Chapter 52

Wednesday came clear and cool. It was definitely fall. The ground was drying out, so I had hopes for good rounds on Saturday and Sunday. At breakfast, Dad was excited about several properties he had looked at. He wanted Mum and me to go back with him for a second look at them after school today.

Not that I could tell him anything useful about their condition, but I could see that he just wanted to show them off to us. Of course, we said yes.

School was a typical day with only one exception. At lunch, a senior girl Rita Harrison sat with Tom and me. She fawned all over me. For a senior girl to even notice a freshman was alive was amazing, to flirt as openly as she was, ran up all sorts of red flags.

I met Coach at our usual spot and he suggested we skip practice tonight. If I wasn’t ready now, I would never be. He did have a present for me. It was a white cardigan type sweater with a sports letter.

I was now a letterman for golf! I had never given it a thought but I was now officially a jock. Rodney Humphreys would be sure to let me know that it wouldn’t equal a real sports letter like football or basketball. What a poor kid, having to put everyone else down, to build himself up.

Coach told me to be sure to wear it to school tomorrow. I told him I would. It would’ve taken an act of Congress to stop me from wearing it.

I got home early and Dad was ready to go. I did talk him into stopping at Bush Electric to pick up my parts. After that, we toured the duplexes with John Tapp of Tapp Realty. They all just looked like houses to me.

Dad was pleased with the general condition and thought he could fix them up for less than he had budgeted.

He told Mr. Tapp, “I like what I see, let’s put in offers for all of them. I will talk to Tom Harrison down at the bank and start the ball rolling.

The Harrison name caught my attention.

“Dad does Mr. Harrison have a daughter named Rita?”

“Yes he does, Rita, I met her when I picked up her dad to go to an AA meeting.”

“Rita started flirting with me at lunch today, she is a senior and they never do that.”

“Hmm, right after a large deposit, I would tread lightly there son.”

“I guess that is the danger of living in a small town.”

“It is, but he had no right to go spreading our business around, even with his family.”

“Jack, just don’t get too excited, after all, you are about to ask him for a lot of money,” put in Mum.

“I won’t but it just bothers me.”

In the car on the way home, Mum brought up, “You don’t have to say anything. John Tapp heard it all. It will be all over the business community in hours.”

“You’re right Peg; it couldn’t have gone better if I planned it that way.”

There was a letter from Judy waiting for me; the biggest news was that she had talked her parents into inviting me and Coach Stone to dinner at the OSU Clubhouse on Friday evening. I would see Judy!

Before dinner, I had my soldering iron heated up and was making the control circuit as Mr. Robinson had sketched out. One thing he had added that I never thought of was a bimetallic switch which would turn the unit off if it reached one hundred and forty degrees. It would prevent people from getting burned.

There was also a fuse in the circuit that would trip if there was an electrical overload. I would also have a guard on the front of the barrel so that kids couldn’t stick their fingers in and burn them on the heating element.

At dinner that night I asked my parents if they knew any Engineers that could help me with the layout and do drawings of the internal assembly of the unit. They didn’t know anyone off the top of their heads, but Dad knew Jim Willis the plant manager at Rockwell who had plenty of Engineers working for him. He would give him a call after dinner.

I had shown my letterman sweater for my family. I wore it to dinner and it was noticed immediately. Every one admired it, but my brothers kept looking at each other and giggling, while Mary practically danced in her seat. Something was up, but I couldn’t even begin to guess.

Dad called Mr. Willis as promised, but he had no engineers whom he would recommend. This said something about his engineering staff.

I was too wound up; I couldn’t read later so I just listened to records. When it was lights out I still lay there for a long time thinking of everything I had going on.