The radios were attractive, with a walnut finish that blended with the
maple furniture in the cabins. Each radio had a slot in the top where
the noise-hungry customer could put his quarter for one hour of music,
drama, comedy, quiz program, news or soap opera. Every two weeks the
owner of the machines would come around with his keys, take off the
backs of the radios, and unlock the coin boxes inside. Three fourths of
the money he would keep; twenty-five per cent of it--"enough to pay
mosta yer utilities"--would be ours.
As it turned out, our share of the take--about twenty dollars a
month--was barely enough to pay for one utility, the electricity. But
that, as Grant pointed out, with more spirit of self-defense than
originality, was something.
And the customers did like having the radios in their cabins. We always
gave them their change in quarters now instead of in fifty-cent pieces,
so that if they wanted to play the radios they'd have the proper coins.
And often a customer would come to the office and ask us to give him
quarters in exchange for a fifty-cent piece or a dollar.
Our own little radio, that we had been renting out for fifty cents a
night, was no longer in demand. And sometimes I pointed out acidly to
Grant that eight separate quarters, for eight full hours of playing
time, had to be dropped into the slots of the coin-operated radios
before we'd make as much as by renting our own radio once.
The man who installed the radios in our cabins and came every other
week to get the money out of them, became simply "the radio man" to us.
I suppose he had a name, but if he did, I never discovered what it was.
"That radio man's the funniest guy I ever saw," Grant remarked, after
the first time he had come to get his money. "He points his finger at
you, with his thumb up in the air; then he quick bends his thumb, and
the knuckle cracks, and it's just as if he's shooting at you."
"I know," I said. "He did that to me several times, to emphasize his
arguments when he was first trying to make me let him install the
radios. But," I added pointedly, "I didn't fall for it."
"And," Grant hurried on, "did you notice there are hinges tattooed on
the insides of his elbows?"
"Mm-hm. I wouldn't be surprised if he had hinges tattooed on the backs
of his knees, too. He's just the type."
The small cement block building that was being erected across the
highway from us, west of the bar and the Blue Bonnet motel, turned out
to be a bakery. "Purtel and Purtel" announced their big neon sign.
"Doughnuts, pies, and pastry."
Grant went over to buy a pie the first day they opened. After talking
to the Purtel brothers an hour--his absolute minimum for a
conversation--he came back and reported that they had a nice place,
that they were old men with beards, and that he had promised them that
I would come over soon and meet them.
We demolished the pie at dinner time, and after I had washed the dishes
I decided to return the tin.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account