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.
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