Chapter 3

Tuesday was a bright clear day, a wonderful day to be alive. It was still the middle of winter but there was a hint of warmth in the air. Dad called this the January thaw. I ran for my full five miles and could really tell it. The winter downtime had really hurt my stamina.

At breakfast, we discussed our day. Mum and Dad were both going to our lawyer’s office to turn over the Shawnee artifacts. After that, they had to attend a closing on another unit that we had purchased. Later in the day, they were jointly interviewing several young ladies to staff the office downtown.

Dad had tried to take care of the office himself, but he had to be out maintaining units, clearing new units or looking for housing to purchase. He was almost never in the office. This defeated the purpose of the office. There were two part-time employees who took care of electrical and plumbing issues.

The family was still doing the cleanups and painting of new units, but that was getting to be a bit much. Denny had really stepped up and was making himself some serious money helping Dad on the weekends and after school. One weekend Dad paid him fifteen dollars for all his help.

He was spending some of his money on new clothes. He was in middle school where the boys wore blue jeans and checked shirts. He was looking more and more preppy junior high all the time with khakis, pinstripe shirts with a pullover sweater. The number of telephone calls for him from girls had also increased.

The only interesting thing in school was when I made a mistake in world history. The question was, “What is the old name of Istanbul?”

I replied, “Baghdad.”

I was accused of reading too much Arabian Nights. I had to blush on that one.

At lunch, we talked about the upcoming double date on Friday. This took us a minute, after that the two Toms and I talked about basketball. Ohio State was in a rebuilding year. We figured they would do good to break even for the season.

They did have a pretty good forward by the name of Bob Knight. He was okay, probably one of those who would play basketball in college and then you would never hear of him again.

While we discussed the fine points of Ohio State Basketball the girls discussed what they would be wearing on Friday. I half-listened, it was interesting. I never knew it was so important to wear the right clothes at the right time. Sure a tux for prom, a suit and tie for other special events, but for anything else clothes were just clothes.

After school, I returned home to a different world. My parents were sitting in the kitchen and my father looked like hell. There was no other way to put it. Something had hit him emotionally and hit him hard.

Mum looked up as I came in the door and said, “Jack just learned his father has died.”

I didn’t know what to say.

Dad looked up so I did say, “Sorry Dad.”

I really didn’t know my grandfather Ross Jackson. He lived in Princeton Indiana where he ran and owned a feed mill until he retired. My grandmother Anna and Ross had divorced in the early 1920s. He had remarried to a Florence who had two sons by him named Ross Junior and William. They would be in their mid to late twenties now.

She didn’t want any of his sons from his first marriage around, so we had never visited. I understand that after the war Mum and Dad and I lived with them for a summer, but I remembered nothing about it. Mum says Florence never made her welcome and she was glad to leave.