University Military School - Cadet Yearbook (Mobile, AL)

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Senior Prophecy I walked up the fading white steps and entered the building. There in front of me was Major Hinson. He was talking to Lt. Col. Neuman - I don't like it at all, you hear, at all! Keep people out of this foyer! Seeing that the major was busy, I headed back toward the publications room. There coming out of the Faculty Lounge was Jim Delaney. Hey, Jim, I called .... Hardly had the words been spoken when I was hit on the back of my head with a blunt instrument. I turned and there stood Major Hinson exclaiming something about being quiet in the hall. After several apologies, a how are you , and a good-bye , I went seeking Delaney. I found him in the Cadet Store. Hi Jim, what in the world are you doing here? Oh, I was just trying to sell the basketball coach some insurance, what about yourself? I'm just looking around, I replied, it's been quite a while since I was last here - five years, I believe. I went over to the drink machine and as I started to drop a dime in the slot a big, slow moving man in green overalls knocked me into the wall. Move bud, I gotta fix dis here machine. I looked around and saw the man's back. There in neat letters was the name: GLASS'S VENDORS. Glass, I thought, no it couldn't be .... My thoughts were interrupted when the man turned around and hit me in the shins with his tool box. Yes, it was Copley! We said hello and sat down with Delaney. After discussing how eachaof us was doing, we started talking about our old class- mates. What ever became of Butler, Glass asked. Oh, I replied, after studying taxidermy at W and L for two years, he and Mr. Purdue went to Afghanistan to hunt Gnu and they have been there ever since. Say, what about Rhinehart'? Er, I think he is still at the Institute for Advanced Study. He is working on some new type of Nuclear Reactor, said Jim. About that time a fat, damp faced little man with a note pad in his hand and a press card in his hat came walking in and proceeded to buy a soft drink. Grover Jackson! exclaimed Glass, come sit down and tell us about yourself. Oh, I'm the U. S. Correspondent for the Nippon News and .... He was interrupted by a lot of little voices yelling, Coach Lyons, Coach Lyons, tell us that story again, huh. Through the windows we saw the coach take some faded yellow press clippings from his pocket .... There I am, we could hear, All American .... First and ten on our own twenty yard line .... I call for a pass .... Back to our conversation. I learned that Ladd had graduated Magna Cum Laude from the Mobile County Trade School - his specialty, spot welding. St. George was designing model boat hulls for a toy company and Boykin was studying speech control at Oxford. 1- After we had talked for about an hour, a mob of seniors came running in having a rubber band battle, so we said good-bye to each other and started off on our individual ways. As I stepped out in the street I walked in front of a great red sports car driven by none other than Norman Cox. The ambulance roared off, leaving a strip of rubber about twenty-five feet long. The jolt was familiar. Then an even more familiar nausea swept over me as we careened over a curb, just miss- ing a parked watermelon truck. Rose stuck his head out of the truck and yelled at our driver to slow down. I exerted all my remaining energy to turn my head up front so that I could see who was driving. It was Fink - I just shut my eyes. About halfway to the hospital I peeked out of the back window and saw a large black car which seemed to be chasing the ambulance. As we turned ' -is-i

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a corner I could read what was written on the door of the car, it read, Jones, Robinson, Slaton, Moore, and Moore - Attorneys at Law. As Fink and Torbert were carrying me into the hospital, Leon stopped to unwrap his pepper- mint stick, and he spilled me off the stretcher onto the street. I passed out. As they rolled me out of the operating room toward my room, a nurse ran by me screaming, But Mr. Shoemaker, you're supposed to have a broken back! This was followed by the pad of bare feet across the corridor. I caught sight of a flying bedsheet. The other bed in my room was occupied by a man who was all banaged up. Just to make con- versation, I asked him what had happened to him. I received a faint reply, My home lab blew up. Oh, I said. Sounds like someone I used to go to school With. About that time, the poor fellow rolled over, Sure enough, it was he. His eyes were full of tears. I later learned that he had melted some iron, which got into an explosive mixture of CSHS COHJS and HNO3. During the next couple of weeks I learned that Malone was catching for the Yankees fThe Pusan, Korea Yankeesj, Charlie Smith was the Green Bay Packers' star blocking dummy fit moves, it talksl. Gregory was playing forward for the Johannesburg Jungle Men, and Brewer was working for General Electric the coaches the womans basketball teamj. After a while they released me. I walked out of the hospital and boarded the now one-year- old Mona-Rail. The car swished away from the platform and settled to the ground with a crunch- ing sound. It seems that because of faulty design, the whole structure had collapsed. While I was waiting to be freed from the wreckage, I considered asking for my dime back but I decided that the owner must have enough troubles now. When they got me out I was greeted by an irate little man who was jumping up and down and yelling something about sueing the contracting firm of Knodel and Savell. I noticed that he looked like my old classmate, Marshall Wallace. I tried to speak to him but I was shoved away, unrecognized. I walked away and about a block later I was sprayed all over with a jet of icy water. I looked up and saw David Ellisor atop a street Sweeper. Sorry old man, he said, as he drove off to spray other unwary pedestrians. I looked down the street and saw a glowing sign: IRWIN'S JEWELRY SHOP. I walked in and before I knew what was happening Irwin had climbed over the counter, grabbed my arm, applied a hammerlock, and proceeded to try to sell me a diamond stick pin. While he held me down, he called his two little boys from the back of the shop, and together, they went through my pockets. When the boys found nothing, one of the little beasts started kicking me in the shins - Cheapskate, he cried! About that time Irwin recognized me, pulled the kids off, and invited me to sit down. I struggled to my feet and fell into a chair. The chair collaped - I lay there. Gee, I'm sorry, said Irwin. Here, get-up. No thanks, I replied, I'll just lie here. We struck up a conversation and Irwin told me that John Harris .vwas a drill instructor at Parris Island and that John Henley was aboard ship some- where in Alaskan waters. It seems that Bill Myers was married and working as a day laborer at Radcliff Gravel Co. W I left Irwin and walked into the book store next door, which, to my surprise, was run by Onie Barrett. Onie asked me if I had read Tom Stevens' latest paper back. I replied that I had not, so he looked around warily and pulled the novel from under the counter. The cover of the book was adorned with a girl in a low cut white dress. I plunked down 7594, tucked the book in my pocket, and headed for the dock. Five minutes after I was back on board, the old tramp steamer sailed, and I was on my way back to my missionary work, teaching plastic surgery to the Ubangies. ..19-