Payday came again and I had a little extra money with which
to live. I wasn’t in tall cotton, but I wasn’t depleting savings anymore. My brother
had decided to play the unemployment insurance game, so he came up on occasion
and we drank beer and swapped stories about military life, although his had
lasted a mere six months or so.
As it had turned out, he learned, after completing Marine
Corps boot camp, that something in the leather of combat boots caused in him a
rather severe skin reaction. He had finished radioman school and, I found out
later, learned that his next orders would be to “WESTPAC.” That meant
Vietnam. After repeated hospital stays for serious skin reactions, the Marine
Corps decided that a trooper who couldn’t wear combat boots had little utility
as cannon fodder. They gave him an Honorable Discharge and sent him home.
Perhaps there’s a name missing on “The Wall.” Who knows?
At work, we were completing the projects in somewhat orderly
fashion now, and so far without a major mistake. Tensions eased, and the
atmosphere became quite pleasant. We would work until five o’clock, whereupon
everyone would go home for supper. Around 7:00 p.m. we would reassemble at the
office and put in a couple of more hours.
It was about that time that I discovered “happy hour.”
No, it didn’t involve libations. But, it did involve popcorn. Back then, there were three “first-run” theaters in downtown Little Rock.
The Arkansas was directly behind and to
the south of our office building. The Center
sat a ways up on Main Street. The Capitol
was near the corner of Capitol and Broadway, on my way home. All showed newly
released movies.
At a little after five o’clock, the theaters all presented “happy
hour” shows for a dollar. When new films arrived, I would often take “supper”
at one and enjoy a box of popcorn, a coke, and a movie before going back to
work. Since the others didn’t see me leave, nor did they see me return, what business
of mine was it if they may have assumed that I had worked through the “supper
break?”
Very often, as I was beginning to find out about the world
of business, it is useful to dole out information as an investment rather than
as idle chatter provided with no intention of return. Thus, the massive
redaction due this humble narrative of one young man’s battle with the vicissitudes
of life.
My legend grew, and for the next two years, and for the only
time in my life, I had seen every American film considered for Oscar nominations.
I still had no social acquaintances in Little Rock, only work
and a little cheap entertainment. We generally worked half a day on Saturday
and I would drive home to see the family. It was beginning to seem to me that
success was an easy thing if you had nothing else to do.
As I say, I had no contacts in the city. That was about to
change.
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| Is there a hint of the devious lurking behind that smile? |
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