by Ed Nelson
Pam Schaffer came in holding hands with Sam Shepard and she didn’t even look my way. I would have to become a big time actor before she would notice me. But if I were a big time actor would I notice her?
After lunch we worked our way back up the street. Stopping by Wolfeins I remembered my original mission had been to buy several pair of pants. Instead I had bought a suit and a shirt.
Asking for his help Henry helped me pick out a light and dark pair of chino pants. My waist size was still thirty inches but my in seam was now thirty four inches.
From there we stopped at Bush Electric. Tom was at the counter so he knew that I was there to pick up my order. I also placed a new order for solid state transistors, diodes and resistors. Tom suggested I buy the latest silicon transistors rather than germanium because they handled heat better.
The fixed germanium diodes were still the best. The resistors that worked best for potentiometers were those made by Western Electric. I ended up ordering all Western Electric made parts.
Bush had the flux, solder and soldering iron in stock, but agreed to hold them till the other parts were in. I ordered enough parts to build ten control sets for the hairdryer. While I was doing this Tom was listening avidly.
He thought it was cool that I was trying to build something that would be of use. He agreed that anything was better than hearing his mother say, “You will catch your death.”
I now had the motor, fan and parts to build a heating element for my dryer. I could work on proper air flow and temperatures using the variac controller.
The controller weighed about twenty pounds so I cheated and paid for a taxi to take us home. The taxi service was only half a block away so we walked there. John Sullivan was on duty.
Mr. Sullivan remembered me well. He told me that they had bought a new limo and it was booked up with enough weddings, dances and other special events to pay for the first year. It looked like a money maker. He just hoped it didn’t get lost in a card game. The ride home cost seventy five cents but was well worth it.
When Tom and I got back to my house Mum wanted to know what clothes I had bought. When she saw the suit I was ordered to try it on to make certain it fit. I had tried it on in the store and it fit, according to Henry who did his own tailoring. When Mum says try it on you try it on. Tom beat a hasty retreat out the door.
The suit fit perfectly well and Mum approved of its look. She also liked the red shirt that went with it for school spirit. The other pants also fit and passed muster. Once this was out of the way, I took my other purchases to the garage.
I had already collected some vital elements; a small cigar box, a toilet paper roll, parts from my erector set, Popsicle sticks, a plug in lamp cord and an extension cord.
Using my Barlow knife and a pair of tin snips I cut the Popsicle sticks so that I could make an “X” which would fit inside the toilet paper roll. I made two of these, inserting one in each end of the roll.
I then threaded two feet of nichrome wire back and forth on the “X”, careful to leave both ends of the wire at the same end of the toilet paper roll. This would be my heating element.
I then cut a hole as close to the diameter of the toilet paper roll as I could in the short end of the cigar box. The box I had selected was about six inches in both length and width. It was four inches high. I did a very poor job of cutting. It ended up as a very ragged circle.
That was okay, I used one of Dad’s ever present rolls of duct tape to attach the toilet paper roll and close the gaps left by the ragged edges.
After installing the toilet paper roll it was now known as the barrel with heating element installed. I made a sketch in my notebook and labeled the parts. I also signed and dated the sketch.
Using parts of my erector set I made a simple frame work inside the cigar box to which I could attach the fan and motor. The fan was attached so that it would blow air through the barrel across the heating element.
The ends of the nichrome wires threaded through another hole I had cut in the cigar box at a right angle to the first hole.
I also cut two pieces of copper wire and attached them to the motor and threaded them through the same hole as the nichrome wire.
I then belatedly realized that I had bare wires which could touch each other and short out, so I took everything apart and wrapped the bare wires in some of Dad’s electrical tape. I also made a note to buy more duct tape and electrical tape.
Dad got bent out of shape when his tools weren’t replaced. He wouldn’t like it if I used his stuff up and didn’t replace it.
After reassembling the unit I attached the loose heating element wires and motor wires to the variac. Using the extension cord I plugged it into the outlet near the door to the house.
I took time to wonder why garages only have one outlet in inconvenient spots. The moment of truth had arrived. I turned the power on. Nothing happened, at least no sound from the fan running.
Turning the unit off, it only took a moment to realize the fan hadn’t any electrical connection to the motor. I hadn’t wired it. Disassembling it once more I installed the wires after first wrapping all but the ends in electrical tape.
After reassembling the unit I turned it on. Success, well at least I could hear the fan running. As I stood there basking in the moment the fan started to increase its pitch. It went from a low humming to a scream. Mum came out of the kitchen to see what was going on.
I had turned the variac off by then.
Mum said, “I wondered what that sound was, it’s like my Hoover when it gets clogged up.”
A light bulb came on. I cut vent holes in the lid of the box so the fan could get enough air.
Trying once more still had an increase in sound, so I cut more vent holes. This cured that condition. This required more notes in my notebook. I was logging each step, mistakes and the disassembly required for the fix. I had learned that, using the little lab notebook as instructed with my Gilbert Chemistry set.
The air coming out of the barrel didn’t feel hot enough to dry hair so I increased the power to the variac. Two things happened. The air did get warmer and the fan sped up. Since I had them connected to the same leads on the variac they acted in unison rather than separately.
After turning the unit off and unplugging it, I disconnected the motor wires from the variac and spliced them to the lamp cord wire. The motor was made to work off house current so this wasn’t a safety hazard; I just couldn’t vary the fan speed.
Once again reassembling the unit I turned it on, now using the variac I could change the heat up and down. The only problem was I did not know what temperatures I was getting, nor what was needed to dry hair.
This would require a trip back to Mrs. Baily’s solon to measure the temperature put out by her Sunbeam dryers. I also needed to acquire a thermometer.
It was getting close to dinner so I unplugged everything and coiled the extension cord. I remembered Dad’s lecture on trip hazards. If there was one thing in life my father could do was give a lecture.
I had read that in a speech you told people what you were going to tell them, you told them; then you told them what you told them. This was called “telling three times.” Dad was of the “telling fifteen times” school of speech.
I also left a handmade sign on the workbench, “Please do not disturb, Mad Scientist at work.”
Chapter 41
At dinner we had pancakes, this was Dad’s specialty, so Mum got the night off. He would make what he called Silver Dollar pancakes. They were small, close to the size of a silver dollar. We kids would keep track of how many we could eat. I could eat five normal pancakes. These were about a third of the size so I was able to eat fifteen of them. Denny had to beat me with sixteen. I wonder if that had anything to do with the belly ache he had later.
As we finished dinner the telephone rang.
Dad answered with his usual, “City morgue, you stab’em, we slab’em, some go to Heaven and some go to Hello.”
The person
on the other end took it well as you could hear laughter.
Dad then got serious, “This is the Jackson Residence.”
He listened and then turned to me and handed me the phone, “Its John Wayne for you.”
I thought he was kidding, he wasn’t.
I answered with a tentative, “Hello.”
“Ricky this is John Wayne, how have you been.”
“Fine, thank you, and how are you.”
“I’m great Ricky I’m putting together a new movie and I have a part that would be perfect for you.”
Mr. Wayne then proceeded to tell me about the movie, “The Cowboys,” its basis was that all the adult men in town that usually went on a trail drive were off on a search for gold. This left the old trail boss, played by Mr. Wayne, having to hire eleven teenage boys to drive the cattle four hundred miles to the train.
He felt that since I could ride bulls, and fall off horses plus behaved myself on a movie set I would be good for a part. He did have to put in that crack about falling off horses.
The movie would start production in January and take seven weeks. I objected that I had school. He countered with they would be running a school on set and would co-ordinate with my school so I didn’t fall behind. The pay would be twenty five hundred dollars a week. He then asked to speak to my Dad.
They talked a while; well Mr. Wayne talked a lot answering Dads questions.
Dad finally ended it with, “Send a contract like you have described, and if our lawyer says okay he will do it.”
Dad handed the phone back to me.
“Rick we will be mailing you a copy of the script once we have a signed contract in place. You will have to memorize your lines before shooting starts.”
Thinking of my recent Drama Club audition I replied, “I don’t know if I can deliver lines.”
“That’s why we have acting coaches, to teach you how to say your lines naturally.”
That was a big relief.
We said our good nights and hung up. The whole family was excited. Dad asked if Mr. Wayne had said anything about how much they were paying. I whispered to him, twenty five hundred dollars. He said that is really good for seven weeks work. I whispered back, no that is each week.
You would think I had attached those electric wires to Dad. He dragged me and Mum into the front room where we could talk without the other kids hearing. When I repeated to them it was twenty five hundred per week they both jumped up and down like kids. Dad was ready to ship me off to Hollywood right then and there.
Mum had the practical questions like school and where would I stay, you know, Mum things. Since I spent the summer on the road she knew I could handle myself; she just wanted to make certain I would be taken care of.
We went back to the kitchen where my brothers and sister waited. Dad told them I might be in another movie but not to talk about it yet, as there was no signed contract. Eddie wanted to know when and Dad told him it was being mailed so it would be soon. Denny wanted to know if he could have my room.
“Not yet.”
Mary wanted to know if cheerleading princesses were allowed to ride horses in movies.
Mum told her, “Yes they are, watch Annette in Zoro on the Disney show.”
That night my mind was going a million miles an hour thinking of all the possibilities and trying to imagine what being in a full movie would be like. I had been in scenes but hadn’t acted. I kept trying to read, but would go over the same page several times. I finally put the book down and a long time later fell asleep.
My alarm went off way too early. It was a struggle to get out of bed and do my exercises. By the time I had finished my run I was waking up. The shower finished the job of waking me. I still couldn’t figure out how to make an adjustable showerhead.
Dad was drinking his coffee when I went down for breakfast. I knew he was in a good mood because he said, “Morning,” rather than grunting. Mum had a pot of porridge ready to go.
While I ate she asked me if I was ready to go to Bowling Green for the golf tournament. I told her I was. It was when I was picking up my books to leave for school that Mum asked, “Are you going to take any clothes with you?”
“Sure Mum, I am going to pack right now. Do we own a suitcase?”
That last question gave me away.
She broke out laughing and said, “Coach Stone has experience with teenage boys, he mailed us a note. I got the suitcase down from the attic. Let’s go pack. You are to leave your case in his office in the locker room.”
The suitcase was pretty cool; it had stickers from when Mum crossed the Atlantic. They were from the Queen Mary of the Cunard White Star Line, with city stickers from Liverpool, London and New York.
Tom was impressed by all the stickers on the suitcase as we walked to school. Mum was a real world traveler. I told him, that I was also a world traveler since I was on that trip. He cut me no slack because I was three years old at the time.
For me the golf sectional tournament had become real. I was leaving town and staying at a college. I wondered what it would be like staying in a college dorm. Would there be toga parties, food fights? Time would tell.
School was a blur and all messed up. Teachers were trying to get classes back on track since their lesson plans had gotten two days behind. Kids who had been off yesterday were rambunctious. Kids who had been off ill were trying to figure out if they missed any home work.
Then there were the poor souls who had still been sick and this was their first day back and they had to see about make up tests. As I said, a blur and all messed up.
After lunch Coach Stone, John, Gary, Tim and I met at Coaches office and collected our gear. Coach had prearranged our being out on Friday and had all of our assignments for us. He suggested we work on them during the bus ride.
After a quick look I knew I had already done all the reading and worked the problems. Since I was over a week ahead I decided to not take any text books.
This of course led to a conversation with Coach. He knew I was a straight A student, he didn’t know how far ahead of the class I routinely kept. The other guys were standing there during this talk and reassured Coach that I was a famous grind in school.
“Okay, Jackson but if your grades drop this next six weeks you are off the team the rest of the year.”
I wondered why the other guys were smiling; then I realized the golf season would be over for the year in three weeks.
We went out to the club to pick up our clubs and other gear. It took us about three hours, so we got to Bowling Green State University at four o’clock.
Chapter 42
On the trip I read about a sailor who rounded Cape Horn on a sailing ship. They went to California to trade for cattle hides and also visited the Sandwich Islands; it took two years and was extremely hard.
I was really impressed with his description of ice bergs and the hard life of the common sailor. I was glad that when I had the measles they didn’t ship me off to sea.
Our bus drove around behind the stadium; there was a row of fifteen steel Quonset hut buildings sitting there. This is where we were staying. I learned this was called “Tin Pan Alley” for the steel buildings.
When it rained or hailed it must be noisy. They had been put up in 1946 to house men returning from the war. Students had in the last two years been moved to the two new residence halls.
Bowling Green or BGSU as it was known had done a credible job setting the buildings up for us. They had been subdivided into rooms for two. There was a central lounge and a large shower and bath room facility.
Very much like a dorm setup would be. I had been preassigned hut four, room 5. Tim and I were to share a room, John and Gary in another. Coach would be staying with our bus driver.
It didn’t take us long to move our gear including clubs to our rooms. After that we all met in the lounge and went as a group to one of the school cafeterias. We said hello to players from Urbana, Kenton and Celina. We didn’t see the group from Marysville, but
someone said they were here.
After dinner we were split into smaller groups and given a tour of the campus. While going through the library I got interested in the books and got separated from our group. I continued to browse until an attractive young lady named Diane asked me to reach for a book that was on a high shelf. We started talking and soon I had joined her at a study table.
We no sooner sat down than our tour guide showed up. The rest of the tour was with him. He started giving me grief about keeping up with the tour group and that high school kids were a pain at best.
At this point Diane asked, “You are in High School?”
“Yes, I am a freshman,” I replied.
She blushed as deep of red as I have ever seen. She also couldn’t get out of that library fast enough. I had done nothing, but it made my reputation with the guys on the tour. From the way they talked in the lounge back at Tin Pan Alley I was the pickup artist of all time. I wondered what price I would pay for this.
We were all up and ready to go by seven in the morning. Breakfast was in the cafeteria. While eating I heard that a team had got in trouble. They had left Tin Pan Alley after lights out and went downtown and tried to buy beer. The Police brought them back. The word was they were on their way back to Marysville right now. They were definitely out of the tournament.
We were loaded on the bus and taken to Stone Ridge where we spent from eight o’clock to ten o’clock walking the course. At ten the first practice round started, our tee time wasn’t until two o’clock as we had a bad draw for tee times. We would have to hustle to get a round in before dark.
This was the first time I had walked a course before playing. It was very interesting. I was making notes in my book like crazy. From the course map I had planned an ideal golf round for my shots. Now I got to see what lies I would have if I hit those shots. Of particular note was the fourteenth hole.
It is a par five whose green is guarded by my friends the sand traps. If I hit one of my longer drives it could roll into a trap on my right which curved out in front of the green. I decided unless my score was desperate to lay up with a three wood at about two hundred yards.
