It Should Have
Been a Great Day
by Don Drewniak
I worked fifty-eight
hours a week at H. Schwartz and Sons Lumber and
Hardware in Fall River, Massachusetts for four
consecutive summers beginning with the end of my
sophomore year in high school. The only breaks
were Sundays, the Fourth of July and Wednesday
afternoons when the business closed at noon.
Following
lunch at home on those precious afternoons, I
drove rain or shine five miles to a small beach
in Portsmouth, Rhode Island. The third Wednesday
in July following my graduating from high school
proved to be a disaster.
After taking a
swim, I discovered that I had parked my 1951
Mercury in loose sand on the beach and was unable
to back out. Rather than ask for help to give me
a push by the few beach goers who were there, I
foolishly decided to floor the car in first gear
and make a U-turn to get off the beach. Bam! Thud!I
snapped the driveshaft.
Car repair was
easy back then. I hitchhiked home, borrowed my
father's Ford (he had used the company truck to
go to work), made my way to a junkyard and paid
fifty cents for a used driveshaft. It was back to
the beach. The new driveshaft was in place
fifteen minutes later.
Meanwhile, a
small crowd of people gathered around to watch
the show. Six or seven of them pushed the Merc
while I accelerated just enough to get the tires
moving. I was on hard-packed sand moments later.
Following a
round of thank you’s, I parked the Merc in a
nearby parking lot. After returning the Ford, I
hitchhiked to retrieve my beloved Mercury.
I had a drive-in
theater date planned for the evening with a girl
I met a month or so earlier at an A&W in Fall
River. It was closing in on seven when I hopped
into my car and attempted to start it. Nothing.
Dead battery. My father had taken his Ford to go
fishing. The truck was off limits.
So much for
the date.
Sleep was
difficult to come by that night as I keep
dwelling on the disaster that was my afternoon
and evening. In addition, there was the specter
of the next three work days. Thursday, 7:30AM-5:30PM
with one hour for lunch. Friday, 7:30AM-9:00PM.
Thirteen and a half hours with one hour for lunch
and one for supper. Saturday's schedule was the
same as that of Thursday.
|
