May Day, 1965

   At St. Jeromes, we celebrated May 1st as a day to honor the Virgin Mary. Although many times and in many ways, I have disagreed with the teachings of the Catholic Church, never have I ridiculed the worship of so positive person.
   Some people play joyous games on May 1st, like ring around the maypole, but in the Soviet Union it's different.
   May Day for the Communists is a time to show off their latest military hardware. It's a time to show the citizens of the world what dissent can be met with.
   Last week I had whopping cough. I missed the entire week of school. Rusty served my papers until I felt better.
   When I returned to school, in physics Dr. Simpson had taught electrical circuit analysis. I sat in class on Monday like an inert gas. I didn't understand hardly anything that he said.
   Tuesday was the same way. I got scared, thought I couldn't learn anything. That somehow my illness had robbed me of my brain.
   Tuesday night, after I spent a few hours with Bart at Champ's Pool Hall, I decided I had to attack the electrical

 

problems head on.
   My father was a terror that night. Suzanne and him had a row about her curfew again. It's impossible for them to get along now. They have so many bad feelings left over from their previous fights that each day does not start fresh but continues the problems of preceding days.
   Anyhow, when I got in at ten all the lights were off in the house and my father yelled down, "Did you finally decide to come in on time, Suzanne?"
   I answered that it was me and quickly went to my room and turned off the lights and got into bed.
   I pulled the covers over my head, clicked on the flashlight, and opened my physics book. I concentrated all my attention onto a set of solved problems that Simpson had handed out.
   It took me a couple of hours until I finally understood how to break down complicated circuits into simple parallel and series components.
   Finally, I lay back against my pillow and closed my eyes. My neck ached from leaning forward under the covers, so I twisted it from left and right.