I can't remember what i was doing when i heard old Stradlater coming home, i really can't. I think i was looking out of the window, wondering how his date went with Jane, NOT Jean. I was so damn worried. I had a right to, i had been on a double date with him once, he was unscrupulous. When he came in he didn't say a word of how his date went, he just started taking off his tie and asked it i had done his composition. I didn't answer him straight away but after a while i handed it to him. He just stood stroking his chest and stomach with a very stupid expression on his face. "For Crissake, Holden. This is about a goddam baseball glove" he said. “I I told ya it had to be about a goddam room or house or something”
“You don’t do one damn thing the way you’re supposed to. I mean it. Not one damn thing.” He Said.
I didn’t really bother that much with him, I was still to worried about what had happened on that goddam date bit Jane. Turned out he didn’t even go to New York like he planned. He told me that a guy called Ed Banky had lent him his car. Ed Banky was the basketball coach at Pencey. Old Stradlater was one of his pets because he was the center on the team so he let him borrow his car when ever he wanted. This worried the hell out of me. “What’d you do? Give her the time in Ed Banky’s goddam car?” My voice had gone all shaky I was that worried. He didn’t answer the question just asked if I wanted him to “wash my mouth out with soap” I asked again and he simply replied “ That’s a professional secret, buddy.” The next part I don’t remember so hot, all I remember was getting up and trying to sock him one, with all my might, right smack in the toothbrush so it would split his goddam throat open. Only I missed, all I did was hit him on the side of the head or something. Anyway, the next thing I know I was on the floor with him sitting on my chest. We argued for what seemed like forever then he calmed down and just told me to go and wash my face. I told him to go and wash his own moron face – which was a pretty childish thing to say, but I was mad as hell. I told him to stop off on the way to the can and give Mrs Schmidt the time. When he got off me I got up and began to look for my hunting cap, which I eventually found. It was under my bed. I put it on and turned the peak to the back, just the way I like.
Wednesday, 18 July 2007
Tuesday, 17 July 2007
Chapter 5
Dinner on Saturday nights are always a big deal, steak and all. The only reason they did it was because the guys' parents came up to school on Sunday and old Thurmer probably figured everybody's mother would ask their darling boy what he had for dinner the previous night. You should have seen them though, they were these little hard, dry jobs that you could hardly even cut. Boy, they were lousy.
When we left the dinning room it was so nice, there were about 3 inches of snow on the ground and it was still coming down like a madman. Everyone started horsing around, childish i know, but we really enjoyed ourselves.
Later me and this friend of mine, Mal Brossard decided we'd take a bus into Agerstown and have a hamburger and maybe see a lousy movie, because neither of us felt like sitting on our ass all night. I thought it might be nice for Ackley to come along, he doesn't get out much, Mal wasn't crazy on the idea though. You'd think he was doing US a big favour the way he went on, and it took him about five hours to get ready. While i waited for him to get ready i walked over to the window and started packing a snowball, then looked aroun for things to throw it at, I started to throw it at a car, but i changed my mind because it looked so nice and white, innocent and all. Then i thought about throwing it at the fire hydrant, but that was too nice and white, so i just kept packing the snowball harder. Finally, when old Ackley was ready and we went down to get on the bus, the driver opened the doors and made me throw it out. I told his i wasn't going to throw it at anybody but he wouldn't believe me. People never believe you. I didn't want to go to the movies anyway, not with Ackley and Mal, they both laugh like hyenas at stuff that wasn't even funny.
When we got back I put on my old hunting hat and started writing the composition. The thing was i couldn't think of a room or a house to write about, so what i did, i wrote about my brother Allie's baseball mat, there were poems scrawled all over it in green ink, he said he liked to read them when he was fielding and nobody was up to bat.
(ooc= about Allie)
It was a left-handed fielding mitt. Allie is dead now, he got leukemia and died when we were up in Maine, on July 18, 1946. You'd have liked him. He was two years younger that I was, but he was about fifty times as intelligent.
When we left the dinning room it was so nice, there were about 3 inches of snow on the ground and it was still coming down like a madman. Everyone started horsing around, childish i know, but we really enjoyed ourselves.
Later me and this friend of mine, Mal Brossard decided we'd take a bus into Agerstown and have a hamburger and maybe see a lousy movie, because neither of us felt like sitting on our ass all night. I thought it might be nice for Ackley to come along, he doesn't get out much, Mal wasn't crazy on the idea though. You'd think he was doing US a big favour the way he went on, and it took him about five hours to get ready. While i waited for him to get ready i walked over to the window and started packing a snowball, then looked aroun for things to throw it at, I started to throw it at a car, but i changed my mind because it looked so nice and white, innocent and all. Then i thought about throwing it at the fire hydrant, but that was too nice and white, so i just kept packing the snowball harder. Finally, when old Ackley was ready and we went down to get on the bus, the driver opened the doors and made me throw it out. I told his i wasn't going to throw it at anybody but he wouldn't believe me. People never believe you. I didn't want to go to the movies anyway, not with Ackley and Mal, they both laugh like hyenas at stuff that wasn't even funny.
When we got back I put on my old hunting hat and started writing the composition. The thing was i couldn't think of a room or a house to write about, so what i did, i wrote about my brother Allie's baseball mat, there were poems scrawled all over it in green ink, he said he liked to read them when he was fielding and nobody was up to bat.
(ooc= about Allie)
It was a left-handed fielding mitt. Allie is dead now, he got leukemia and died when we were up in Maine, on July 18, 1946. You'd have liked him. He was two years younger that I was, but he was about fifty times as intelligent.
Tuesday, 10 July 2007
Chapter 4
I didn't have anything special to do that night so I chewed the rag with him a while as he was shaving. I hate vanity, and stradlater is so vain, he spends most his time perfecting himself in the mirror, although he is a secret slob, you should have seen the state of his crumby razor, full of old hair and rusty as hell. He always looked good afterwards though, I'll admit. I think I'm developing a nervous habit, because I couldn't stop turning the tap on and off. I still had my hunting cap on, with the peak to the back, I got a real bang out of that. After Stradlater asking me to do an English composition for him, and again I didn't answer his straight away. I walked into the middle of the bathroom and started to do a tap dance, just hoarsing araound, you know.
Turns out Stradlater was going to see a movie, god I hate movies like poison When I asked him who he was going with he wasn't even sure of the name. Jean Gallagher he replied.
Boy, I nearly dropped dead when he said that. 'Jane Gallagher' I said, damn right I knew who that was, I used to play chckers with her all the time. I really miss Jane, it's been a while since I have spoken to her, I though I should go down and say hello but couldn't bring myself to it. This dat with Jane and Stradlater, is made me so nervous I nearly went crazy. Even though she had only signed out until nine thirty pm, I knew what Stradlater was like. In the end, I agreed to let Stradlater to borrow my Hound's Tooth, and I said I would do his composition for him, and he went off for his date with Jane.
Turns out Stradlater was going to see a movie, god I hate movies like poison When I asked him who he was going with he wasn't even sure of the name. Jean Gallagher he replied.
Boy, I nearly dropped dead when he said that. 'Jane Gallagher' I said, damn right I knew who that was, I used to play chckers with her all the time. I really miss Jane, it's been a while since I have spoken to her, I though I should go down and say hello but couldn't bring myself to it. This dat with Jane and Stradlater, is made me so nervous I nearly went crazy. Even though she had only signed out until nine thirty pm, I knew what Stradlater was like. In the end, I agreed to let Stradlater to borrow my Hound's Tooth, and I said I would do his composition for him, and he went off for his date with Jane.
Chapter 3
I'm the most terrific liar you ever saw in your life. It's awful. If im on my way to the store to buy a magazine, even, and somebody asks me where I'm going, I'm liable to say i'm going to the opera. It's terrible. Kind of like when i told old Spencer I had to go and pick up my equipment from the gym, sheer lie, I don't even keep my goddam equipment in the gym.
I live inthe Ossenburger Memorial Wing in the new dorms, it's only for juniors and seniors. And how crumby is this, it is named after this guy Ossenburger that went to Pencey in the good old days. He made a pot of dough in the undertaking business after he got out of Pency, he probably just chucked the bodies in a sack and dumped them in the river. Anyway, he gave Pency a pile of dough, and they named a wing after him. He made a speech last time he visited, firstly he made about 50 jokes to show us what a "regular guy" he was, then started telling us not to feel ashamed to kneel down and pray to god sometimes. He said we ought to think of Jesus as a buddy and all. He said he talked to Jesus all the time, even while driving his car. That killed me, I could just picture the bid phoney bastard shifting into first gear and asking Jesus for a few more stiffs.
Anyway, it was pretty nice to be back to my room, after I left old Spencer, because everybody was down at the game, and th heat was in ou toom, for a change. I took off my coat and tie and put on this hat i had bought in New York that morning. It was this red hunting hat, with one of those very, very long peaks. I saw it in the window of this sports store when we got out of the subway after leaving our equipment. It only cost me a buck. The way I wore it, I swung the old peak way around to the back - very corny, I'll admit, but i liked it that way.
The book I was reading was this book I took out of the library by mistake. They gave me the wrong book, and I didn't notice it till I got back to my room. They gave me Out of Africa, by Isak Dinesen. I thought it was going to stink but it didn't, it was a really good book. Although my favourite author it my brother D.B, and my next favourite is Ring Lardner. Anyway, I put on my new hat and sat down and started reading the book Out of Africa, I had read it already, but i wanted to read certain parts over again. I had read about three pages and then i heard someone coming through the shower curtins dividing my room from the room next door, and without even looking up i knew it was Ackley, he is always barging in on me, at least eighty-five times a day old Ackley barges in on me. He was a senior and had ben at Pency the whole four years and all but nobody ever called him anyhting buck 'Ackley'. Not even Herb Gale, his own roommate ever called him 'Bob' or even 'Ack'. He was very tall and had mossy, awful teeth that damn near made you sick if you looked at them. Ackley hates quite alot of people, a bit like me I suppose and he is always calling me a goddam kid (ooc=he doesn't like being called a kid but he wants to stay one)I dodn't like Ackley that much. After the interuption, and me reading the same sentence of my book over and over about one hundred times, I slid down my chair and watched old Ackley making himself at home. I was quite tired from the trip and started to yawn. Then I started to horse around a little bit, sometimes I horse around quite alot, just to keep me from getting bored. I pulled the peak of my old hunting hat over my eyes, so that i coulnd't see a thing.
'I think Im going blind,' I said this in a very hoarse voice. 'Mother darling, everything's getting so dark, in here.'
'Mother darling, give me your hand, why won't you give me your hand?' I was only hoarsing around naturally, that stuff killed me.
All of a sudden Stradlater barged in, in a big hurry. He gave me two little slaps on both cheeks, he can be quite annoying sometimes. He had a date, he asked if I had anything important to do and if he could borrow my hound's-tooth jacket. I didn't answer him straight away though. After a while Ackley went back into his own room, he didn't like Stradlater that much. Stradlater went to the bathroom to shave and i followed him in.
I live inthe Ossenburger Memorial Wing in the new dorms, it's only for juniors and seniors. And how crumby is this, it is named after this guy Ossenburger that went to Pencey in the good old days. He made a pot of dough in the undertaking business after he got out of Pency, he probably just chucked the bodies in a sack and dumped them in the river. Anyway, he gave Pency a pile of dough, and they named a wing after him. He made a speech last time he visited, firstly he made about 50 jokes to show us what a "regular guy" he was, then started telling us not to feel ashamed to kneel down and pray to god sometimes. He said we ought to think of Jesus as a buddy and all. He said he talked to Jesus all the time, even while driving his car. That killed me, I could just picture the bid phoney bastard shifting into first gear and asking Jesus for a few more stiffs.
Anyway, it was pretty nice to be back to my room, after I left old Spencer, because everybody was down at the game, and th heat was in ou toom, for a change. I took off my coat and tie and put on this hat i had bought in New York that morning. It was this red hunting hat, with one of those very, very long peaks. I saw it in the window of this sports store when we got out of the subway after leaving our equipment. It only cost me a buck. The way I wore it, I swung the old peak way around to the back - very corny, I'll admit, but i liked it that way.
The book I was reading was this book I took out of the library by mistake. They gave me the wrong book, and I didn't notice it till I got back to my room. They gave me Out of Africa, by Isak Dinesen. I thought it was going to stink but it didn't, it was a really good book. Although my favourite author it my brother D.B, and my next favourite is Ring Lardner. Anyway, I put on my new hat and sat down and started reading the book Out of Africa, I had read it already, but i wanted to read certain parts over again. I had read about three pages and then i heard someone coming through the shower curtins dividing my room from the room next door, and without even looking up i knew it was Ackley, he is always barging in on me, at least eighty-five times a day old Ackley barges in on me. He was a senior and had ben at Pency the whole four years and all but nobody ever called him anyhting buck 'Ackley'. Not even Herb Gale, his own roommate ever called him 'Bob' or even 'Ack'. He was very tall and had mossy, awful teeth that damn near made you sick if you looked at them. Ackley hates quite alot of people, a bit like me I suppose and he is always calling me a goddam kid (ooc=he doesn't like being called a kid but he wants to stay one)I dodn't like Ackley that much. After the interuption, and me reading the same sentence of my book over and over about one hundred times, I slid down my chair and watched old Ackley making himself at home. I was quite tired from the trip and started to yawn. Then I started to horse around a little bit, sometimes I horse around quite alot, just to keep me from getting bored. I pulled the peak of my old hunting hat over my eyes, so that i coulnd't see a thing.
'I think Im going blind,' I said this in a very hoarse voice. 'Mother darling, everything's getting so dark, in here.'
'Mother darling, give me your hand, why won't you give me your hand?' I was only hoarsing around naturally, that stuff killed me.
All of a sudden Stradlater barged in, in a big hurry. He gave me two little slaps on both cheeks, he can be quite annoying sometimes. He had a date, he asked if I had anything important to do and if he could borrow my hound's-tooth jacket. I didn't answer him straight away though. After a while Ackley went back into his own room, he didn't like Stradlater that much. Stradlater went to the bathroom to shave and i followed him in.
Chapter 2
Anyway, I went to see old Spencer, the minute I went in I was sort of sorry i had come. He was reading the Atlantic Monthly and there were pills and medicine all over the place, and everything smelled like Vicks Nose Drops, it was pretty depressing. I felt even more depressed when I saw old Spencer, he was wearing a very sad ratty old bathrobe that he had probably been born in and I don't much like seeing old guys boney chests sticking out. I don't like old people, I really don't. No matter how old or fragile he was though, I still sort of respected him, I liked his innocence, I don't know whether it was the fact he was wrapped in a bathrobe like an innocent child or whether it was the Navajo blanket that was wrapped around him, it kind of reminded me of the American indians and all, anyway I liked it, I really did.
Then he started on this big lecture about Life being a game and all. You know. Game my ass. Some game. If you get on the side where all the hot-shots are, then it's a game, all right- I'll admit that. But if you get on the other side, where there aren't any hot-shots, then what's a game about it? Nothing. No game.
Then it came... Grand. There's a word I really hate. It's just so phony. I could puke everytime I hear it.
Then he was wondering what my parents would think about me getting chucked out of ANOTHER school, I said they would be pretty irritated about it, they really would. Boy they really would. There's another thing I have noticed, I say Boy alot, I really do, partly because I have a lousy vocabulary and party because I can act quite young for my age sometimes. I was sixteen, though I'm seventeen now, but sometimes I act like I'm about thirteen. I suppose it's quite ironical because I am six foot two and have half a head of grey hair and everyone is always telling me to act my age. And sometimes I do, I really do, but people never notice, People never notice anything. Anyway after a while i got very bored, and frankly quite annoyed after he read my goddam paper on the Egyptians, I wouldn't've read it out load to him if he'd written it, I really wouldn't. So I decided I should leave, I started shooting some bull of having to pick up some equipment from the gym. Funny thing is, I was sort of thinking of something else while i shot the bull, I was thinking about the lagoon in Central Park, down near Central Park South. I was wondering if it would be frozen over when i got home, and I was also wondering where all the ducks went at the same time. I wondered if some guy came in a truck and took them awat to a zoo or something. Or if they just flew away. This kind of reminded me of myself, just wanting to escape, just to fly away.
Then he started on this big lecture about Life being a game and all. You know. Game my ass. Some game. If you get on the side where all the hot-shots are, then it's a game, all right- I'll admit that. But if you get on the other side, where there aren't any hot-shots, then what's a game about it? Nothing. No game.
Then it came... Grand. There's a word I really hate. It's just so phony. I could puke everytime I hear it.
Then he was wondering what my parents would think about me getting chucked out of ANOTHER school, I said they would be pretty irritated about it, they really would. Boy they really would. There's another thing I have noticed, I say Boy alot, I really do, partly because I have a lousy vocabulary and party because I can act quite young for my age sometimes. I was sixteen, though I'm seventeen now, but sometimes I act like I'm about thirteen. I suppose it's quite ironical because I am six foot two and have half a head of grey hair and everyone is always telling me to act my age. And sometimes I do, I really do, but people never notice, People never notice anything. Anyway after a while i got very bored, and frankly quite annoyed after he read my goddam paper on the Egyptians, I wouldn't've read it out load to him if he'd written it, I really wouldn't. So I decided I should leave, I started shooting some bull of having to pick up some equipment from the gym. Funny thing is, I was sort of thinking of something else while i shot the bull, I was thinking about the lagoon in Central Park, down near Central Park South. I was wondering if it would be frozen over when i got home, and I was also wondering where all the ducks went at the same time. I wondered if some guy came in a truck and took them awat to a zoo or something. Or if they just flew away. This kind of reminded me of myself, just wanting to escape, just to fly away.
Chapter 1
"Since 1888 we have been molding boys into splendid, clear-thinking young men" What a load of old bull. That's pencey prep by the way, and thats another goddam school added onto the list. As for this goddam moulding, as I said... a load of old bull. The school's full of phoneys, goddam phoneys. A bit like my brother D.B we used to get along just fine, he used to care about me, he really did, until he moved to Hollywood with all the goddam phoneys to write books and make crumby movies, he just like the rest of them.
Anyway, I didnt go to the game because I had been to a fencing meet in New York, only we didn't have the meet as we left all the foils and equipment on the goddam subway. Although there was another reason I wasn't down at the game. I was on my way to say good-by to old Spencer, my history teacher. He wrote a not saying he wanted to see me before I went home, he knew I wasn't coming back to pencey Prep.
Anyway, I didnt go to the game because I had been to a fencing meet in New York, only we didn't have the meet as we left all the foils and equipment on the goddam subway. Although there was another reason I wasn't down at the game. I was on my way to say good-by to old Spencer, my history teacher. He wrote a not saying he wanted to see me before I went home, he knew I wasn't coming back to pencey Prep.
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