Emend by EclipseChapter 2
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October 19, 1977
The university’s semester was half over and Benny had mid-terms this week. He wasn’t exactly stressed out by them. His math class was a snap. He did have some concerns about the English class, which was taught by a woman who was in love with poetry; and the history class, which was taught by a ‘memorize the event and date’ type of professor. His chemistry class was something new for him, and was requiring him to work at learning new material.
He was also taking a government course which was taught by a guy who seemed to have serious political ambitions. The class met at 10:00 to 10:55 on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Monday morning he had taken the mid-term for it. To say that he had been shocked when reading the exam would have been an understatement. It consisted of one question, “A candidate campaigns on a promise to clean up the environment. Upon his election, should he keep that campaign promise? Argue for your answer based on the impact environmentally, socially, economically, and politically. Provide positive and negative examples of impact and rate them in terms of significance.”
Benny hated questions like that one. It wasn’t because he didn’t know how to answer it. He could come up with a very good answer. The problem was that if he went off and really thought about an answer to the question that he could end up thinking through the whole class period and without writing anything down by the time he had to turn in the test.
He expected to get the results of his exam this morning, although it could easily be a week before he learned the result. He looked up to see the instructor sitting there with an odd little smile on his face. It was one of those expressions that said, ‘You poor bastards had no idea this was coming. It’s time to start thinking and stop agreeing with everything anyone in a position of authority says to you.’ Benny might not be any good at interpreting what people meant, but there was no way he could mistake the expression on the professor’s face.
The professor started handing out papers by calling out a name and then hand delivering the graded exam to the student. He would then give a scathing review of the student’s answer. Benny’s classmates were squirming in the seats and looking for a way to escape before it was their turn.
“Ben Baker.”
“It’s Benny.”
Making a production out of holding up the paper, the professor read, “I object to the premise of the question.”
“I do.”
He looked down at Benny and said, “My first reaction upon reading that sentence was to say, ‘Ah HA! I have found the first student to receive a zero on my midterm exam.’ Normally I like to give underachieving students a 3 or 4 on the exam. That hurts worse than a 0.
“That was, indeed, my first impulse. I had the pen poised above the paper ready to put a big fat goose egg on it.
“You are most fortunate that I tend not to follow my first impulse. It was the second sentence that convinced me that you understood the real question.”
He read, “Keeping a campaign promise of such a general nature is not an all or nothing proposition, but one that is a matter of interpretation and degree.”
Placing the test on Benny’s desk, he said, “That is the correct answer. Keeping a campaign promise is a matter of interpretation and degree.
“For those of you who talked economic benefits and costs for non-existent legislation, on what basis could you even propose such an argument? No one can measure the economic cost of legislation of a general type. It’s difficult enough to arrive at the cost of a specific piece of legislation. Immediately shutting down all polluters could destroy this country economically. The cost of a slow implementation of pollution quality standards can cost a lot, but is spread out over time without ever being a crippling amount of money, but it can drag out so long that it never gets implemented. A program to reward one company a year with a proclamation that it is a company with a positive impact on the environment does nothing and costs nothing.
“As was pointed out in this student’s answer, increasing the upper limit on the fine for littering is keeping that promise and it costs nothing and has no real impact. He gave an example of a case where an act could be interpreted as delivering on the campaign promise to clean up the environment while actually resulting in a continued decline in the environment. It does little good to pass legislation requiring factories to keep from polluting the environment while excusing existing factories on the basis of being grandfathered. It sounds good, but it does not achieve a good result.
“Campaigning for office is done on generalities. Holding office concerns focusing on the specifics and what motivates an office holder seldom has anything to do with campaign promises.
“So far this semester I gave examples of meaningless campaign promises that I would deliver if elected to office. I was playing a role of a politician trying to get elected to office. You were playing the role of obedient stupid voters, nodding your heads in agreement with everything I was saying. Some of you may even have argued my political stance. There was no political stance. It was meaningless chatter designed to get elected to office. I’m pro-environment, pro-balanced budget, pro-this and pro-that while being against something or another.
“Politics is about getting elected or being placed into a position of power for the sole purpose of exercising that power. In our form of government, legislators are elected. They appoint the people who run the various departments and bureaus of the government. Some of our judges are elected while others are appointed. Every single one of those people is a political animal.
“The rest of this semester is about the structure and function of government, at the national and state level. We will look not at the day to day functioning of government, but at the powers which are exercised by those who run the government from the upper levels of the structure, and in terms of what functions they enforce and enact.
“The EPA was created under Nixon. It has tremendous regulatory and enforcement powers. Who controls that power? Who is directing it? What limits are placed on those people? Can they be controlled or can they extend their control? Who influences them?”
The professor paused and then said, “Very good job, Ben Baker.”
“It’s Benny.”
Benny looked down at his test paper. He had an A. He wasn’t going to argue with that. It did sound like the course was going to be a lot more work in the future. He listened to the comments made about other papers as the professor handed them out.
When class ended, Benny hurried home. Cathy’s closing on her house was scheduled at 1:00 and he had promised to be there. Tim and Sandra were going to be there as well. It wasn’t so much that they were needed financially or legally, but that their support was desired.
Alan and Wendy were both present at the closing. It was more of a family gathering than a business meeting. Hugs were exchanged between buyers and sellers. Cathy gave them a tour of the offices and showed off the antique cars that were sitting in the outbuilding.
An hour later, Cathy and Sandra were homeowners. Their plan was to live there for two or three years and then sell out to move into the one dollar houses, one house each. They weren’t too concerned about people buying them up before they were ready to purchase one. So far, Tim and Benny were the only two people who had bought one of them. If there was a sudden interest, they would move faster with getting Cathy and Sandra into one of them. If there was any hint that the program was going to be canceled, Cathy and Sandra would move the time table up.
After Alan and Wendy left, Cynthia said, “I have a house for you.”
“Good. Tell us about it.”
“It’s a bigger house than you’ve tackled in the past. It has five bedrooms, three baths, living room, dining room, study, family room, and an attached two car garage. It’s sitting on five acres with its own pond. The family is asking $36,000 for it. Once you’ve fixed it up, you should be able to get $60,000 or more for it. Quite possibly, a lot more for it.”
“That’s kind of unbelievable. What’s the story?”
“Eight years ago the wife killed her husband. The husband’s will specified that his half of the house go to the kids. The kids have been living with their grandparents on the father’s side. The older one has come of age and wants to sell the house. The grandparents are acting as guardians of the younger one and have agreed to sell it on his behalf. The wife is in prison and it will be years before she gets out. She’s agreed to sell it.
“The house has been sitting for eight years without any maintenance. There was some structural damage from before the murder. There’s some water damage and the house has fallen into disrepair. It needs a lot of work. There’s also that whole fear about someone having been murdered in it, that is driving the price down.”
Tim and Benny sat there for a moment. Tim said, “Benny. Our money is pretty tight right now. Can we afford to do it?”
Benny crossed his arms, lowered his head, and closed his eyes. Cynthia didn’t remember seeing Benny do this before. She was waiting for an answer. She stopped herself from saying something after glancing over at Cathy, who was holding her forefinger to her lips, in the classic gesture to remain quiet. Tim got up and went into the kitchen to get a glass of iced tea and some cookies. Sandra returned to her desk.
Seeing Cynthia’s puzzled expression, Cathy rose from her chair and gestured for the realtor to follow her. They went into the kitchen where they could talk without disturbing Benny.
Cynthia asked, “What’s going on?”
“Benny is thinking. When he’s thinking like that, we don’t bother him.”
“How long will he stay like that?”
“Who knows? It could be five minutes or it could be five days.”
“I guess I don’t have any choice except to wait for an answer,” Cynthia said.
It was an hour later that Benny opened his eyes and said, “It’s not good, but it’s not that bad either.”
Everyone gathered at the conference table to hear what he had to say. Even Cynthia came out of her office to listen.
Benny said, “We’re going to have to finance this with a bank loan. Since we’re short of capital, we’ll need to include the repair costs in the home loan.”
“So do we do it?”
“Yes.”
Tim asked, “How much will we have to invest and how much will we get out of it?”
“Assuming $10,000 in repair costs, our profit will be $6,000 on an investment of $14,000.”
“That doesn’t sound very good,” Cathy said.
Tim asked, “How do the numbers work out?”
“Let’s say that it will cost $10,000 to repair so we’ll be borrowing on a house of $36,000 plus $10,000 for repairs giving us a loan of $46,000. The bank is going to want us to put 20% down. That means we’ll have to put about $10,000 down to cover the down payment and 2 points on the loan. We’ll be taking out a loan of $36,800 which will give us payments of about $400 a month. Let’s say that we have to hold onto the house for 10 months. That’s $4,000 in loan payments. So our investment in the house would be $14,000 with a loan of $36,800.
“After 10 months, the principal won’t have even been touched. Let’s say we sell it for $60,000. After commission, that’s $57,000. There’s a $20,200 difference between the loan and the sales price. Our profit will be $6,000 on an investment of $14,000. That gives us a return on investment of 42%. Another thousand in resale price and we’d be at a 50% return. If we can drop repair costs to $5000, then we get 78%.”
“You’re basically saying that at a minimum we should get $6,000 out of it, but that is a conservative estimate.”
“Exactly. It can go up substantially. We can try negotiating the price down on purchase, hold costs on remodeling, and market it for more.”
“That would be nice.”
“Let’s not count our chickens before they hatch. Let’s see how much repair that house is going to require.”
“Good point,” Tim said. “Cynthia, can we see the house Saturday?”
“There should be no problem with that.”
Tim said, “What about my house?”
“That’s a problem.”
“Why?”
“We should do the exterior before working on the interior. The weather this time of year is too wet to work on it. Later, it will be too cold or too windy. We’re going to have to wait until April or May to begin working on it. It might even be June.”
“That’s what I thought,” Tim said.
“We can begin working on Cathy’s place, though. All of that is interior work.”
“Where would we start?” Cathy asked.
“I suppose we could begin with the guest room. Fix that up, then you could move into it while we fix up your room.”
October 27, 1973 It was nearing noon on a Saturday morning and Benny was walking eastbound towards the intersection at which he would turn right to head southwards towards home. He was returning from school after having just finished taking the PSAT. Although he knew that what was going to happen in a few minutes would be important, he was more worried about his score on the test. It hadn’t been that difficult, but it had been a real struggle concentrating enough to get each section finished...
November 11, 1973 After backing the van out of the garage, Benny turned the key off and listened to the engine die. He was afraid that it might diesel or backfire. Outside of a bad muffler and exhaust pipe, the van was running like a Swiss watch. Even his father had been impressed on hearing the van running. “All we need is a muffler.” “Skip agreed to fix it. All we have to do is get it there,” Tim said continuing a conversation that had begun well before Benny had started the van. Tim had...
January 14, 1974 Mrs. Parnell watched the two boys who were hard at work. She was having second thoughts, wondering if she had made a good decision to hire them to clean the office building she owned. They were so young, but they had come across very professionally in selling the idea of contracting their cleaning service. Their professionalism aside, she had been more tempted by the chance to get the cleaning of the common area off her shoulders. The price they had quoted her was...
May 24, 1974 Tim and Benny had been cleaning the two office buildings for five months less eleven days. They had been paid $2,400 so far with another $600 coming in a few days. They had over $800 of that money sitting in the war fund. They had spent some money on paying for insurance, gasoline, cleaning supplies, and a second vacuum cleaner. They had used $600 of that money to buy a 1962 F-150 pickup truck and to completely rebuild it. For most days, the truck remained parked in front of...
August 8, 1974 It was a Thursday and the weather was reasonable. It had started out at 70 degrees at 8:00 when they started mowing lawns and hit 81 when they finished shortly before noon. The weatherman said it would reach 90 in the afternoon, but they’d be done with all of their outdoor activities by then. The worst they would suffer was to drive around in the van which lacked an air conditioner. They had just finished showering and changing out of their yard work clothes. They ate a quick...
September 3, 1974 With the start of a new school year, Tim and Benny were now driving different vehicles to school. Tim was driving the truck and Benny was driving the van. Sometimes they traded off vehicles for situations when one had a need that was better supported by the other vehicle. With school starting, they couldn’t mow lawns first thing in the morning. Getting out at 3:30, they could only get three lawns mowed before 5:00 when they needed to start cleaning the first office. With...
November 24, 1974 It was Sunday afternoon. The day outside was in the high 40s, the sky was clear and the wind was blowing at a nearly constant 20 mph. Taking into account the wind chill, it felt like the mid-30s, it was a good day to stay inside. Tim and Benny were taking it easy at Benny’s house. Now that the weather had turned decidedly colder, they were done with mowing lawns and painting curbs. Their work week now consisted of cleaning office buildings. The good news for them was that...
December 13, 1974 Sandra Miller and Cathy Peterson glared at Tim when he sat down at the lunch table across from them. He had just walked over and sat down without any kind of invitation. Cathy said, “Go away.” “No. I have a proposition for the two of you.” “We’re not interested.” “Yes, you are.” “Are you stupid or something?” “No. In a couple of weeks we will be entering the Christmas holidays. That’s normally a reason to celebrate, particularly since we’ll be out of school for almost...
May 10, 1975 The day was perfect for painting curbs. The temperature the previous night had never gotten below 54 degrees. It was overcast, but there was no rain predicted for the day. The temperature climbed into the seventies around three in the afternoon. It was the first Saturday of the year where they could paint curbs. Sure, there were a lot of days in the middle of the week where they could have painted, but they only worked the curb painting business on Saturdays when homeowners were...
May 24, 1975 Trust is an interesting thing. If you have it, it’s easy to lose. If you don’t have it, it’s nearly impossible to gain. Some people just can’t trust others no matter what. Others shouldn’t be trusted no matter how nicely they smile. When Suzie was five, she broke the cookie jar. Still holding the cookie in her hand, she solemnly swore that she was nowhere near the cookie jar when it mysteriously fell off the counter. Sam tossed a ball through the window when he was seven. He...
May 27, 1975 There was a bit of a chill in the air that morning. The four young people were all wearing jackets to keep warm. The mayor was going along organizing the participants in the parade. They had the fire department with their fire truck, the EMT squad with their new ambulance, and the police department riding front and back. Sandwiched in there were the scouts, cub and boy scouts and brownie and girl scouts. The high school band was there despite the fact that school had ended the...
June 18, 1975 Gladys Parker was born in 1903. At 72, her eyesight was failing, her hands trembled, and she wasn’t as spry as she had once been. She lived alone, but it was getting harder to maintain her independence. Her children had taken away her driver’s license because her eyesight wasn’t good enough. Even she had to admit that she didn’t feel comfortable behind the wheel of a car and had known it was time to stop driving. Her children were pressuring her to sell the house and move into...
August 18, 1975 June, July, and the first half of August had passed with glacial slowness. The weekdays were filled with work, starting early in the morning and lasting until late at night. Yet the money kept growing, slowly but surely. They now had five crews with each crew mowing lawns at four lawns a day and five days a week. Their profit on a lawn was three dollars so they were bringing in $300 a week net. The season would last about 20 weeks and bring in $6,000 in profit. Most of their...
August 22, 1975 During the summer, Fridays were usually the worst day of the week for Tim and Benny, particularly on Fridays before a Saturday which the weatherman had said would be nice. Fridays were already a little stressful because it came at the end of the week after everyone had been working. Then the morning was spent mowing lawns in the heat. After they finished the lawn, it was payday for the mowing crews and paying people actually took a lot of time. The afternoons were spent going...
August 25, 1975 Benny sat up in his bed and then turned so that his legs hung off the side. It was Monday and it was going to be a very busy day. It was the kind of day that was the most difficult for him. He was going to have to be around a lot of people, and they were going to ask questions. He could handle any question they could put to him, but they weren’t going to give him time to think about the most accurate answer. He was always ill at ease in those situations. He pulled off his...
September 5, 1975 It was 9:30 at night and they had just finished cleaning the office buildings. They’d had to let their regular crews leave at their normal time, which had dumped all of the work on the backs of Benny, Tim, Cathy, Sandra, and Terry. They were tired and hungry. They were at a chain restaurant waiting for an overworked waitress to show up and take their orders. Benny and Tim had to admit defeat. There were too many lawns to mow and not enough time or people to mow them. They...
September 14, 1975 “Where’s Benny?” “He’s around,” Tim answered. Cathy was genuinely concerned about Benny. She wondered if his absence had anything to do with the sudden sale of the lawn mowing company. She was convinced that Tim and Benny had a fight, and that Benny had left. “You keep saying that.” “He wanted alone time. I’m giving it to him,” Tim said. “I need to know what happened to him.” Tim replied, “You and Sandra wanted alone time, I gave it to you. Benny wanted alone time, I...
November 16, 1975 Sean McCray stood in the middle of the living room surveying the chaos of the place. He was 62 years old and hoping to retire. His parents had passed away four years ago with nothing in their estate except for this old house. He and his sister had inherited the place, but that wasn’t saying much. His father had never updated anything in the house since he bought it. The house was a white elephant. No one wanted to buy it as it currently stood, and it would cost more money...
November 28, 1975 “I’m going to have to fail your wiring.” “You are?” Tim did not sound at all upset. “Yes.” “Why?” “I’ve never seen such a bad job. It looks like a bumbling amateur did the work.” Because the laws had changed in 1974, the older simple two prong receptacle was no longer allowed to be installed in houses. New outlets were required to use the three prong grounded receptacle. While they had not been required to upgrade the outlets, the old wire motivated them to upgrade...
February 9, 1976 “I had a deal with Principal Haley.” Principal Atkinson said, “Mr. Haley isn’t here anymore. I’m his replacement, and I’m in charge now. You don’t have a deal with me.” “I had a deal with the institution of the school. Principal Haley was its representative. You can’t change a deal between the institution and me.” “Now I represent the institution, and the deal is null and void.” “Why can’t we keep things as they were?” “Benny, I find your absences from classes to be...
February 14, 1976 Valentine’s Day is the one day of the year in which couples in love are expected to demonstrate their attraction in some romantic manner. For many, the demonstration should be in a public forum where others can see the expression of romantic love, at least as much demonstration of it which can be performed in public. Flowers, chocolates, and dinner out are classics only because so many lovers choose to do it that way. Or course, that inflates the price of it all. Earnest...
June 1, 1976 The school year was over, the temperature was comfortable, the wind wasn’t blowing hard, and it was dry. This was the first day that they could begin scraping the exterior of the lead house. Until then, the weekends had been too cold to work outside, or too windy for scraping, or both. Since they could only work on the weekends during the school year, they knew it would have taken more than a month to remove the lead paint. Now that school was over and the weather was nice, they...
June 23, 1976 Some car models have an appeal that is universal. From the first day they were rolled off the assembly line, to the day the last one remains in existence, there are some cars that are special. One of those cars was the Chevrolet Standard Phaeton. As soon as Tim saw it, he fell in love with it. It was in sad shape, but Tim had to have it. “I have no idea how we’re going to get it out of here,” Benny said in disgust. There was a tree growing through the engine compartment. It...
July 21, 1976 Sean McCray sat at the table next to Tim. He was still feeling a little stung by the dressing down he had gotten from Benny and tended to keep his distance from him. Yet, he had to admit that the kids had delivered more than what they had contracted to pay him and his sister. After paying the commission to the real estate company, he was personally getting $6,911 out of the sale. This was more than he had expected after learning about the real condition of the house. The...
August 17, 1976 It was nearing noon and the temperature had just hit 91. Benny had been walking around the property since 10:00 and he was nearly dead from the heat. He headed back towards the house, wanting to cool off in the air conditioning. He spotted another plant and stopped to hit it with a couple blasts of weed killer, known as Agent White, which the State Police had provided him. He continued on his way to the house. Reaching the back door, he put down the canister next to the door...
September 16, 1976 Cathy stared at the check for $6,893.33, unable to believe that she was actually holding that much money. The house had sold for $44,000 and that was her share of the sale. Sandra had a check for the same amount. Neither one could believe it. They each had another check for $163.23 which was what was left in the account which had held the money to fix up the house. Benny said, “You’re going to get hit with capital gains, but it shouldn’t be that bad. You’ll need to...
November 14, 1976 Cathy placed the plate with the pot roast on the table with pride. It was a crock pot recipe with celery, potatoes, carrots, and onions cooked with it. Mrs. Parker had given her the recipe and watched her prepare it. The dish looked great and she hoped that it would taste great as well. She took a seat at the table next to Benny and across from Sandra. Mrs. Parker was seated at the head of the table with Benny and Tim to her sides. It was a simple gathering of friends for...
November 17, 1976 Tim and Benny assisted Sandra and Cathy in removing their heavy winter coats. The two young ladies sought out Gladys’ family having been invited to sit with the family. The young men carried the coats to the coat rack that was off to the side of the entryway into the funeral parlor. They hung the ladies’ coats and then removed their own. It was a little awkward since they were wearing their winter coats over their suit coats. The temperature outside was a chilly 36 degrees...
December 31, 1976 The temperature outside was bitterly cold. At 4:00 in the afternoon, it had hit a high of 23 degrees. With the gas heater, the temperature in the outbuilding where they were sitting was in the low 50s. They were looking at the 1935 Chevrolet Standard Phaeton admiring the paint job they had just spent $900 on. That was a huge amount of money to spend on a paint job at the time, but it was worth every penny. Benny said, “Mohair seat covers.” “I thought they made sweaters...
July 20, 1977 Benny graduated and, as a result of his parent’s demand, he walked the stage and received a roll of paper that was supposed to represent the diploma. Tim told him that he had walked the first time through, but he didn’t remember it. It was highly unlikely he would remember this time, either. He had spent the walk mostly staring off into space thinking about things. After the ceremony, he went to the office and picked up the actual diploma. With the high school diploma, and his...
July 22 1977 After one day of taking Darvon, Tim swore he’d never take another one. It wasn’t because it made him nauseous or ill. It was just that the light headed detached feeling it produced reminded him of each time they increased his pain killers while he was dying of cancer. For a day or two, he’d feel the drugs, but then the pain would return, and remind him again that he was dying. That was a memory that he’d rather not recall. At the moment, he was carefully painting the trim...
August 17, 1977 It was at 11:14 on this surprisingly cool Tuesday morning when Benny finally received the certificate of occupancy for the house, and he was legally free to move into it. He looked at the slip of paper and put it on the kitchen counter. With a wad of bills in his pocket that was large enough to choke a horse, he and Cathy got into the van and headed to the largest department store in the area: Wal-Mart. Sandra and Tim followed in the truck with Sandra driving. They parked the...
November 24, 1977 An odd kind of emotion appears in parents of young men and women who are about to venture out on their own. It is most pronounced during holidays such as Thanksgiving and Christmas. There’s this sense that the family is starting to fragment with a child leaving the nest. As a result, there is a tendency to demand all of the children appear at home during the holidays. Sandra’s parents were coming to the realization that their daughter was already testing her wings in...
February 8, 1978 Snow is a rarity in Oklahoma City. It doesn’t take much snow on the ground to bring ‘the world’ to a halt. It’s a result of not having salt trucks, or snow removal equipment. Unfortunately, it’s seldom just snow, alone. It’s often preceded by drizzle, rain, or sleet. If the ground is cold enough for the snow to stick, it’s cold enough for water to freeze. The result is ice covered by snow. The primary hazard of that kind of weather isn’t trip and fall accidents - although...
April 22, 1978 The prom is a special occasion, particularly for seniors. It’s the last hurrah of high school. This makes it the social event to cap off the entire education experience which — as everyone knows, or should know — is more social than intellectual. It is a big deal and no one wants to show up without a date. Those without a date are more likely going to stay home rather than suffer the social embarrassment of showing up alone. Young men worry and fret if the young woman they ask...
April 25, 1978 Reading the newspaper, Robert Kane sat behind the desk at the pawn shop in his high tech wheel chair. This one, the latest of many, had a motor that pushed it along and a little knob that he could use to steer it. He had lots of things that allowed him to overcome any difficulties posed by his lost legs. It wasn’t that he was lazy, but it did allow him to move around while holding things in his hands. He heard the jangle of the cowbells above the door and lowered the paper to...
June 2, 1978 The weather was nice, but a little cold. It had in been in high 40s and low 50s all night. The wind was blowing, but not too hard. Sunset was around 7:00. Tim and Benny could grab eight hours of work on Tim’s house easily, even making allowance for the fact that they had to clean the office buildings. They could do the same Thursday. Friday afternoon would be spent putting out envelopes for curb painting and Saturday would be spent painting curbs. They would get a full day of...
August 6, 1978 Tim and Benny were sitting in their office chatting. It was one of those few occasions when it was just the two of them. They had felt a need to sit back and assess what was happening. There was a tendency for everyone to gather at Benny’s house to discuss business, but Benny objected to that. It was his home, his refuge, and he didn’t really want business intruding into it. Tim understood. Tim said, “It appears that I’m now a general contractor.” “Don’t you need a license?”...
August 19. 1978 Sandra finally chose to buy a very plain set of furniture for the living room. She managed to find a middle ground between ‘middle aged stodgy,’ furniture and the trendy fashion furniture which was favored by people her age. She avoided the ugly browns, oranges, and greens that seemed to dominate the furniture world, and ended up with a cream colored living room set with matching end tables and a coffee table. She had picked up a cheap dining table from Target. Her father,...
September 2, 1978 Tim woke up and scrubbed the sleep from his eyes. The birds were making such a racket, that sleep was impossible. He glanced over to the other side of the tent, and noticed the empty sleeping bag. Benny was up already. Tim poked his head out of the tent. Outside the tent was a remarkable tableau. Benny was sitting on the bench of the picnic table, appreciating the view of the lake. Three does were standing within twenty feet of him. One was eating some grass at the edge of...
November 11, 1978 This year things were very different for Benny. In the past, he would have worked at the office building every evening from 5:00 until 7:30. It was as regular as clockwork, and brought the four of them together every workday. The four would often eat dinner together after work, but without exception Benny ate dinner with Tim. Since they had sold the business, Benny didn’t have that hanging over his head. Sandra and Cathy were still working there, but were now answering to...
December 2, 1978 For early December, the weather wasn’t that cold. At 10:00 am, it was in the sixties although the wind was blowing at 20 mph with gusts up to 26 mph. The wind made it a lousy day to move. It seemed like anything bulky tried to take off on its own during the short trip from the van to the house. This was a major moving day for three of the four members of the group. Having made the decision to rent out her house, Cathy was moving into Sandra’s place. Tim, having finished his...
January 9, 1979 It was a Tuesday and college was out for Christmas break for another week. This meant that Sandra, Cathy, and Benny were available all day. Tim and Benny had decided that it would be a good time for a business meeting. Everyone was getting antsy about the price of silver. It was oscillating around $6.00 and everyone, with the exception of Benny and Tim, was hoping that marked the beginning of the take off in silver. It was a dollar increase over the past year. Tim and Benny...
January 16, 1979 It was cold that day, but not horribly so for January. It was a Tuesday and Tim was inside the house with his crew working on drywall. It seemed to Tim that his life was settling into a rut. First he’d tear out the walls, fix the wiring, put up new walls, tape them, paint them, and then put on the fixtures. Once all of that was done, the carpet layer would come in and install the flooring. Then it would be on to the next interior. It wasn’t that simple. There was also the...
April 13, 1979 Ted Brooks peered over his half rim glasses to examine Tim and Benny. They had opened their books for him so that he could prepare their tax forms. Their records were first rate and he enjoyed working with them, although the quality of their books was due more to Cathy’s efforts than either of the two young men. It was hard to believe that two guys so young were worth so much. He had watched them slowly grow the net worth of their businesses. He looked over the page that...
June 10, 1979 Happy to be ready to leave, Benny slammed the trunk of his car shut. He had finished packing for his trip to the Chickasaw National Recreation Area where he was going to camp for the next seven days. He had been planning to start this trip back on June 1, but the weather forecast had predicted rain for the next day. He figured he’d put it off for a day or two until the weather cleared. It was a fortunate decision since the weather had been terrible since then and he would have...
June 16, 1979 Tim drove into the park and had to drive around the campground to find the spot where Benny was holed up. He drove around for thirty minutes before he noticed the tent tucked up out of the way. He parked his jeep and walked over to the tent. Benny was lying there, staring up at the sky. A golden eagle was circling above. Benny was watching the magnificent bird. Tim sat down, lay back, and looked up at the sky. The golden eagle was gone. A turkey neck buzzard had taken up in...
August 10, 1979 At 11:00 in the morning, the temperature was already 82 degrees but it felt like 92 and the forecast suggested that temperatures would be reaching the high 90s by the late afternoon. Tim was seated on the step before the front door, waiting for their university guest, Dr. Frank Hennequin, to arrive. The visiting professor was an historian specializing in studies of the French support of the American Revolutionary War. Tim wasn’t sure what to expect, but the professor was...
September 3, 1979 It was Labor Day weekend and, with the exception of Benny, the usual suspects were planning to participate in the annual Labor Day parade. Tim had missed last year since he had met up with Benny who was camping. This year Benny had taken off for lands to the south, for a change. He was heading towards Texas rather than the eastern end of Oklahoma. He didn’t have much experience traveling south like that, except to visit Tim once, in his first life, when Tim lived south of...
November 22, 1979 Benny walked into his parent’s house without knocking. After all, this was his family home and he had been invited for dinner. It was his first visit in nine months. He had begged off on other invitations using the excuse of school or working on houses. There just weren’t too many excuses one could use to escape Thanksgiving. He did manage to surprise the whole family by being early. Not everyone was happy to see him. Upon entering the house, Lana screamed at him, “You...
January 16, 1980 On Thanksgiving day the price of silver had been a respectable $16.19 and everyone in the business of investing was talking about the scarcity of silver. Your average person on the street was becoming aware that something quite unusual was happening in the silver market. The CBS, NBC, and ABC were now talking about the price of silver during the evening news. On Christmas, the price of silver was $24.60. If Thanksgiving dinners had quiet conversations about the price of...
February 22, 1980 The dust was starting to settle as far as silver was concerned. Silver had hit its peak at $49.45 an ounce on January 18, then started dropping precipitously. After thirty days, the price had dropped to $30 an ounce and was still falling although it wasn’t plummeting. People who had waited to sell their silver were upset they hadn’t sold it earlier. People who had bought silver at the high were cursing the drop. Today, Tim, Benny, Sandra, and Cathy were meeting to assess...
April 1, 1980 Tim and Lily drove up the road. Tim knew that he had gone too far when he saw the steel bridge. There was almost no traffic on the road, so he did a U-turn right there on the highway. Coming back they found the dirt driveway to Benny’s property. Tim slowed down and turned onto it. There was a cattle guard across the drive so he didn’t have to deal with a gate. The cattle guard was new. The posts of the barbed wire fence were wood tree limbs cut to size. The barbed wire was...
June 22, 1980 The male half of the wedding party was gathered in the back of the church. Tim was the groom. Benny was the best man. Robert was the groomsman. It wasn’t a very talkative group. Tim was thirsty, but afraid of drinking much of anything lest he needed to go the toilet in the middle of the ceremony. Benny was lost in his thoughts about his new house. It was finished, but the second one for the help wasn’t. Robert was just watching the two of them amused by it all. It was amazing...
September 11, 2001 The landscape around the house had changed significantly over the past 21 years. It was a lawn worthy of a golf course, front and rear. The lawn ended at a gravel path that led down to the river. To one side of the house was an orchard with apples, field pears, peaches, and pecans. There was also a little garden that was still producing vegetables, including tomatoes, bell peppers, beans, squash, and corn (despite the best efforts of the raccoons). Over 21 years, Benny...
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Once the wedding concluded I drove my wife, my son and his girlfriend to the King's castle in North Hampton. There a drunk King held court. After a couple dances, waltzes played by a string quartet, Bess decided to change. She winked at me and slipped by me and handed me a note. It directed me to her room. I gave it five minutes before following the map. Glancing tentatively inside, relief and a rigid cock arrived when I spied her naked and spread wide on her Queen sized bed. I closed the...