Ed Nelson [Nelson - Hollywood

The Richard Jackson Saga

Book 3: Hollywood

By Ed Nelson

This is dedicated to my wife Carol for her support and help as first reader and editor.

Also the BHS class of 1962 just because.

That is exactly how it happened, give or take a lie or two.

James Garner as Wyatt Earp describing the gun fight at the OK Corral in the movie Sunset.

Contents

Copyright August 2019 by E. E. Nelson

Eastern Shore Publishing

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage retrieval systems without written permission from the author, e xcept for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, organizations, places, events, and incidents are either products of the authors imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

Chapter 1

We were back at school on Monday the fifth of January. Before the Christmas vacation started it seemed like it would be a long time. Now that it was finished it seemed to have gone too fast or was too short. The only good thing about being back in school was we could see each others new clothes. We were all about the same age and growing, so ninety percent of our presents were clothes.

It wasnt so critical for the guys. Girls needed to stay in the main stream of fashion or they were whatever girls were when their clothes werent the current styles frumpy, odd, or weird. I dont know. Having heard enough giggling over the years I knew that it could be a social disaster to have the wrong clothes. No matter how new the clothes were.

Guys clothes didnt change that much, so it wasnt the same problems. Jeans were jeans; khakis were khakis, the brand name didnt matter.

With guys what mattered was your haircut. The jocks wore a flattop. A college cut was required for those having thoughts of an advanced education or trying to look preppy. Rebel types wore their hair the same as Elvis, heavy on the grease, long sideburns and ducktails, at least until the Army drafted him.

The last haircut you wanted was the pineapple. This was a lock of hair left in front and the rest cut down with a number two guard on the clippers. At the start of a summer this is the haircut parents would get their small kids to last the season. Melvins, dorks and nerds kept their hair this way.

Then of course it needed to be kept trimmed, so there was the Saturday ritual, of a trip to the barber shop. We didnt think or talk about it, we just did it. You had to keep it above your ears in what was called a whitewall. If you wore glasses the last thing you wanted was the hair to go over the sidebars. They had raised the cost of a haircut to fifty cents last year so this was serious upkeep.

I kept my college cut trimmed every Saturday if I could. If I let it go two weeks Mum would tell me I needed a dog license. If I missed a Saturday I almost always went on Monday and never past Tuesday.

The most interesting girls were those who switched to a new bra style. The ones that stuck out a lot were called Nose Cones. That or Headlights. Of course any bra was also called an over the shoulder boulder holder. Yes, we freshmen had a lot of class.

Boys heavy sweaters with reindeer were the in thing this year. I didnt have one, but thought they were okay.

Restarting classes was the usual commotion. It was like we had never been to school before. Two weeks off and we had forgotten everything we had learned this year. We were into the fourth week of this six weeks grading period. In two weeks the first semester exams would start, so next week teachers would be starting to review for the tests.

I have been carrying straight As so it wasnt a dreadful prospect, but I was still going to be prepared. I had already gone over the material that would be presented this week, so I started my own review a week early. This should give me a firm foundation for taking the tests.

At lunch time the usual gang was at our table. We all shared what we got for Christmas. Tom Wilson told us about an Aunt that had knitted him a sweater. The only problem was that one arm was about two inches longer than the other. His Mom forced him to wear it when his Aunt visited. It isnt that funny really, but the way Tom described it we were all in stitches.

Tom and Tracy had matching sweaters to show they were a couple. Cheryl and I hadnt exchanged presents. We were in sort of no mans land. We liked each other and had done things together, but hadnt been on an official date. Yet, at the same time other people treated us as a couple.

I decided to move things forward and asked Cheryl if she would like to go to a movie on Friday. She accepted quickly then asked me what was playing. I had no idea.

Tom Morton told us it was, North by Northwest, an action movie with Cary Grant. I liked the action part, and Cheryl liked Cary Grant so it sounded good. From the looks Cheryl and Tracy exchanged I had done the right thing on cue.

The rest of the school day was spent in getting back into the swing of things. There was no big news or gossip from over the holidays so that was a good thing.

I went home and did my practice typing. I realized that I had plateaued at forty words a minute without errors. This was respectable considering I wasnt going to be a secretary. A professional would do a hundred words a minute or more.

With the goal of being able to type achieved, I had to find some other skill to master. Later, I realized that I had a good basic knowledge of Spanish. At least I could carry on a conversation. My understanding of grammar left something to be desired.

Mrs. Hernandez was back from Miami and she was vibrant. Visiting her relatives had done her a world of good. She told us that more and more Cubans were fleeing to Miami all the time.

She told us that there were now parts of the city where Spanish was the only language heard. Until the mess with Castro was taken care of it wouldnt change. She thought it might be as long as five years until most people could go back to Cuba.

That sounded like a long time to be in exile. Then I remembered the outcomes of World War II and other wars and thought they might be lucky if it was only five years. On a more cheerful note all this conversation was in Spanish and was very rapid. Even Mary who didnt understand the gist of the conversation understood the words. She told us if they wanted to go home they should call a taxi. Eddie told her it would have to be a water taxi.

She replied, Then Mr. Jingles could take them home!

Dad had some interesting news at dinner, he had inquired about the ownership of the four houses on Bellefontaine Island. They had all been for sale for back taxes. He had purchased them for five hundred dollars each. We now owned the entire Island!

We planned to check the houses out this Saturday. We would probably have to tear them down and build one cottage. It also brought up what we were going to do with the boathouse. It was way oversize for one familys boat or boats, but now we didnt want to sell it and share our Island.

After dinner and helping with the cleanup, I finished typing copies of the last of the Blackhoof papers. Tomorrow Mr. Redfoot would be stopping by our house. We had been told to expect him around four oclock, so I would be home from school.

That night I didnt feel like reading. I was thinking about summer fun at the Lake with a speedboat and a new cottage to stay at. This balanced against working on a steam ship for the summer and seeing the world. I fell asleep quickly. This having to get up and go to school had left me tired!

Chapter 2

At least thats what I thought when I woke up on Tuesday.

The boilers must have been working overtime because the school was so warm it was hard to stay awake. All the teachers knew this, so they worked with us.