@@@@@ His teachers never remember him in high 863
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His teachers never remember him in high school, a sullen morose student without enthusiasmHe quits a year before graduation, out into the tag end of the depression and a job as an elevator boyHis old man is without work that year, and his mother goes out by day, cleans stucco, Spanish tile, and Colonial houses in Brookline, in NewtonAt night she goes to sleep after supper, and his old man is down at the corner bar, waiting for someone to offer him an argument or a drink
Roy starts hanging around the Democratic Club in his wardIn the small rooms at the back there are the poker games, crap games, the con talkThe big room at the entrance where the kids come in and mingle with the cigar smoke, the serge suits, the attendants
And the recruiting talksSteve Macnamara who is getting up in the party:
Sure, you guys, take a look, just take a lookA man can split a gut tryin' to go it the hard wayWhat's in it for ya? The only thing is politics, politics, that's what gets ya somewheah, you put in a couple of yeaahs, you show 'em you're a right guy, an' you're made, the organization'll take caah of yaI remembeh when I was a punk like you kids, I showed 'em I was a willin' workeh, and now I'm set, you know this ain't a bad waard, it's easy to pull in the vote heah
Yeah, Gallagher admits, yeah
Listen, I've had my eye on you, Roy, you're okay, I can see wheah you'd have a future heah, you just got to show the boys you're a willin' workehI know y'are but you got to prove it to themI'll tell ya what, the primary's comin' up in another month, and theah's a lot of leg work got to be done, givin' out the pamphlets, and havin' a couple of boys in the crowd to do a little yellin' when one of our candidates is makin' a speech, we'll tell you when
Yeah, that's okay
Sure, listen, theah's money to be made in this, you know you stick with the boys theah's always a lot of jobs, a lot of easy gelt, you'll be a big guy someday, I'll say I knew you when, I can see right off and I'm a student of human nature, you got to be in this racket, that you got the stuff for politics, you know, chaaarm
I'll be puttin' in my nights here
That's it, how old are ya now? Close to eighteen, by the time you're twenty you'll be making ten times what you are now
On the way home, he meets a girl he has talked to once or twice, and he stops to banter with her
I'm tired of my job, I'm gettin' a better one, he bursts out
What?
Something big
You're mysterious, Roy, cut the kiddin'(He can think of nothing to
