THE SUMMER OF DOC LUDLOW'S STORIES
A summer of first-love, adventure and baseball is made possible for four young people by a man who knows some exotic stories.
Overview:
Danny, the narrator, his friend Fred and two next door playmates, Nancy and Janet find adventure and exuberance through the days of one particular summer. Innocent first-love and the challenge of growing up take place amid the joys and games of summertime. If baseball is a child's metaphor for the season, it also serves as a goal of potential measurement in the core of this story.
The catalyst is a warm man of considerable maturity, 'Doc' Ludlow, whose advice and stories form a center for the action that takes place around them. He also forms a bulwark against the gentle forces of anarchy and excitement that sometimes invade this particular time of year.
THE SUMMER OF DOC LUDLOW'S STORIES
Many years ago my grandmother owned a big house near the seashore. She rented out many of the rooms and the bungalow above the garage to people who came down for the summer. We always came down for the summer --me, my mom and cousin Beth. We had two rooms on the third floor. Mine was small with just enough space to get out of bed. We shared half a refrigerator with the Showbucks, who were retired people like my grandparents, and took our meals at one of the many tables in the large dining room.
It may be hard to remember everything that happened in all our summers at the shore. But this summer I will never forget. It was the summer that Freddy and I got into the most trouble, that I fell in love for the first time and learned a little about baseball and was told some things that no one else can ever know. And all of this was made possible by a man we knew as Doc Ludlow.
We knew nothing about him other than he was a boarder who liked to read his newspaper on the back porch while most of the other guests talked on the front porch. This bothered me, because Freddy and I practiced hitting grounders in the back yard and neither of us were very good at it.
I saw him watching after I missed batting the ball. "I guess I'm not doing well," I admitted, hoping that he would go away, or at least get back to his newspaper.
"At what?" Mr. Ludlow asked.
"Hitting the ball," I said.
"Yeah, he's pretty lousy," Freddy said, waiting with his glove on his knee.
"You're not so good yourself, Fred," I said.
Mr. Ludlow left the porch and came down to join us in the backyard. "I didn't know you were trying to hit the ball. I thought you were just dropping it on the weeds and trying to swat bugs in the air," he said.
If my gym teacher had said that to me I would have hated him for life. But the way he said it sounded so funny that Freddy and I laughed.
Mr. Ludlow picked up our baseball. He hefted it a few times. "A hardball, huh?"
"Yeah," Freddy said.
"Are you allowed to play hardball?" Mr. Ludlow asked.
"Sure," I said.
Mr. Ludlow pointed at the bungalows in the backyards behind our house. "See, I didn't think fellas would want to hit hardballs back here. In case you really connected and sent one flying."
Freddy laughed. "No possibility of that!" he shouted.
"You see, Mr. Ludlow, we're just getting started with hardball," I said.
"Call me Doc. Mr. Ludlow was my father's name and he's not here now." He thought over what we had just told him.
"If you were learning to drive would you start with a race car going 200 miles an hour and then figure out how to turn a corner?" Doc asked.
"I guess not..."
Doc took my bat and hefting our ball lightly into the air he batted a gentle roller toward Freddy who missed it and had to run to the garage wall in order to pick it up.
"I could teach you how to hit grounders or pop flies..." Doc began.
Freddy threw the baseball back toward Doc. But the throw was so wild it sailed over our heads and crashed into a window next to the porch. It was practically the only window we had that wasn't covered by a screen.
"But," Doc winced as the glass shattered, "You have got to learn how to walk before you can run."
My grandmother screamed and came racing out of the back door.
"It's alright Mrs. Major. It was my fault and I will pay for the window, and see to its installation," Doc said.
Grandma glowered at me, but didn't scold.
When she left the backyard Freddy told Doc, "I'll pay you back Mr. Ludlow, I promise. As soon as I get my next allowance."
"You'll pay me back now, boys. By helping me remove the broken glass, measure the window, get the new glass and install it. And you'll do it carefully," Doc warned --before Freddy could do something stupid like grab bunches of jagged slivers and cut his hand off.
The three of us walked to Main Street to get the new glass and we talked easily to Doc as if he were some old friend that we knew forever. Mostly he listened, especially as Freddy listed all the sports he thought he could play great.
"Yeah, and I'm real good at football. And basketball too. In football I do the blocking. Sometimes I'm a tackler. But mostly I block. Baseball I'm just learning."
"Uh huh..." Doc said. We were about to pass the corner store where kites and beach rafts were sold. Doc stopped.
"You need a newspaper or something, Mr. Ludlow?" Freddy asked.
Doc lifted a wiffle bat with three attached wiffle balls in a cardboard holder from a bin. He nodded. "This might be the ticket, boys."
"Wiffle ball? That's for babies," Freddy said.
"Babies?" Doc asked. "I might have seen a baby suck on one of these things, but I don't believe I've ever seen babies play wiffle ball. No, wiffle ball is for anybody other than babies. It's a nice little way to practice hitting, catching and throwing which some people actually consider to be important to the game."
"Without busting everybody's windows," I said.
"Without busting windows," Doc repeated. He shook the wiffle bat. "Do you think the guys who sell glass know about this? It could really hurt their business in the summertime."
The three of us walked back from Main Street. Doc had the new glass wrapped in brown paper under his arm. I carried a tube of caulking he had purchased, and Freddy had a small bag of little metal things that Doc said would help hold the new pane in. He also carried the wiffle bat with the three balls.
I was walking next to Doc as we turned the corner to my grandmother's house and a funny thing happened, a girl of my age walked out from behind the bushes near the curb and watched me pass. I don't why but my heart thumped as if I had seen a ghost. I looked into her eyes and turned red. Her girlfriend ran over to her and whispered something in her ear, but she didn't seem to move till we were by.
"Goofy girls," Fred complained.
"Do you know them?" Doc asked.
"Uh-uh..." I managed, almost losing my voice.
"Thought you knew them from school," Doc said.
"They're down for the summer. We've seen them before," Fred told Doc. "The blond one is always whispering things to the other one with brown hair."
"Do you know their names?" Doc asked.
"Are you kidding?" Freddy said, swinging the wiffle bat with one hand.
--Nancy, I thought to myself. And the other one doing the whispering was Janet or Janice. It was something I didn't believe I would want to know. But I did, and couldn't tell anybody I knew it.
It did not look easy putting the new window pane in. But Doc worked slowly and talked to us the entire time.
"Did you ever think what people did before they had windows?" Doc asked.
"They had bugs in their house," Freddy said.
"And they lived in caves during the winter," I added.
"Could be," Doc admitted, "The Keneem had some old stories about people who lived in caves. They called them giants, probably because of their big muscles. That was a long time ago," Doc said.
"Who were they; the Keneem?" Freddy asked.
"They were an ancient people who roamed the southern wilderness. They might settle for awhile if the land was good and their enemies were weak. Do you know the best thing about them?" Doc asked.
We didn't know.
"They had great stories. About themselves, animals, any number of things."
"Do you know any of their stories?" Freddy asked.
"Oh yeah." Doc said. "I've made it my life's work to learn as many of their ancient stories as I can." Doc smiled and we didn't know if he was kidding or not.
My cousin Beth came running down the hall in her bathing suit. "Danny, your Mom wants you to eat lunch and change for the beach. And tell Fred to go home."
"We're busy," I told Beth.
"Go to the beach. Go on. Wiffle ball will wait," Doc urged.
"But we got to finish helping you with the window," Freddy said, sitting cross legged on the floor.
"I'll manage the rest of the job," Doc said.
I found it hard to leave. "Doc, do you ever go to the beach?" I asked.
"In the late afternoon, if the tide's not too rough I might go for a swim," Doc said.
"Maybe we'll see you there," I said.
"Maybe."
© 2000, 2001 Channel49_________
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