After she had gone Monroe said, "I guess she's the oldest person I know."
"Yeah," agreed Bobby. "Just think, she's a whole century old…"
They lay there staring up at the stars. Bobby asked, "I wonder what it's going to be like when it gets to be the year 2000?"
"I don't know but I'll bet everybody will be riding around in their own spaceships, going back and forth to Mars."
"How old are we gonna be in the year 2000?"
Monroe sat up and counted on his fingers. He looked at Bobby incredulously.
"We're going to be sixty-four years old!"
Bobby sat up. He could not believe it. "Nooo!"
"We probably won't even be alive, we'll be so old."
The prospect of being as old as the men who sat around the barbershop all day was a sobering thought. After a while Bobby said, "Monroe, let's make a pact. If we're both alive in the year 2000, no matter where we are, we will call each other up and say, Hooray, we made it, O.K.?"
"O.K." shake."
They shook hands and lay back down. They both wondered where they would be and what they would look like but they could not even imagine it. To them the distance from this night, August the ninth, 1946, all the way to the year 2000 seemed as far away as Elmwood Springs was to the moon.
They stayed out in the yard and kept looking to see a falling star until Dorothy called to them and said they had to come in.
Other than Mr. Peanut coming to town and the Elmwood Theater showing four Gene Autry movies in one day and Bobby getting stuck in the arm at Monroe's birthday party while playing Pin the Tail on the Donkey, nothing else exciting happened and before they knew it September came rolling around again.
But as much as Bobby hated summer ending and shopping for school clothes with his mother, because she made him try on everything, there was something exciting about starting back to school. He loved the smell of new books and going to the five-and-dime and getting school supplies. Brand-new pencil boxes, notebooks, and big thick rubber erasers, and a new satchel. The boys in town had gone to the barbershop and gotten a haircut for the first day of school, the girls had tight new curly permanents and new dresses, and everybody had brand-new shoes. The school had been slicked up as well. The wooden floors had been waxed to a high shine, the lunchroom polished and scrubbed. Even the teachers, rested from their summer vacations, looked optimistic and eager, ready to inspire the tender young minds that would be in their care for the next nine months. Fresh new chalk, new shiny maps on the walls, the white round globes hanging from the ceilings, beaming with bright new bulbs. The entire building vibrated with enthusiasm and anticipation of the best year yet. Everyone was happy to see each other almost everybody and ready to begin anew with high hopes.
This euphoria lasted about three days and by the end of September it was the same old drudgery as it had been the year before. Bobby was still the shortest boy in class and Luther Griggs still threatened to beat him up every day.
Christmas came and went and Bobby got a new maroon-and-white Schwinn bicycle and a silver-colored cowboy holster with the multicolored artificial gems and a Dick Tracy cap pistol. Plus lots of socks and underwear he did not want. He had been hoping for a genuine Jungle Jim pith helmet.
Besides Bobby getting underwear and socks, the other bad news was that on Wednesday, January 3, dish night at the Elmwood Theater, the movie that was supposed to come in on the Greyhound bus had not come in.
Consequently, Snooky had to show the backup movie he kept in the booth for this sort of emergency. But that night most people left after all the dishes were given away. After all, just how many times can you sit through Lassie Come Home?
January and February were both fairly mild but March came roaring in.
The first Monday of the month started off looking like it might be a nice day but by eight o'clock in the morning things had changed drastically and in a hurry. Dorothy hardly had time to run around and get all her windows shut before the storm hit. By the time the show went on the air, several houses had lost part of their roofs, the awning at the A & P grocery store had been ripped, and Poor Tot Whooten had just called, all upset because part of Merle and Verbena's roof had blown through her dining room window and had broken all that was left of her good dishes. Mother Smith opened the show with a few strains of "Stormy Weather" and Dorothy ran in and sat down and said, "That's right, Mother Smith, it is stormy weather, as stormy as can be over here, and looking out my window I can tell you everything is a big mess. I just hope everything is all right where you are. It was so bad I was worried we were going to get knocked right off the air, so I am glad we are on." She stopped for a moment. "At least I think we are. Bobby, run next door and see if we are still on. But in the meantime I'll just keep talking until he tells me we are not on the air. Oh, what a day: one minute the sun is shining and the next rain is blowing up and down the street every which a way. I didn't even have time to get my clothes off the line."
The day had turned so dark that Doc called and said they had to put the lights on at the drugstore just to see. Bobby came running in and slammed the door and shouted, "You're on!" Dorothy said, "Oh good."
Bobby says we're still on the air… so after the thing hit there wasn't a thing to do but wait it out. We all watched it from the bay window in the dining room and I must say we enjoyed it, even though we did see Doc's pajamas fly by. Storms always manage to hit us on a wash day, don't they? Mrs. Whatley over behind us just brought a couple of Doc's shirts back but we lost everything else. Everybody in town has been calling, saying they have somebody else's clothes. Mr. Henderson said a pair of ladies' drawers had wrapped themselves around his weather vane but I don't know who would have the nerve to claim them. What? Bobby says we have all kinds of clothes hanging off the radio tower, so if you're missing some come over and look, they might be here. Oh, I am so discombobulated this morning I can't find my format or anything."
She picked up her potted plant and put it down again. "For all of those of you at home, just thank your lucky stars you can't see me through the radio. I look just like an old frump this morning and, believe it or not, I am still in my robe. Between the storm and so many calls the time just got away from me. And today of all days. The very day when we are announcing our brand-new sponsor, the Cecil Figgs Mortuaries and Floral Designs for all your floral and funeral needs, and here I sit with no face on, in my hair net, and still in my robe. And I do apologize, Mr. Figgs, and I promise to do better tomorrow."
Dorothy looked at Bobby sitting in the front row with Beatrice, happily chomping away on a radio cookie, and suddenly realized something.
"Excuse me a minute, girls," she said and put her hand over the microphone.
"What are you doing out of school, young man?"
"I had to go get Beatrice," he said.
"That was very sweet of you but I think we can get along without you the rest of the morning.
"Sorry, everyone. I have a boy here who needs to be at school, so if anybody's listening in the teachers' lounge, he will be right there… and call me if he's not." A moment later the audience heard the front door slam.
"Rats," said Bobby, stomping off to school.
Dorothy, who was still searching for her format, announced, "And this euphoria lasted about three days and by the end of September it was the same old drudgery as it had been the year before. Bobby was still the shortest boy in class and Luther Griggs still threatened to beat him up every day.
Christmas came and went and Bobby got a new maroon-and-white Schwinn bicycle and a silver-colored cowboy holster with the multicolored artificial gems and a Dick Tracy cap pistol. Plus lots of socks and underwear he did not want. He had been hoping for a genuine Jungle Jim pith helmet.
Besides Bobby getting underwear and socks, the other bad news was that on Wednesday, January 3, dish night at the Elmwood Theater, the movie that was supposed to come in on the Greyhound bus had not come in. Consequently, Snooky had to show the backup movie he kept in the booth for this sort of emergency. But that night most people left after all the dishes were given away. After all, just how many times can you sit through Lassie Come Home'?
January and February were both fairly mild but March came roaring in. The first Monday of the month started off looking like it might be a nice day but by eight o'clock in the morning things had changed drastically and in a hurry. Dorothy hardly had time to run around and get all her windows shut before the storm hit. By the time the show went on the air, several houses had lost part of their roofs, the awning at the A & P grocery store had been ripped, and Poor Tot Whooten had just called, all upset because part of Merle and Verbena's roof had blown through her dining room window and had broken all that was left of her good dishes. Mother Smith opened the show with a few strains of "Stormy Weather" and Dorothy ran in and sat down and said, "That's right, Mother Smith, it is stormy weather, as stormy as can be over here, and looking out my window I can tell you everything is a big mess. I just hope everything is all right where you are. It was so bad I was worried we were going to get knocked right off the air, so I am glad we are on." She stopped for a moment. "At least I think we are. Bobby, run next door and see if we are still on. But in the meantime I'll just keep talking until he tells me we are not on the air. Oh, what a day: one minute the sun is shining and the next rain is blowing up and down the street every which a way. I didn't even have time to get my clothes off the line."
The day had turned so dark that Doc called and said they had to put the lights on at the drugstore just to see. Bobby came running in and slammed the door and shouted, "You're on!" Dorothy said, "Oh good. Bobby says we're still on the air… so after the thing hit there wasn't a thing to do but wait it out. We all watched it from the bay window in the dining room and I must say we enjoyed it, even though we did see Doc's pajamas fly by. Storms always manage to hit us on a wash day, don't they? Mrs. Whatley over behind us just brought a couple of Doc's shirts back but we lost everything else. Everybody in town has been calling, saying they have somebody else's clothes. Mr. Henderson said a pair of ladies' drawers had wrapped themselves around his weather vane but I don't know who would have the nerve to claim them. What? Bobby says we have all kinds of clothes hanging off the radio tower, so if you're missing some come over and look, they might be here. Oh, I am so discombobulated this morning I can't find my format or anything."
She picked up her potted plant and put it down again. "For all of those of you at home, just thank your lucky stars you can't see me through the radio. I look just like an old frump this morning and, believe it or not, I am still in my robe. Between the storm and so many calls the time just got away from me. And today of all days. The very day when we are announcing our brand-new sponsor, the Cecil Figgs Mortuaries and Floral Designs for all your floral and funeral needs, and here I sit with no face on, in my hair net, and still in my robe. And I do apologize, Mr. Figgs, and I promise to do better tomorrow."
Dorothy looked at Bobby sitting in the front row with Beatrice, happily chomping away on a radio cookie, and suddenly realized something.
"Excuse me a minute, girls," she said and put her hand over the microphone.
"What are you doing out of school, young man?"
"I had to go get Beatrice," he said.
"That was very sweet of you but I think we can get along without you the rest of the morning.
"Sorry, everyone. I have a boy here who needs to be at school, so if anybody's listening in the teachers' lounge, he will be right there… and call me if he's not." A moment later the audience heard the front door slam.
"Rats," said Bobby, stomping off to school.
Dorothy, who was still searching for her format, announced, "And now here's Beatrice to sing for us on this rainy old day, "Let a Smile Be Your Umbrella' followed by "Painting the Clouds with Sunshine," and maybe by then I'll find what I'm looking for."
The rest of the year went by with no more major upsets or dramas and was fairly uneventful until Saturday, June the first at 4:16 in the afternoon, when something major did happen.
Bobby had been down at the drugstore since early that morning, working in the stockroom unloading boxes and stacking them in a pile outside the back door in the alley. He received an allowance of fifty cents a week but he wanted to earn extra money so he could send off for the Charles Atlas bodybuilding course. He and Monroe had vowed to become muscle men before they went back to school next September. Considering that he weighed sixty-eight pounds soaking wet and had arms like sticks, it was an ambitious goal. He had whipped through boxes of red-and-white straws, paper napkins, boxes of shampoo, cough medicine, baby powder, aspirin, Band-Aids, and Whitman's Samplers in record time.
He was in a hurry. Today was the day the swimming pool opened for the season.
Doc paid him his fifty cents and yelled after him as he ran out the back door, "Be careful, son, don't hit your head on the diving board."