|
GETTING EVEN |
|
|
| Buck was a friend of mine and we shared a lot when we were but young boys in
our neighborhood. His life was not a very happy one from what I was able to observe. His mother had spent much
of her life in bed with an ailment that was years later diagnosed as an aneurysm. At the time, when a boy needed
the guidance and protection of an active mother, she was forced to lay in bed with little or no strength to do
the many things a mother does. In addition to not having a mother active in the household, Buck had a dad that was forever taking his own frustrations out on the four children of the family. It was not uncommon to hear one of the children of the family getting a beating with a belt or any other object that may have been handy. Buck's dad was known to be a mean man and it was hardly ever that you would find him in a good mood. Times were poor in the 1930's and everyone in our area, with a few exceptions, were living from hand to mouth. We raised our own food for canning, going to the store for only the necessities that were needed to put a meal together. We depended on our planning far ahead to be able to eat and there were times when there just wasn't enough to go around. Few families in the neighborhood were untouched by the Great Depression, but there were a few. One of them was the Eldridge family. John Eldridge was fortunate enough to be working for the Postal Service and was, by far, better off that most of the rest of the neighbors. John was sort of a leader in the community. It was he that organized work sessions on weekends to repair the road in our suburban area. He served as the Scoutmaster of the troop that I belonged to. He was the church lay leader and was generally looked up to by all of his friends. Mr. Eldridge had a number of acres of bottom land where he raised vegetable crops each year. Many of the children worked for him, picking beans and tomatoes. He had a cow for the fresh milk for his family. He managed his assets well and stood as a good example for all of the young people around him. At a point in the depths of the Depression, Mr. Eldridge decided that he would help form a co-operative for those that wanted it and would build a cannery so that everyone that had produce could work together to can the fruits of their labor and benefit from it. Since there was more produce available than could be consumed, the co-operative would can it and after everyone took their share, the balance could be sold at the nearby store. And so it was that we were all engaged in working at the cannery or picking vegetables for the benefit of all. Buck was just one of many young boys that looked forward to earning a little money picking or helping those canning the food. It paid ten cents an hour, but that seemed like a lot of money in those days. A young boy would be put to work doing whatever the need was at the time. Buck was proof that excessive punishment tends to make a boy a little mischievous. If you are gong to get a whipping anyway, you might as well do something to make you deserving of it. As a result, Buck had gained a bit of a reputation of getting into little scrapes here and there. It was not that he was a bad boy, it was just that he kind of stood out when people were looking for someone to blame. One day, at the cannery, we boys were working with our usual chatter when Mr. Eldridge came on to the scene and declared in front of everyone, that someone had stolen his watch. He was angry and was looking for the culprit. It was unfortunate at the time, but his glare settled on Buck. In front of everyone, he made the declaration that it was Buck that had taken his watch. Buck was no match for the wrath that was being heaped upon him in front of all his friends so he bolted and ran. His sudden departure was declared to be additional proof that he was the culprit that had indeed taken Mr. Eldridge's watch. It was a day or two later that the true thief, another young boy that was simply overcome by the temptation of the moment, came to Mr. Eldridge and confessed what he had done. The boy returned the watch and was forgiven, learning that it is hard to live with a guilty conscious. This confession caused Mr. Eldridge great concern, because he had made such an issue of it with Buck in front of so many people. Buck had gone home in tears and vowed that he would never do any work for the co-op that was being run by John Eldridge. He had no one to talk to about the problem, for his mother was not up to taking on the strain of such a happening. He could not talk to his dad, as he was sure that there would be no understanding and that he would take another beating for something that he had not done. He vowed that he would never work for John again. The day after finding out that he had laid blame on the wrong boy, John Eldridge went to Buck's home to apologize. Buck's dad was there and Mr.Eldridge explained what had happened. He also offered the job back to Buck. Buck told him that he would not go back to the job unless Mr. Eldridge apologized to him in front of all of the help that had heard him being accused. Mr. Eldridge refused to do that. It was then that Buck's dad told Mr. Eldridge that his boy would be back to work the next day and that was the end of it. Buck had no higher court to appeal to and was forced to go to work the next day. Buck was not to get the satisfaction that he felt he so justly deserved. It was not until 60 years after the fact that the rest of the story was revealed to me. Buck had gotten his revenge and no one ever knew it until all of those involved were deceased. Here is what happened. At the time the cannery was putting up tomatoes and beans. The canning line had gotten far ahead of the capabilities of the labeling department. As a matter of fact they had run out of labels and the cans were set aside until the order of labels arrived. In order to know what was inside the cans, the large boxes that held them had been marked with a "T" for tomatoes, a "B" for beans, a "P" for peaches, and a "C" for carrots. To mark them they had used a piece of chalk. All of the cans were in the storage room awaiting the final step before sending the surplus on to the stores to be sold. Buck got even with the world when he entered the storage room and quickly rubbed out the identifying markings and put on a different indicating letter on the boxes. Later the labels arrived and the cans were labeled according to the identifications that were incorrectly put on the box. Buck had done it without anyone knowing that it was done. Weeks later the complaints began to roll in from the stores that were handling the canned produce from the co-op. Housewives were coming in, thinking they were buying tomatoes, but when they opened the can they found something entirely different. Where they thought that they had bought one produce, they got home and found out that they had bought another. The stores complained to the co-op, causing them to buy back all of the canned food that had been sold. Unfortunately, the only person with enough money to buy back the product was Mr. Eldridge. It was he that suffered the financial loss and he was never able to figure out how the mix-up could have occurred. Buck told me the story, not too long ago. He told it with a sly smile on his face. It was a smile that could only come from owning a secret for so many years all by himself. I am sure, that over the years since he got even with Mr. Eldridge, there were times when that same smile would come to his face as he envisioned the surprise to those that opened the cans. I wonder if it was enough to wipe out the terrible embarrassment of a young boy being wrongly accused. |
Copyright © 1994, 2004, 2005, 2006 by Glen Stinson & Mark Stinson