The Comic Books
During the Ohio years we had very little money. My brothers and I were fascinated by comic books, but we could not afford to buy one very often. My mother seem to think that comic books were useful in getting us to read more, so she would allow us to buy one from time to time. We had a stack of them that we kept in a cabinet in the dining room. We would read and reread them a lot. Superman was one of my favorite comic book heroes. I would also marvel at the big "Charles Atlas" muscles that the ads at the back of the comic books would guarantee for the price of a paperback book. At other times my mother would yell at us to stop wasting time reading that junk and get outside and exercise, or pull weeds.
Comic books generally cost about 5 to 10 cents each. There were also some special 3-D comic books that came with special glasses. One lens of the glasses had red clear plastic, the other lens green plastic. These comic books looked very blurry with red and green ink displaced in the picture, until you put the glasses on. Then the pictures looked three-dimensional! It was fantastic. But where were we to get a whole quarter? We could weed the garden for 5 cents an hour. It didn't seem worth it.
Between our house and the center of town was about 1.5 acres of dense, dark woods. We use to roam around in there, exercising, I suppose. One time when I was about six years old I was exploring the woods when I stumbled upon a cache of several dozen comic books. Wow, what a treasure! How could these comic books have come to be there? My first thought was that I had to let my brother James know about this discovery. Quickly I ran to tell him.
I was rather surprised at my brother's cool reception of the news. And when I said that we should take the whole box of comic books into the house before the rain ruined them, James seemed hostile to the idea. Finally he told me that the comic books belonged to my three older brothers, and they wanted to leave them out in the woods to read them at their leisure. But something seemed fishy to me. Where would my brothers get the money for all these comic books? Mom possibly could have given them enough money for a couple of comic books, but Dad would have never permitted her to give them enough money to buy dozens of comic books.
"I think I'll go ask Mom about this," I announced.
"All right, I'll tell you. But you better not tell Mom or Dad. We stole the comic books from the store." I was stunned.
"How did you do it?"
"I'll show you." So we proceeded to the one and only store in Solon. Inside the store it was rather dark; so much stuff was piled up along the walls that the only light came from the top of the windows. "Just act natural and relaxed." But I was very nervous and excited. “You just pick up a comic book, look at it for a few seconds, then put it down. After a while, when no one is looking, you put the comic book under your shirt, like this." James deftly put a comic book under his shirt, and I tried to do the same, but I fumbled badly. "Hurry up. Hurry up! Okay. Then you just walk out casually."
James forgot to tell me that it would not be a good idea to take the comic book back to the house. A little while later I was reading my new comic book in the dining room. For some reason my mother stopped what she was doing and asked to see what I was reading. I showed her.
"Where did you get this?" she asked me point blank.
I tried to avoid the question every way I could, but my mother kept at it. I didn't want to lie, but I sure didn't want to tell her the truth. Finally I confessed to what I had done, leaving my brother out of it. My mother was mad. I had seen my mother angry almost every day of my life, but it quickly blew over. I didn't remember having seen her this mad before. I was a pretty good judge of my mother's anger; so much of my life depended on being able to judge just how mad she was, and how much further I could push it.
"All right,” she said, calling me by my full name so I really knew I was in trouble, "we are going back to the store. Go get a dime from your piggy bank."
Going back to the store was the hardest thing in the world for me. I would have preferred the most savage whipping. But I knew I didn't dare refuse my mother just then, and she didn't look like she was going to cool off for a long time. I had to go.
When we got to the door of the store my mother said that I was to go up to the counter and tell the man that I stole a comic book and was going to pay for it. She was going to wait at the door.
"Oh please, don't make me go by myself! Please go with me!"
"No!! By yourself! Now go!"
I looked up into her eyes. I could see that there was no appeal. Slowly I trudged to the store counter. I felt like a condemned man on the way to the gallows. I hung my head in shame for the crime I had committed. I would have to call myself a thief, losing my good name forevermore.
The store counter was a table no higher than our dining room table, but I was so small that the top was only about eye level. The man who owned and ran the store came over to the counter. I could see his belt above the counter. He seemed to tower over me. I placed my dime on the counter, and mumbled, "This is for a comic book I took." My throat seemed to have something stuck in it.
"What? Whad’ya say?"
I had to say it again, louder. He looked confused. Then he looked around and saw my mother standing in the doorway with the outdoor light streaming around her. Her arms were folded across her chest. Finally he understood. He turned back to me and frowned. "Do you mean to tell me that you stole a comic book from my store?" I nodded my head. For a moment I thought he was going to call the police. "Well, thank you for paying for it. Don't let it happened again."
"I sure won't!" I was crying now, and ran for my mother. It felt so good to have that over with. I was never going to steal anything again, and I never did. My mother put her arms around me. She wasn't angry anymore. Together we walked out into the sunshine. And it rained hard the next day, ruining all the comic books my brothers had in the woods.
During the Ohio years we had very little money. My brothers and I were fascinated by comic books, but we could not afford to buy one very often. My mother seem to think that comic books were useful in getting us to read more, so she would allow us to buy one from time to time. We had a stack of them that we kept in a cabinet in the dining room. We would read and reread them a lot. Superman was one of my favorite comic book heroes. I would also marvel at the big "Charles Atlas" muscles that the ads at the back of the comic books would guarantee for the price of a paperback book. At other times my mother would yell at us to stop wasting time reading that junk and get outside and exercise, or pull weeds.
Comic books generally cost about 5 to 10 cents each. There were also some special 3-D comic books that came with special glasses. One lens of the glasses had red clear plastic, the other lens green plastic. These comic books looked very blurry with red and green ink displaced in the picture, until you put the glasses on. Then the pictures looked three-dimensional! It was fantastic. But where were we to get a whole quarter? We could weed the garden for 5 cents an hour. It didn't seem worth it.
Between our house and the center of town was about 1.5 acres of dense, dark woods. We use to roam around in there, exercising, I suppose. One time when I was about six years old I was exploring the woods when I stumbled upon a cache of several dozen comic books. Wow, what a treasure! How could these comic books have come to be there? My first thought was that I had to let my brother James know about this discovery. Quickly I ran to tell him.
I was rather surprised at my brother's cool reception of the news. And when I said that we should take the whole box of comic books into the house before the rain ruined them, James seemed hostile to the idea. Finally he told me that the comic books belonged to my three older brothers, and they wanted to leave them out in the woods to read them at their leisure. But something seemed fishy to me. Where would my brothers get the money for all these comic books? Mom possibly could have given them enough money for a couple of comic books, but Dad would have never permitted her to give them enough money to buy dozens of comic books.
"I think I'll go ask Mom about this," I announced.
"All right, I'll tell you. But you better not tell Mom or Dad. We stole the comic books from the store." I was stunned.
"How did you do it?"
"I'll show you." So we proceeded to the one and only store in Solon. Inside the store it was rather dark; so much stuff was piled up along the walls that the only light came from the top of the windows. "Just act natural and relaxed." But I was very nervous and excited. “You just pick up a comic book, look at it for a few seconds, then put it down. After a while, when no one is looking, you put the comic book under your shirt, like this." James deftly put a comic book under his shirt, and I tried to do the same, but I fumbled badly. "Hurry up. Hurry up! Okay. Then you just walk out casually."
James forgot to tell me that it would not be a good idea to take the comic book back to the house. A little while later I was reading my new comic book in the dining room. For some reason my mother stopped what she was doing and asked to see what I was reading. I showed her.
"Where did you get this?" she asked me point blank.
I tried to avoid the question every way I could, but my mother kept at it. I didn't want to lie, but I sure didn't want to tell her the truth. Finally I confessed to what I had done, leaving my brother out of it. My mother was mad. I had seen my mother angry almost every day of my life, but it quickly blew over. I didn't remember having seen her this mad before. I was a pretty good judge of my mother's anger; so much of my life depended on being able to judge just how mad she was, and how much further I could push it.
"All right,” she said, calling me by my full name so I really knew I was in trouble, "we are going back to the store. Go get a dime from your piggy bank."
Going back to the store was the hardest thing in the world for me. I would have preferred the most savage whipping. But I knew I didn't dare refuse my mother just then, and she didn't look like she was going to cool off for a long time. I had to go.
When we got to the door of the store my mother said that I was to go up to the counter and tell the man that I stole a comic book and was going to pay for it. She was going to wait at the door.
"Oh please, don't make me go by myself! Please go with me!"
"No!! By yourself! Now go!"
I looked up into her eyes. I could see that there was no appeal. Slowly I trudged to the store counter. I felt like a condemned man on the way to the gallows. I hung my head in shame for the crime I had committed. I would have to call myself a thief, losing my good name forevermore.
The store counter was a table no higher than our dining room table, but I was so small that the top was only about eye level. The man who owned and ran the store came over to the counter. I could see his belt above the counter. He seemed to tower over me. I placed my dime on the counter, and mumbled, "This is for a comic book I took." My throat seemed to have something stuck in it.
"What? Whad’ya say?"
I had to say it again, louder. He looked confused. Then he looked around and saw my mother standing in the doorway with the outdoor light streaming around her. Her arms were folded across her chest. Finally he understood. He turned back to me and frowned. "Do you mean to tell me that you stole a comic book from my store?" I nodded my head. For a moment I thought he was going to call the police. "Well, thank you for paying for it. Don't let it happened again."
"I sure won't!" I was crying now, and ran for my mother. It felt so good to have that over with. I was never going to steal anything again, and I never did. My mother put her arms around me. She wasn't angry anymore. Together we walked out into the sunshine. And it rained hard the next day, ruining all the comic books my brothers had in the woods.
posted by Nectar | 11:42 AM
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