Chapter 24

The golf lessons after school were fun, Coach put a bushel basket in the center of a practice green, and we had to try to put the ball in the basket from fifty yards. I did the best of the golf team making one out of four but thought I could do better with practice. Even the ones I missed stayed within a few feet of the basket.

At dinner that night I had to relate the events of the day that involved dating to Mum. She expressed her opinion that things appeared to be under control, but that no doubt there would be a snafu. I asked what a snafu was; she blushed and just said it means things will go wrong. Somehow I think there was more to it than that. I would ask Dad later.

Dad ignored that conversation and showed interest in my schoolwork, but I had been bringing home the A’s from my exams, so they were mild questions, not the inquisition.

Mum was satisfied with my answers, and Dad had dropped my suit off at the dry cleaners, so all was on schedule. Dad had also stopped at the bank and picked up a money order for me. I immediately placed it along with the order form into an addressed stamped envelope and it was ready to go.

We had to drive by the post office on the way to Janet’s house so I was able to put it into the new drive-through mailbox.

On the way, Dad asked me if I was nervous. I told him I was a little. He laughed and told me he was scared to death when he had to meet Mum’s dad. His full name was Ernest Thomas Smyth Butler. He had been a Regimental Sargent Major in the British Army during World War I. Dad told me that granddad Ernie was probably the hardest man he had ever met. This was from a man that had been through the Battle of the Bulge.

I was brought to America when I was three in 1947 and hadn’t been back, so I didn’t know my English grandparents.

Dad’s talking was interesting enough to get me to Janet’s house without throwing up. I think that’s why he did it. When I went in, Mr. Huber was waiting. I remembered him as a nice friendly man. The person I met looked like he wanted to tear my head off.

Dad lent me moral support by waiting in the car, thanks, Dad.

Mr. Huber took me out to the kitchen for a Man to Man talk. When we got there all of a sudden he relaxed and was Mr. Huber I remembered, a smiling friendly man. What really got me was I now was taller than him.

He said, “Ricky I had orders to scare you to death so you would treat my daughter with respect. You will, won’t you?”

“Yes sir,” I replied.

“Good, now that is over tell me about beating Urbana in golf.”

I described the match as best as I could. He then said, okay let’s join the women, and please try to look a little frightened. Maybe hang your head down till you get out the door. I did and was glad to escape.

When dad asked, I told him how it went.

He snorted and said, “Just be glad you weren’t any older or he would have been cleaning a gun while he talked to you.”

I wondered if I would ever be issued a handbook on life, it sure would help.

I cheated on my reading that night; I reread an old favorite, “A Study in Scarlet.”

Tuesday I woke up to a downpour, it was the nasty cold fall type of rain. There would be no running today. Dad hadn’t been called to work for several days, so he loaded us, kids, into the car, and drove us to school. Having an attached garage was really neat that day. The garage on Detroit Street wasn’t attached and was so stuffed with junk you couldn’t park a car in it anyway. We would have drowned getting to the car.

Thinking about that garage made me wonder, there was a stout workbench there, were we going to leave it? I asked Dad during the drive and he told me he intended to move it to our new garage. There was plenty of room in the garage as we had only one car.

He was just waiting for the time and a nice day for him and Uncle Jim to move it. My Dad has four living brothers all local, Ross, Gene, Jim, and Wally. Dad fell between Ross and Gene. Jim and Wally were half-brothers. This gives me a lot of cousins but I’m the oldest, so I don’t have a lot to do with them.

At school, the place smelled of damp wool as the radiators heated up and dried all the wet coats. It was cool now but would be roasting before the day was over. Mr. Harper the school janitor continuously mopped the floor, as we brought mud in. He normally wasn’t the most cheerful person; today he wore a large frown.