in for my Eagle Scout Badge. He shook my hand and congratulated me.
As I turned to leave he remarked, “I am looking forward to today’s newspaper.”
This really concerned me. It seemed everyone had heard that something was going on. The rest of the day was like that. I did ask for a pass to get out of study hall. My reason was to talk to the shop teacher. Since I didn’t take shop, Mr. Hurley the study Hall monitor wanted to know why I wanted to see him.
Chapter 15
I explained there was an industrial dryer that I wanted to find but didn’t even know where to start so hoped he could point me in the right direction.
“Ricky, ask Mr. Donaldson to see the Thomas Register.”
“What is that?”
“A listing by product, and what companies make them.”
“Great that is exactly what I need.”
Mr. Donaldson had a complete set of the 15 volume book in his office. It was dated last year, but he told me that the school would only buy a new set for the shop every three years.
He helped me look up Industrial Dryers. The most promising company was “Conair” in Franklin PA. I wrote their address down and thanked him. When I returned to the study hall I immediately wrote a letter to them asking for information on their Industrial Dryers.
After study hall I was able to buy a stamp at the school office, drop the letter in the mailbox and still make class on time.
The school day took forever. I was waiting for the newspaper to come out like many others. I wanted the day to end. My school work plan was proving stronger than I thought it would. We had several snap
quizzes in Latin, Algebra and English. I was getting A’s without any strain.
Finally the last bell rang and I went to football practice. Coach had us run many laps, doing push up’s and setups, we also had to run through a long row of old tires, lifting our feet. I had good wind and was able to do everything Coach asked. I just couldn’t do it as fast as others. I began to realize that I may not have a football career.
After practice I approached Coach Crowley. “Coach, I have my wind and stamina built up but I can’t seem to go any faster.”
“Ricky I don’t have an answer, your body isn’t built for the running speed you would need. You are tall and thin, so you don’t have the weight to play the line. I don’t want to tell you no today, but you probably won’t make the cut.”
“I’m disappointed, but only a little. I didn’t have my heart set on playing football. You’re the one who asked me to try out. It has been good for me anyway. My ability to run has improved and that can’t hurt. Maybe I can go out for cross country in track.”
“That would be an option, but don’t get your hopes up, there are some boys on the track team that have your stamina and can run much faster.”
“Darn, there goes my professional sports career.”
“Have you thought of something like golf?”
“No, I don’t even know how to play.”
“You have the body type. Why don’t you talk to Coach Stone, I will mention it to him that you might be interested.”
“I would appreciate that Coach. I have an urge to play some sport, but not any that I can’t do well.”
“So are you officially dropping from the team?”
“Yes, this has helped me, and I intend to keep running, but I don’t want to waste our time.”
“Good luck Rick, I will be watching you win the USA PGA amateur!”
“Yeah, that’ll be the day.”
“Now we are done with that, what is going to be in the paper tonight?”
I laughed, “You will have to wait till you get home.”
I took a shower after my exercise. A couple of kids, led by the ex-Mayors son Tom Humphreys started riding me about quitting football.
