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- extracted_at
- 2026-01-27T17:12:48.313Z
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- 36
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- 35 do any damn more molding at Pencey than they do at any other school. And I didn't know
36 anybody there that was splendid and clear-thinking and all. Maybe two guys. If that
37 many. And they probably came to Pencey that way.
38 Anyway, it was the Saturday of the football game with Saxon Hall. The game
39 with Saxon Hall was supposed to be a very big deal around Pencey. It was the last game
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40 of the year, and you were supposed to commit suicide or something if old Pencey didn't
41 win. I remember around three o'clock that afternoon I was standing way the hell up on
42 top of Thomsen Hill, right next to this crazy cannon that was in the Revolutionary War
43 and all. You could see the whole field from there, and you could see the two teams
44 bashing each other all over the place. You couldn't see the grandstand too hot, but you
45 could hear them all yelling, deep and terrific on the Pencey side, because practically the
46 whole school except me was there, and scrawny and faggy on the Saxon Hall side,
47 because the visiting team hardly ever brought many people with them.
48 There were never many girls at all at the football games. Only seniors were
49 allowed to bring girls with them. It was a terrible school, no matter how you looked at it.
50 I like to be somewhere at least where you can see a few girls around once in a while, even
51 if they're only scratching their arms or blowing their noses or even just giggling or
52 something. Old Selma Thurmer--she was the headmaster's daughter--showed up at the
53 games quite often, but she wasn't exactly the type that drove you mad with desire. She
54 was a pretty nice girl, though. I sat next to her once in the bus from Agerstown and we
55 sort of struck up a conversation. I liked her. She had a big nose and her nails were all
56 bitten down and bleedy-looking and she had on those damn falsies that point all over the
57 place, but you felt sort of sorry for her. What I liked about her, she didn't give you a lot of
58 horse manure about what a great guy her father was. She probably knew what a phony
59 slob he was.
60 The reason I was standing way up on Thomsen Hill, instead of down at the game,
61 was because I'd just got back from New York with the fencing team. I was the goddam
62 manager of the fencing team. Very big deal. We'd gone in to New York that morning for
63 this fencing meet with McBurney School. Only, we didn't have the meet. I left all the
64 foils and equipment and stuff on the goddam subway. It wasn't all my fault. I had to keep
65 getting up to look at this map, so we'd know where to get off. So we got back to Pencey
66 around two-thirty instead of around dinnertime. The whole team ostracized me the whole
67 way back on the train. It was pretty funny, in a way.
68 The other reason I wasn't down at the game was because I was on my way to say
69 good-by to old Spencer, my history teacher. He had the grippe, and I figured I probably
70 wouldn't see him again till Christmas vacation started. He wrote me this note saying he
71 wanted to see me before I went home. He knew I wasn't coming back to Pencey.
72 I forgot to tell you about that. They kicked me out. I wasn't supposed to come
73 back after Christmas vacation on account of I was flunking four subjects and not applying
74 myself and all. They gave me frequent warning to start applying myself--especially
75 around midterms, when my parents came up for a conference with old Thurmer--but I
76 didn't do it. So I got the ax. They give guys the ax quite frequently at Pencey. It has a
77 very good academic rating, Pencey. It really does.
78 Anyway, it was December and all, and it was cold as a witch's teat, especially on
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