Texas Sun, Pool, Teenager, Stunt (Based on true events)

A larger than Texas stunt leaves 16 year old Grant filled with self-doubt. Later, he finds reassurance in the most unlikely of places.

August 1, 1960-Texas Sun, Texas Pool, Texas Teenager, Texas Stunt

Paul Hill sat in his office and almost felt lonely.  His wife,  whom he shared an office with, had gone home for the day.  She was an insurance lady and he was a real estate man. He had just finalized paperwork for the sale of a house.  Paul would have been happy to have called it quits and to have left  the office.  After all, he was mentally tired.  But it was still somewhat early.  It was only 4:30.  He did not want to be left with any  feelings of guilt or laziness, therefore, he chose to stay.  But he was socially restless.  

Suddenly,  16 year old Grant Harper walked past  the office window and down the sidewalk with his dog Alistair.  Grant's hair looked especially blonder than usual and it was probably because he had spent lots of time in the Texas summer sun.The length of his hair was  also longer than usual. The boys in town had begun to grow their hair out.  Clearly,  Elvis had had an affect on them.   This was a chance for Paul to chase away his loneliness. The real estate agent trotted to the front door, opened it and called  to  the dog.  He shouted out,  "Alistair, do you want a milk bone ?" The brownish, tannish Airedale terrier's ears lifted up and his tail began to wag.  Both the teenager and the dog turned around and walked toward Hill Company.  "Hello, Mr. Hill.   Yes,  Alistair would like to have a milk bone, " said Grant.  "Yall come on in. Make yourselves at home, " Paul insisted.   For a quick moment,  Paul disappeared. He went into the garage area attached to the back of his office.  He reached into the tin can that sat on top of the refrigerator.  He got out one milk bone and then he opened up the refrigerator door and pulled out an ice cold Dr. Pepper. He popped the top off of the soda bottle by using the bottle opener that was screwed into the wall next to the refrigerator.  He hurried back to his visitors.  "Here we go, " he said as he happily  handed off  his little gifts to the dog and the young man. The dog looked elated but Grant appeared to be in a blue mood.  

"What's going on with yall today ?"  Paul asked.  "Well,"  Grant said slowly.  "I believe I have done something real stupid."  Paul chuckled as he responded,  "Oh! Do tell !"   Fifty percent of Paul's attentiveness was out of his own boredom while the other fifty percent  was out of authentic fondness for this child.  Paul and his wife had been friends to the boy's parents for years.  "Tell me ever' little thang,"  Paul said ,  as he was now on the edge of his seat.  "Ok.  I'll tell you  but  you  cannot tell anyone;  especially  not my parents,"  Grant ordered.   "I give you my word ! "  Paul kindly answered.  

Grant swallowed hard and stared at the wall.  It was as if he were trying to get up enough courage to reveal his stupid actions.  Grant finally spoke and said,  " I went swimming over at West today since it was 95 degrees outside.  I took my best friend Eddie and his kid sister Susie."  Paul answered,  "Well, that sounds nice."  Grant responded,  "It should have been nice but it went all wrong.  See,  I spotted four pretty girls.  Well, they were more than pretty Mr. Hill. They were beautiful !  And they were from Waco  'cause one of them had a La Vega High School shirt on.  You know, the pirate stuff on the shirt."  Paul chimed in,  "Oh yeah,   the Petey the Pirate emblem." Grant continued,  "Well, I wanted them to notice me and Eddie so they would talk to us.  After all,  a boy from Hillsboro would want to talk to beautiful girls from Waco, right ?"  Paul was relaxed now and almost sang as he enthusiastically  said,  "Well,  sure !" Grant continued,  "They were sitting on the side of the pool, busy talking to each other.  Eddie and I swam back and forth several times near them.  Never once did they notice us."  Mr. Hill was sympathetic as he said,  "Well,  that can happen."  

Grant became serious now and he said,  "So I thought of a plan.  I told Susie that I wanted her to pretend that she was drowning. " On that note,  Paul let out a blurpy, "Oh my ! " Then Paul asked,  "How old is Susie ?"  Grant answered with frustration in his voice,  “She is 12.  I told Susie to take a ride on the pulley ride that crosses the length of the pool.  You know the pulley ride, Mr. Hill.  It starts out with a person climbing up  on a ladder and then stepping high up onto the top of a platform.  Then the person pushes off of the platform while hanging onto the pulley handles and the rider goes lower and splashes into the water because the pulley ride is at a downward, slanty angle.  Well, you know the pulley ride, right? "  Paul answered,  "Oh, I know the pulley ride !"

Grant continued with his explanation and said,  " I told Susie I wanted her to let go of the pulley handles right at the middle part of the pool while still fairly far above the water.  Now,  just sos you know,  she is a very good swimmer. Then, I told her to pretend that the fall injured her, which would cause her to not be able to swim.  Then, I  told her to scream  and say that she was drowning."  Paul very slowly commented and said, “ I see.”  Grant kept talking and said,  "She did ever’thang I told her to do. Then, I shouted out that I would save her."  Grant looked at  Mr. Hill square in the eyes.  Paul Hill could not wait to hear the rest of the story. "Did the Waco girls finally notice you ?"

 Mr. Hill asked as he prompted Grant.  By now,  Grant was upset. He had his hands out and in front of him as if he were ready to catch a basketball. "Everyone noticed me !" Grant said loudly. He kept explaining and he said, "I swam over to her, grabbed her and pulled her over to the side of the pool. Then, I lifted her up onto the cement sidelines.  So I was really happy. But then a lifeguard was blowing his whistle and then he came running over to check on Susie. Then, over the speaker, someone started shouting,  "Is there a doctor ? We need a doctor ! We have an emergency !" 

Paul could not contain himself any longer as he mumbled with emotion,   "Oh Good Lo’d !" Then, Paul asked what happened next. Grant had his lips pressed together and was shaking his head in the no gesture.  "Everyone at the pool gathered  'round Susie,”  said the teenager in disgust.  "She got all shy and nervous,"  Grant said. He went on,  " Before I knew it, a very handsome doctor was asking Susie questions. The Waco girls were leaning close to the handsome doctor.  And before too long,  Susie pointed at me and sang like a canary. She said I made her do an act sos the Waco girls would notice me and Eddie."  Paul felt like a 16 year old himself as he screamed out,  "Oh no !"  Grant said in defeat,  "Before I knew it, the doctor was telling me that I was as low as a snake to have launched such a plan. The pretty Waco girls were staring at me with their arms crossed, giving me the same look as the doctor.  Then, the lifeguard told us to get our stuff and follow him. He walked us to the exit gate. He said we would not be welcome to come back for the rest of the summer. What do you think of  that Mr. Hill ?" 

"Well, I, uh," Paul began to voice his thoughts out loud when  Grant interrupted.  "Then," Grant said, "I told Susie that she really caused a problem for me. But then,  Eddie defended Susie.  This is the kind of stuff Eddie said.”  Grant now had his fingers on his right hand up in the air and ready to count.  Grant began to imitate Eddie's voice and used his fingers and he rattled  off  Eddie's statements and he made a visual count.  He said,  "She is only 12.  She is shy. She is not an actress. She's just little Susie Q."   Grant continued and he said,  "Eddie's family calls her Susie Q. Well, I began to call her Susie Sing.   Susie sing like a canary !”  Paul stuttered and said, "Well, my, uh." 

Grant kept talking. He was really revved up by now as he said,  "By the time we drove back into Hillsboro, Eddie was mad at me ! I pulled up in front of Eddie and Susie's house and they both got out of the car, not saying one thing to me.”  Grant looked straight ahead at the wall as he began to nervously tap the heel of his foot.  He then turned to Mr. Hill  and stared.  It was obviously Paul's turn to say something. 

By now, Paul had placed his left arm across his lower chest area in order to rest his right elbow on his left wrist. His right forearm was positioned straight up so that he could be sure to have his mouth covered up with his right hand. Paul was absolutely speechless over Grant's reckless  afternoon at the  pool  at  West. Grant's giant dog was now stretched out and sleeping on the floor  between the distraught teenager and the serious adult. Grant leaned forward to pet the dog. It appeared that he did not know what to do next. After all, he was still waiting for Mr. Hill to say something.  

Paul watched Grant pet the dog for about two minutes. Then Paul could not contain himself any longer. He started to snicker. Grant pulled himself upward and returned to a straight back seated position in his chair. He was slightly teary-eyed as he asked,  "How bad do you think all this is ? "  Paul let out a hearty laugh and said, "Well, hell, boy !  You're alright !" Grant looked relieved. He asked Paul,  "Are you sure ?" Paul chuckled as he said, "Well, sure I'm sure !"  Grant went on and said,  "Well, you're the smartest person in town. Tell me what you really think."

Paul gave a facial expression and offered up a hand gesture that implied that the teenager needed to agree with him as he said,  “Now what you did today was certainly on the crazy side. But you already know that.”  “Oh, I do know that !” Grant agreed, almost screaming.  Paul continued and spoke more like an uncle and said,   “On the other hand, if you never try for anything, life would not be very colorful.  I have a friend who always says you don’t know what you can get away with until you try.  You  tried for something special today.  Make sure you are one of those people who always tries.  Take some chances.  By doing that,  at a later age,  you will have built up  a beautiful life without many regrets. Like my friend.  Well, you know Dr. Ben Thompson. That’s him.”  Grant responded flatly as he said,  “Huh ?”  The teenager continued,  “In all due respect, Mr. Hill, I can’t really envision that. He seems serious to me.  And actually, he seems kind of dull.  Of course I know him on account of him bein’ my dog’s doctor. There is nothing crazy about him as far as I can tell.  Grant’s facial expression said it all.  Clearly, he was waiting for an example or two. 

 

“Now, that’s cause you’re young and you only know him because he is the town veterinarian. But there’s a bit of a lively side to him.  I really have no business providing you with every wild thing I know he did in his younger days but I suppose I could tell you a few unique details. For example,  he was a star baseball player during high school in  Shreveport.  He was known for stealing bases.  He was crazy like a fox.  He got a lot of attention from the girls,”  Paul said as he tilted his head forward and raised one eyebrow.  Grant reacted,  “Oh ?”  Paul went on and said,  “And a lot of the attention that he did get was because he was sure of himself.  It wasn’t due to great looks.  He has always been sort of on the chubby side. The girls never seemed to notice that.  The girls noticed his confidence.  Now confidence really means something when a man is dealing  with females.  Females like to feel secure and they like to think that they are with someone who is secure.”  Grant said,  “I guess that makes sense. I never thought about that.”

Paul continued,  “So Ben went on to college at Texas A & M. He played baseball there while making his grades. Word got out to the local girls there in Bryan that there was someone named Ben who was both brains and brawn.  He was viewed as great husband material. Rumor has it that one beautiful girl in the town of Bryan proposed to him.”  Grant let out a little shriek of  “no !” Paul continued to explain and he said,  “He believed that he needed to be completely committed to his studies.  Of course, he went on dates; after all,  that was how he got a marriage proposal!” Upon hearing that,  Grant spewed up a bit of his soda and started to laugh.  Paul began to laugh and said,  “Obviously, that’s how it works, huh, boy !  A person goes on some dates first and then later, gets a marriage proposal.”  Grant seemed to be enjoying the conversation at this point in his chat with Mr. Hill.  “Yeah,  word got out that Ben could speak French and girls thought that was romantic.  His grandparents on his mama’s side were from New Orleans and he spent lots of summers with them in their town.  Their first language was French so he ended up with that language.  It was also  in New Orleans where  he  developed into a very good poker player,”  Paul said.  Suddenly,  Grant looked as if he had been hit in the face with a snow shovel as he yelled out,  “Are you

kidding ?”  A poker player ?”   Paul responded,  “Oh yeah and for big money, too.   If he does something,  it  is  always for very good reasons. Can you think of a more fun way to make money ?  Play cards and pull in  money !” 

“After graduating from Texas A & M,  Ben went to Austin because he was selected to be mentored by Dr. McLauren,” Paul explained. Grant jumped in and asked, “The famous Roger McLauren ? The top vet in Texas ?  The vet who gets interviewed a lot on TV about farm animals ?” Paul continued, “Yes, Dr. McLauren selected Ben out of many qualified graduates with degrees in veterinary medicine. Ben was there in Austin working under Dr. McLauren for a few years and he had just officially been made a partner to Dr. McLauren about the time the United States stepped into World War II.  Ben tried to stay focused on his work.  But he finally decided he needed to be part of the war effort.  He made arrangements with McLauren  to hold a place for him in Austin until he returned.  He went through training and one thing led to another.  By the autumn of 1942, he was aboard a ship called SS Mariposa. His ship landed in England and he was supposed to get more training and then be placed in North Africa in order to work as a medic in a hospital and use his French speaking skills if need be with the locals.  

It’s a long story but his assignment got changed.  He played the part of a country farmer inside Nazi occupied France.  His assignment was to be a medic and an informant on the Comet Line.” With a puzzled look on his face,  Grant asked,  “What is that ?  A Comet Line ?  Oh, no, is that something I should already know ?”  Mr. Hill chuckled and reassured Grant and said, “No because you are still young. So here we go with a history lesson.  See, the Germans had taken over a lot of France. They were making weapons and gathering up troops inside France.  The allies would send planes into that area to bomb those specific spots.  The chances of an ally plane getting shot down were pretty good.  The airmen knew there was a system set up by the French resistance to help the airmen get to safety if they did get shot down. That system was an escape pathway with houses called the Comet Line. The people of France wanted the airmen to get back to England and get back to work again,  waging  war on the Nazis . The allies wanted their airmen back because  airmen were hard to come by. The allies needed every pilot that  they could possibly hang onto. The goal of the resistance was to help the airmen get across the border of France and into Spain, which was neutral territory. The destination town was San Sebastian, Spain, to be precise.   Ben was set up in a farmhouse just south of a town called Bordeaux inside France.   He was assigned to three different country  houses.   One of the country houses was close to his. But the other two country houses were a good distance from one another.  The second  house was in the lower southwestern area while the third  house was in the  lower southeastern region.  He used a motorcycle to get from place to place.”  Grant asked, "Dr. Thompson ?  On a motorcycle ?” Mr. Hill chuckled and said,  “Yeah.  And they partnered him up with a beautiful American nurse. She played the part of his wife. He drove and the nurse carried baskets full of eggs and bottles of milk. They actually   delivered and sold  dairy products to people at a variety of country houses. But they were always making their way to one of the three assigned houses where they would tend to injured  airmen and provide important  information to the people running those houses; information like the Nazis’ current  whereabouts inside that region.”  

Grant touched his chest with his fingers as if to point to himself and asked,  “The doctor that I know did all this ?”  Paul said, “Yes and his philosophy is this, if you are going to try, give it a good try. Throw your heart and brains into anything you think seems worthy.  Just like what you did today.”  Grant looked stunned.   He seemed deep in thought.  He finally spoke as if talking to himself and he said,  “An excellent baseball player,  a gambler, a French speaker, a motorcycle rider, a World War II man.  This information is very helpful.  I’m glad you took the time to tell me all this.” Paul added,  “Get to know Dr. Ben Thompson.  You and he are cut from the same cloth. What you did today reminds me of something he would have tried.  But now, for him, he would try something, it would work, it would not work.  He really did not spend too much time looking backwards. He would just go on to the next task at hand.  Or the next caper at hand.  Whichever you would call it. “     Grant stood up slowly, shaking his head.  It was clear that he had been enlightened to a degree that overwhelmed him.  He mumbled and said,  “Dr.  Thompson has a wild streak in him.”  He looked down at the dog and said,  “Come on Alistair.  We should go home now.  Thanks for the talk Mr. Hill.”  “  Anytime Grant.  Anytime,”  Paul said as he stood up.

The timing was odd but Dr. Thompson opened up the front door of Hill Company. He was carrying a rolled up newspaper. The doctor shouted out as he came through the door and  said,  “ Good afternoon !  It looks crowded in here !”  Paul was casual as usual.  Alistair eagerly greeted the doctor.  The dog associated milk bones with the veterinarian.  The doctor told Alistair to sit.  Then he presented the terrier with a small milk bone that was tucked away in the pocket of his trousers.  Ben tapped Grant on the shoulder as he said,  “Hi there kiddo.”  He went on to say,  “Paul, I wanted to make sure that you saw this newspaper article on John Kennedy.” As Ben was handing off the newspaper to Paul, he could see out of the corner of his eye that Grant was watching him closely.  Ben said what he needed to say about the newspaper article. It seemed that wheels were turning in Grant’s head. He almost looked like he was itchy to talk to the doctor.  And finally,  he did.  Grant straightened his posture and with new found confidence, he blurted out,  “Dr. Thompson, if ever you see the day coming that you need someone to help you hold a big dog who needs a shot or something like that, could I tag along and be your helper ? I want to see what it’s like to work with animals.  You have my family’s phone number in your files because my dog is one of your patients. Could you give me a call if you need a helper for something that might come up?  I don’t go back to school until Sept. 1st !”

Dr. Thompson said slowly,  “Oh, well, sure. So what you are actually saying is that you want to do some volunteer work.” The doctor wanted to make sure that he understood the teenager correctly and that was his way of clarifying the young man’s verbal request.  Now it was Grant who was eager to clarify things.  “Yes sir. Volunteer work.  But only with you. Not just anyone who works with animals.  Only with you.  For example,  Mrs.  Emily Beck gives horseback riding lessons to little  kids on Saturday mornings out at the horse stables.  Well,  I do not want that. I want to work alongside you,” Grant said. The blonde headed 16 year old felt himself getting a little shy about having been so definite.  He made his way to the front door. But he also felt some kind of sensation that he had never felt before.  It was almost like he had stepped into the adult’s world.  “Alistair, come on.  We’ve got  to get home,” Grant said, as he now had the front door opened up wide  so that the dog could  pass through.  It seemed that Grant had more courage now that there was some distance between him and the men in the office.  He gave a shout to the doctor and said,  “Please keep me in mind and you have a nice afternoon !”

Once the door was closed, Ben turned to Paul and said,  “Hmmm. Now that boy has never really ever given me the time of day before.  I wonder what sparked him up to have an interest in working with me and my animals ?”  Paul pretended to be focused on the newspaper article as he responded,   “Oh, you know teenagers.  They go left and then they go right for no reason at all. Who knows.”  Paul wrinkled up  his forehead and tried to speak casually as he asked,  “ But, uh, you will call him, won’t you?”   The doctor was looking toward the front door because that was the last spot in which Grant had been.  The vet answered with a bewildered sound in his voice as he said slowly,  “Yeah, I’ll call him. I could use a sturdy second set of hands now and then. Yeah,  I’ll call him.”  Paul continued to act as if his full attention were on the newspaper article.  He tried not to sound too jolly as he said with a   Texas accent,  “Well that would be real nice.  Probably work out nicely for both you fellas.” 

Reviews

[Ballpark Frank]

I like it so far! Will there be more to this? I felt like a kid again reading this. Things sure we're different back then. Simpler, safer, quieter, and somehow better.

[Chris]

a wist-full slice of life gone by.