Chapter 16

After school, since I didn’t have football practice, I went straight home. After shooting hoops with Denny and Eddie, and helping Mary with the Hula Hoop, we all marched in to see the Mickey Mouse Club. Spin and Marty were on, but I wasn’t in it yet.

Shortly after the show was over, the paper arrived with part two of my story. Again it was the same as Mr. Weaver’s advance copy. It was really weird when I read about being in the Mickey Mouse segments, two different films with John Wayne plus bailing Elvis out of jail.

Mum and Dad got home at that time. They had been grocery shopping, picking up hot dogs, hamburgers, and all the buns plus soft drinks. They told me to answer the phone and just invite whoever called over for a cookout. We would answer questions then, they didn’t want to go through as many calls as last night.

They no sooner said this than the phone started ringing. I grabbed my school notebook and kept track of everyone who called and asked how many they would be bringing. Altogether there would be forty-three people at the cookout. It was five-thirty. I was to tell them to be here at six o’clock.

Uncle Wally called and I told him he could come over but remember Mum still had her broom. He called me some names I’m not supposed to use. He showed up and behaved himself.

All my cousins and friends wanted to know if I had kissed Annette. I told them it would be on the show next week and they would get to see how close I got to kiss her.

The guys thought it was really cool that I met John Wayne. We snuck down to the basement and I showed them the Colt 45’s he let me have, I was careful to lock them back up after we left.

Then we went to my bedroom to show off my black cowboy hat made by Resistol. The Resistol brand wasn’t as famous as Stetson but I thought it was a better hat. I wore the hat for the rest of the evening. No one gave me any grief.

The girls all had questions about Elvis. They were disappointed that I didn’t have anything autographed. All the kids wanted to know about the fight in the Mexican Cantina. The guys assured me they would have whipped the Mexicans. I didn’t contradict them. However, the eight guys that I remember would’ve had our crowd for lunch.

The adults all wanted to know how much I had been paid. I explained that I received the SAG daily rate for bit players of sixty dollars.

A neighbor exclaimed, “That little!”

Of all people, my Uncle Wally quietly asked him, “He made that in a day, how much did you earn last week?”

That cut that conversation off.

We all had a good time. My little sister Mary kept answering the phone. She would say, “Jackson’s come on over,” and hang up. Listening and watching the serious look on her face was fun. We were surprised when Mr. Weaver showed up. He said, “Mary told me to come on over. I wanted to do a follow-up and see how the story was being received.

He was invited to have something to eat. He promptly dug in but also asked almost everyone what they thought of the last two days’ stories. They all agreed the bank robbery was scary. The rodeo wins puzzled them because I wasn’t a known athlete. The movies were all wow, that lucky stiff.

Again I was really surprised when my Uncle Wally said, “Just think Ricky wouldn’t have had these adventures if Jack and Peg weren’t willing to let him take a chance.”

Wally really puzzles me, just when I have him pegged as a bum he acts like he has tonight.

The evening ended at nine o’clock as it was a school night. Mum and Dad told everyone they were doing it again tomorrow. It worked much better than being on the telephone till eleven at night. As he left Mr. Weaver asked if he could come the next day.

Of course, he could, he was getting to be a member of the family.

Mary looked at him and solemnly said, “You don’t even have to call first.”

He thanked her profusely. He also said, “I will behave myself, I hear your Mum can hit hard with her broom.”

My Mum put in, “Yes I can George and if that is in the paper you will find out how hard.” Mum always said what she was thinking.

The next day which was Wednesday it was raining so we all rushed to the schoolhouse and there weren’t many questions on the way. The day was like a replay of yesterday, questions in the hall between classes, and in the cafeteria. The questions were all variations on those asked at the cookout last night.

During study hall, there were so many whispered questions Mr. Hurley asked if I would mind standing up in front, and answering them, so we could put it behind us and get on with our work.

I couldn’t say no to him. Especially, since I had read about tattoos of numbers on arms in the encyclopedia last night. Now when I thought of the landing craft doors coming down I would also think of the pictures I had seen of the German concentration camps. What a world I had been sheltered from!