The Beginning

by Ed Nelson

  After lunch it was time for the annual height measurement. I would be the first to be measured in this house. At our old house we would go to a closet and stand in the door way and Mum would mark off our height on the edge. She would then measure our height with a tape measure.

  Our names; date and height would then be written on the mark. My birthday was the first at our new home, so my mark was the first up in the hall closet.

  I had to paint over the measurements on Detroit Street and remembered feeling funny about painting over our lives. Now a new tradition was starting. I started it out right. I had grown another inch.

  I was now six foot three inches tall. That immediately got Dad drug into the fray. We were placed back to back with Mum holding a yard stick level. I was now taller than my Dad. He reminded me he could still kick my butt. I didn’t doubt that for a second.

  Not to be left out Mary showed us how she had grown. Since her birthday was in June she wasn’t eligible for official measurement. What she did show the whole family was that she could now sit at the table and eat using only the Sears & Roebuck catalog.

  She had removed the thinner J. C. Penny catalog from the stack, and was able to reach her plate just fine. Why very soon she would be able to remove the four folded brown paper shopping bags from under the Sears catalog!

  When the thundering herd went outside to play for the afternoon Mum gave me two letters. This was unusual because we always opened and shared birthday cards at the party after dinner.

  “I thought you should see these without the other kids present. What they don’t know they won’t talk about.”

  One was in a cream colored envelope and it was made of the fanciest paper I had ever held. I didn’t know how to describe it but you knew whoever used this paper was rich. Seeing the British Stamps gave a clue. The royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom on the back put all doubts to rest.

  Mum handed me a letter opener. I didn’t even know we owned one. I slit the envelope open and there was a handwritten letter inside.

  It was from Her Majesty Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and of Her other Realms and Territories, Queen, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith.

  At least she did not use her full title: Her Majesty Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God, of Great Britain, Ireland and the British Dominions beyond the Seas Queen, Defender of the Faith, Duchess of Edinburgh, Countess of Merioneth, Baroness Greenwich, Duke of Lancaster, Lord of Mann, Duke of Normandy, Sovereign of the Most Honourable Order of the Garter, Sovereign of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath, Sovereign of the Most Ancient and Most Noble Order of the Thistle, Sovereign of the Most Illustrious Order of Saint Patrick, Sovereign of the Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George, Sovereign of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, Sovereign of the Distinguished Service Order, Sovereign of the Imperial Service Order, Sovereign of the Most Exalted Order of the Star of India, Sovereign of the Most Eminent Order of the Indian Empire, Sovereign of the Order of British India, Sovereign of the Indian Order of Merit, Sovereign of the Order of Burma, Sovereign of the Royal Order of Victoria and Albert, Sovereign of the Royal Family Order of King Edward VII, Sovereign of the Order of Merit, Sovereign of the Order of the Companions of Honour, Sovereign of the Royal Victorian Order, Sovereign of the Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of St John of Jerusalem.

  And that does not count the titles for seventeen other countries such as Canada and Australia.

  The hand written note boiled down to Birthday greetings from my Sovereign. By the way if I was ever in the area pop in at Buckingham Palace or where ever she was residing, so many castles so little time.

  The letter was much more formal and nicer, but that is what it said. I was to let the Palace know in advance. I suspect that was so I wouldn’t be sent directly to the Tower and have my head chopped off. She also extended an offer to provide help where she could if I had problems. I can see it now, skipping school, getting caught and having the Queen of England intercede. I had to share that thought with Mum.

  “Richard Edward Jackson,” she started.

  Then stopped, “You little so and so, you have got me again, you are going to pay. Now where is that chocolate icing?”

  “No Mum, not that, anything but that, I cried!”

  Actually I didn’t mind chocolate icing, it just wasn’t my favorite. It is not as though she had threatened to put catsup on my hot dog. Only mustard will do.

  I gave her the Queens letter to read. She handed me the other letter. It was a bright white envelope and easy to figure out.

  It had a seal which said, “The President of the United States.”

  Carefully using the letter opener I opened President Eisenhower’s letter. I read it through completely. Dad wanted to know, “What does that strike breaker have to say?”

  I handed him the letter to read.

  President Eisenhower took the time to write. He explained that he barely remembered my baptism as he had many things on his mind at that time (think the European Theater of World War II).

  Somehow a follow up note for my first birthday was never put on file. Because of this no cards or greetings were sent. As the years went by he had totally forgot. Only a message from Queen Elizabeth and a search by an Aide-de-Camp had found a record of the event.

  He wished me a happy birthday, and if I was ever in the area pop in at The White House after advance notification. I could see J. Edgar Hoover hauling me off to Alcatraz if I showed up unannounced. If there was anything within reason that he could do to help me, please let him know.

  All in all nice letters, but I doubted I would have the chance to pop in at Buckingham Palace or The White House. Well maybe.

  After a wonderful roast beef and mashed potato dinner we had the ice cream and cake and did the usual butcher job on singing Happy Birthday. I opened and shared the birthday cards from Dads side of the family which were local.

  Then the ones from Mums side with exotic postage stamps. England, New Zealand, Trinidad, India, and Singapore were all included. After the war Mums brothers, sisters and cousins had spread all over the world.

  When it was time to open presents I opened those from my brothers and sister first. They had bought me two new shirts. Mary told me I needed them because my others had ugly ink stains. Mum and Dad took care of the ink stain problem.

  They presented me with a gold Cross ball point pen and pencil set with my name engraved. These were expensive, when I started to object; Dad came out with, “Ricky we are sitting in this home because of you, we are working towards a more stable income because of you. I think we can afford and you deserve this.”

  That ended all of my objections.

  I was now officially fifteen years old.

  Sunday the whole family went to the movie to watch, “It Never Happened,” starring John Wayne, Elvis Presley and if you looked real fast at the end credits Ricky Jackson. The family had been prepped for my big scene. I fell off the horse like a sack of potatoes, nothing graceful about it.

  The horse dragged me along, bouncing my head off the ground. It was painful to watch even though I didn’t get hurt. My siblings made so much noise other people sitting near us shushed them.

  Mum took umbrage and told them her son is the one that had been drug by the horse and they would make noise if they wanted. We almost got asked to leave by the usher when he came down to see what the commotion was about.

  After things were explained in a low whisper we were asked to see the manager after the show. It turned out the manager wanted me to sign the poster advertising the movie. They had heard a local was in the movie but weren’t sure who.

  As we were leaving the Holland Theater with its moving clouds and turning windmills we saw the Marquee being changed, my name was being added.

  That night I started to read about a really deformed guy that rang bells in a church.

  Chapter 39

 
; Monday I was ready for school and the week. This week was the start of the Ohio State Golf Tournament for boys. I practically flew around my five mile run. It just felt like it, my time was within seconds of normal. The day was bright and clear. I was excited about going to Bowling Green; though I was born in England and traveled from there, it didn’t count as I didn’t remember it.

  I had hitchhiked to California and gone coast to coast but I still was excited about going someplace new to me. We would leave Thursday after school.

  Breakfast was the normal chaos. Denny and Eddie were arguing over who was the better superhero, Saturn Girl or Lightning Boy. They had just recruited Super Boy to the Legion of Hero’s.

  Dad wasn’t there. He was working a freight train to Cleveland. He had left late last night and wouldn’t be home till late tonight. I always thought it would be fun to ride in a caboose until I had the chance several years ago.

  They are dirty, cold and uncomfortable. I had to pee, and used the toilet. When I flushed it I realized the pee and anything else was dumped directly on the track.

  I had asked Dad about that and he told me that is why he hated passenger trains. Setting the airbrakes on a Pullman car was nasty as it had stuff all over the bottom of them. I would be glad when we owned enough rentals that he could quit the railroad.

  I walked to school with Tom as usual. Neither of us had heard any more about Bill. Apparently he was being kept home until his case was resolved. We hoped he would be sent to a military academy rather than juvenile hall.

  We then argued the merits of Culver Academy vs. Howe Military School. We had both done in depth research by reading their small ads in the back of Boys Life. I had the advantage of reading, “The Black Horse of Culver,” so I was able to win my argument easily.

  I did wonder how the fiction I had read related to reality. I thought back to the winners write history lesson, I had learned. That didn’t matter; I wasn’t going to let the lack of hard facts get in the way of winning such an important argument.

  School was busy and the flu had run its course so now we had almost a third of the school in a panic about taking make up exams for their six weeks grades. Mr. Gordon the Principal announced that all students needing to make up exams report to their regular class room where the tests would be administered.

  If you had taken your tests go to the auditorium and bring your books. I wondered how many who hadn’t taken their tests would end up in the auditorium.

  The auditorium was a mess. Everyone sat where they pleased and did nothing but talk. The monitoring teachers kept it to a dull roar. I guess it was successful as there was only one pushing, shoving and shouting match. I never did find out what it was about or who was involved. I spent my time reading. We were dismissed for our usual lunches and told to report back to the auditorium.

  At the end of the day it was announced if we weren’t taking exams we didn’t have to come to school the next day. However, for those children that hadn’t anywhere else to go and their parents both worked they could come and spend the day at the auditorium. I could think of three kids that might do it, they obeyed every other rule to the point of pain.

  Golf practice was spent on the putting green and reviewing the layout of the Stone Ridge golf course. Coach had a nice large map and we discussed how to play each hole, depending on our individual strengths. Coach passed out small notebooks to us that would fit in our shirt pockets.

  Coach told us, “Write Stone Ridge Golf Course and October 1958 on the front cover and inside page. Saving two pages for each hole, number them one through eighteen, gold tees.

  Take notes today; add to them when we walk the course on Friday, then again later during Fridays practice round. Note the clubs you plan to use; and update as you play. During the actual rounds refer to these notes before you tee off. It will save you a lot of confusion in the heat of play.”

  “Similar to my inventors notebook,” I thought.

  At dinner that night I updated Mum on no school tomorrow. I asked if it would be okay if I went downtown and shopped for some new pants. After my birthday height measurement I now realized that my current pants were too short.

  She thought that would be a good idea.

  “That reminds me, there was a call from Bush Electric; your order is here. You can pick it up anytime.”

  “That’s good news, I’ll do that.”

  After dinner Denny, Eddie and I played a little basketball, but it was getting dark earlier and earlier. We went in and watched Robin Hood on CBS. After that was Burns and Allen but we didn’t care for them, their comedy was for old people. I read until lights out at ten o’clock.

  I had checked a book out of the library on time travel. It had Eloi and Morlocks in the future. It was a good story but I didn’t think the future would end up like that. I think the author was trying to make a political statement about class.

  His statement was made within the context of British Victorian society; I wonder what he would have made of America in the 1950’s?

  Dad was at breakfast in the morning. His train had got back from Cleveland a little while ago. He was about to get cleaned up and go to bed, but of course he first had to have a cup of coffee and a cigarette.

  I woke up at my usual time even though I hadn’t any school today. I told Dad about how the flu had really messed up the school schedule. He told me that he had read that this was the worst flu season since 1918 when so many died. Dad’s oldest brother died from it as a new born in 1918.

  The other kids managed to sleep in. Mum was doing the laundry using her new washer and dryer. That was so neat; the washer would spin water out of the clothes. The dryer would heat and spin them some more.

  This beat the old way of hanging the clothes outside to dry after running them through the rollers on the washing machine tub get rid of most of the water.

  The rollers that squeezed the water out of the clothes were called mangles because they would mangle your arm if you were caught in between the rollers. In the winter when it was too cold outside we would have laundry hanging all over the house.

  I went out to the garage to the work bench and made a shopping list to take to Bush Electric. This comprised of solid state transistors, diodes and resistors recommended by Mr. Robinson.

  They would be used to make my control circuit for my hair dryer. I also would need solder, flux and a soldering iron to make the circuit. That Boy Scout Electricity Merit Badge was one of the better awards I had earned.

  I read till ten o’clock finishing up the book on time travel. I would drop it off when I went down town, maybe the library would have something new in.

  Tom knocked on the door almost when I was ready to leave.

  “What’s up Tom?”

  “I wanted to see if you wanted to go downtown, maybe catch lunch at Don’s?”

  “I was about to run some errands downtown, let me check with Mum about lunch.”

  Mum said it was fine with her, be back by dinner time.

  Our first stop was the library to drop my book off. When I went in Mrs. Bush was back in the stacks re-shelving books so I checked my book back in. I had this privilege from my paperboy days.

  The library was on my route so I was there every day. They soon got tired of me and taught me how to check my own books in and out. Laura said this probably saved her a hundred hours a year.

  This was an exaggeration, but I loved to hear her cute southern accent when she said it. There wasn’t anything interesting on the new arrivals shelf.

  We proceeded to Wolfeins; Henry was there, as usual he wouldn’t make eye contact, just looking at your feet. However he had the best selection of clothes in town as far as teenagers were concerned.

  He showed me a really cool corduroy suit. It was black; he also had a red shirt that I could wear with it to ball games and pep rally days. I had to buy it even though the suit was sixteen dollars and the shirt three dollars. I already owned a black tie so I was all set.

  I think Tom was a lit
tle jealous both of the suit and the fact that I had money to buy it, but he didn’t say anything. Henry put the suit on a hanger with a paper bag over it.

  He agreed to hold on to the items until we were ready to go home. We walked on down to DeLong’s record store and listened to some of the new releases. I bought a forty five of Peggy Sue by Buddy Holly.

  Chapter 40

  At DeLongs I also noticed ‘Rock and Roll Cowboy’ had dropped completely off the charts. This was a mixed blessing, I hated the song after hearing it so many times, but I liked the money going to the Leukemia fund, also this would give us a tax break. I say us on the tax break because as a minor everything had to go through my parents.

  We stopped at Dee’s Department Store. That place made me feel weird. It was mostly women’s fashions but had some men’s clothes, so I wanted to check them out. They had nothing that interested me. What was weird about the store was they only had one cash register. It was on a balcony that overlooked the entire store.

  There was a system of tracks to each point of sale. The clerk would put the sales slip and cash in a little box and put it on the tracks. The tracks had cords turning that made a big loop.

  The cords would take the box up to the balcony where you then would hear the big old brass register ring up the sale. The cords would then be reversed and a paid in full sales slip would come back. There was a whole network of these. I thought of it as a big spider web, with the cash register being the spider in the center of the web.

  We left there and crossed the street to Don’s. We spent almost two hours there. Every kid who was out of school came and went. We got to Don’s about eleven thirty so were able to get a booth.

  Lunch was hamburgers, fries and a coke. Later I had a butterscotch milk shake. Gary and Tim from the golf team joined us.

  Half the kids in our high school came there for lunch that day. Unfortunately no pretty girls asked to join us. I would have kicked Gary and Tim out if they had.