Properties
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- 2026-01-27T17:14:33.289Z
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- 871
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- 834 5
835 We always had the same meal on Saturday nights at Pencey. It was supposed to
836 be a big deal, because they gave you steak. I'll bet a thousand bucks the reason they did
837 that was because a lot of guys' parents came up to school on Sunday, and old Thurmer
838 probably figured everybody's mother would ask their darling boy what he had for dinner
839 last night, and he'd say, "Steak." What a racket. You should've seen the steaks. They were
840 these little hard, dry jobs that you could hardly even cut. You always got these very
841 lumpy mashed potatoes on steak night, and for dessert you got Brown Betty, which
842 nobody ate, except maybe the little kids in the lower school that didn't know any better--
843 and guys like Ackley that ate everything.
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844 It was nice, though, when we got out of the dining room. There were about three
845 inches of snow on the ground, and it was still coming down like a madman. It looked
846 pretty as hell, and we all started throwing snowballs and horsing around all over the
847 place. It was very childish, but everybody was really enjoying themselves.
848 I didn't have a date or anything, so I and this friend of mine, Mal Brossard, that
849 was on the wrestling team, decided we'd take a bus into Agerstown and have a hamburger
850 and maybe see a lousy movie. Neither of us felt like sitting around on our ass all night. I
851 asked Mal if he minded if Ackley came along with us. The reason I asked was because
852 Ackley never did anything on Saturday night, except stay in his room and squeeze his
853 pimples or something. Mal said he didn't mind but that he wasn't too crazy about the idea.
854 He didn't like Ackley much. Anyway, we both went to our rooms to get ready and all,
855 and while I was putting on my galoshes and crap, I yelled over and asked old Ackley if
856 he wanted to go to the movies. He could hear me all right through the shower curtains,
857 but he didn't answer me right away. He was the kind of a guy that hates to answer you
858 right away. Finally he came over, through the goddam curtains, and stood on the shower
859 ledge and asked who was going besides me. He always had to know who was going. I
860 swear, if that guy was shipwrecked somewhere, and you rescued him in a goddam boat,
861 he'd want to know who the guy was that was rowing it before he'd even get in. I told him
862 Mal Brossard was going. He said, "That bastard . . . All right. Wait a second." You'd
863 think he was doing you a big favor.
864 It took him about five hours to get ready. While he was doing it, I went over to
865 my window and opened it and packed a snowball with my bare hands. The snow was
866 very good for packing. I didn't throw it at anything, though. I started to throw it. At a car
867 that was parked across the street. But I changed my mind. The car looked so nice and
868 white. Then I started to throw it at a hydrant, but that looked too nice and white, too.
869 Finally I didn't throw it at anything. All I did was close the window and walk around the
870 room with the snowball, packing it harder. A little while later, I still had it with me when
871 I and Brossnad and Ackley got on the bus. The bus driver opened the doors and made me
872 throw it out. I told him I wasn't going to chuck it at anybody, but he wouldn't believe me.
873 People never believe you.
874 Brossard and Ackley both had seen the picture that was playing, so all we did, we
875 just had a couple of hamburgers and played the pinball machine for a little while, then
876 took the bus back to Pencey. I didn't care about not seeing the movie, anyway. It was
877 supposed to be a comedy, with Cary Grant in it, and all that crap. Besides, I'd been to the
878 movies with Brossard and Ackley before. They both laughed like hyenas at stuff that
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