Chapter 39

Monday I was ready for school and the week. This week was the start of the Ohio State Golf Tournament for boys. I practically flew around my five-mile run. It just felt like it, my time was within seconds of normal. The day was bright and clear. I was excited about going to Bowling Green; though I was born in England and traveled from there, it didn’t count as I didn’t remember it.

I had hitchhiked to California and gone coast to coast but I still was excited about going someplace new to me. We would leave Thursday after school.

Breakfast was the normal chaos. Denny and Eddie were arguing over who was the better superhero, Saturn Girl or Lightning Boy. They had just recruited Super Boy to the Legion of Hero’s.

Dad wasn’t there. He was working a freight train to Cleveland. He had left late last night and wouldn’t be home till late tonight. I always thought it would be fun to ride in a caboose until I had the chance several years ago.

They are dirty, cold, and uncomfortable. I had to pee and used the toilet. When I flushed it I realized the pee and anything else was dumped directly on the track.

I had asked Dad about that and he told me that is why he hated passenger trains. Setting the airbrakes on a Pullman car was nasty as it had stuff all over the bottom of them. I would be glad when we owned enough rentals that he could quit the railroad.

I walked to school with Tom as usual. Neither of us had heard any more about Bill. Apparently, he was being kept home until his case was resolved. We hoped he would be sent to a military academy rather than the juvenile hall.

We then argued the merits of Culver Academy vs. Howe Military School. We had both done in-depth research by reading their small ads in the back of Boys Life. I had the advantage of reading, “The Black Horse of Culver,” so I was able to win my argument easily.

I did wonder how the fiction I had read related to reality. I thought back to the winners write history lesson, I had learned. That didn’t matter; I wasn’t going to let the lack of hard facts get in the way of winning such an important argument.

School was busy and the flu had run its course so now we had almost a third of the school in a panic about taking makeup exams for their six weeks’ grades. Mr. Gordon the Principal announced that all students needing to make up exams report to their regular classroom where the tests would be administered.

If you had taken your tests to go to the auditorium and bring your books. I wondered how many who hadn’t taken their tests would end up in the auditorium.

The auditorium was a mess. Everyone sat where they pleased and did nothing but talk. The monitoring teachers kept it to a dull roar. I guess it was successful as there was only one pushing, shoving and shouting match. I never did find out what it was about or who was involved. I spent my time reading. We were dismissed for our usual lunches and told to report back to the auditorium.

At the end of the day it was announced if we weren’t taking exams we didn’t have to come to school the next day. However, for those children that hadn’t anywhere else to go and their parents both worked they could come and spend the day at the auditorium. I could think of three kids that might do it, they obeyed every other rule to the point of pain.

Golf practice was spent on the putting green and reviewing the layout of the Stone Ridge golf course. Coach had a nice large map and we discussed how to play each hole, depending on our individual strengths. Coach passed out small notebooks to us that would fit in our shirt pockets.

Coach told us, “Write Stone Ridge Golf Course and October 1958 on the front cover and inside page. Saving two pages for each hole, number them one through eighteen, gold tees.

Take notes today; add to them when we walk the course on Friday, then again later during Friday’s practice round. Note the clubs you plan to use and update as you play. During the actual rounds refer to these notes before you tee off. It will save you a lot of confusion in the heat of play.”

“Similar to my inventor’s notebook,” I thought.

At dinner that night I updated Mum on no school tomorrow. I asked if it would be okay if I went downtown and shopped for some new pants. After my birthday height measurement, I now realized that my current pants were too short.