Chapter 17

Thursday I had my Latin test then I had to pick up trash, this time around the tennis courts. I didn’t find any change around the courts, but that made sense. There wasn’t a refreshment stand near the courts. I did find some really grungy tennis balls stuck in the bottom of the fence, but they went right into the trash.

I also learned that several students with poor grades had torn their papers up rather than taking them home. On several of the papers, I could read the names. They were names I recognized, but none of them were friends.

I decided to let well enough alone and pitched the scraps with the rest of the trash. Their grades would catch up with them in the end. It just made me feel stronger about what I was doing.

Later in the afternoon Dad and I ran several errands. We stopped at the AAA travel agency and made arrangements to upgrade my ticket to first class. We then stopped by the bank where Dad bought five hundred dollars’ worth of traveler’s checks for me.

We then went over to Montgomery Wards and bought a large suitcase for my clothes. The ones we owned were good for a week’s travel. I needed considerably more. Dad decided that the leather case made by Hartmann was the best.

It was pricey but definitely the best quality. Then he bought a matching briefcase for me which he said was a present from him and Mum.

When we got home there was a letter from the International Seaman’s Union. It contained a note and an application. The note said since I was in good standing with the IORD union all I had to do was provide the information requested on the application and a money order for twenty-five dollars.

I filled out the application on my typewriter. Dad promised to pick up the money order tomorrow and mail it.

That night I tried to read the sections about paper money again and just got more confused. Was it real money or not? I gave up on that and started to think about another issue that had come to mind. I had just joined my third union. Should I consider voting Democrat when I was old enough to vote? That is how I understood things worked.

But I was a businessman and they voted Republican. Also, my godfather, a Republican is the President of the United States. So should I vote Republican?

Then, on the other hand, my godmother is the Queen of England. Should I be a Monarchist? I must have fallen asleep about then.

On Friday I woke up from the craziest dream. Someone wanted to print paper money and I kept saying, “Off with their heads!”

My head cleared after my exercises. It was clear enough for my morning run.

Arriving at school at 8:00 I went straight to Mr. Brown’s hideaway as I had begun to think of it. Today he gave me a metal trash can which was mounted on a two-wheeled dolly. There was also a pair of gloves along with a sawed-off broomstick handle with a nail in the end. He told me to go two blocks in every direction of the school and clean up the trash dropped by my fellow students.

I filled the trash can up three times in four hours. I never realized what pigs we could be. This was a winter’s accumulation but still a disgrace. I mentioned it to him when I was finished. He told me that it seemed to get worse every year.

Mr. Brown observed, “I don’t know why that is, but since the war ended it seems like parents are letting their kids get away with more all the time. The younger they are the worse they are. Kids born before and during the war have been held to one standard and those born afterward to another. I don’t know where this is going but it can’t be good.”

My parents seemed to treat all of us kids the same so I don’t know. However, if these trash cans are a sign of things to come it won’t be pretty.