Monopoly and Batman

My friend Lloyd had finally gotten what Santa had promised to bring him – a Monopoly Game. Lloyd had long dreamed of having a Monopoly Game and finally on Christmas morning of 1944 he came bounding over to my house proudly announcing that Santa had brought him a Monopoly Game.

For many a weekend he and I and our other friend, Homer, would play Monopoly. What fun!

But Monopoly wasn’t our only diversion. One afternoon Lloyd said “Jerry, come over to the house and let’s iron these Batman decals on our T-shirts.” So he and I arranged his front room floor so we would have room to iron these decals onto our t-shirts. When done, we eagerly donned our new creations and went dashing down the street, showing off our new attire. Such fun! How proud we were!

When we reached North St, we heard the sound of sirens. We looked at each other and decided that the sound was growing nearer. And nearer. And nearer still until around the corner a block down and approaching us was this big beautiful red fire engine. Lo and behold it was now turning down our street. We had to see this. We charged down Canal st. and watched as the truck stopped in front of Lloyd’s house. What’s going on?  

When we got to Lloyd’s house, we were held back while 2 firemen entered Lloyd’s unlocked house from which smoke from smoldering linoleum was pouring out.  A neighbor had seen the smoke and called the fire department.

Lloyd turned pale and said “oops, I think I know what happened.” He had failed to unplug the iron which he had placed on the linoleum floor. Upon completing the extinguishing, the head fireman said to Lloyd: “You live here?” “Yes, sir” “Where are your parents?” “They both work.” Seeing the freshly decaled t-shirts on Lloyd and me, he said “You boys put these decals on?” “Yes, sir”. The fireman then said “Well, the iron burned through the floor. You didn’t turn it off.” Lloyd gulped. The fireman then got Lloyd’s name and some personal information. They then left. The iron had burned completely through the floor and fell to the ground below.

 Lloyd said “My dad’s going to be real mad”. Lloyd’s dad was a blue collar hardworking hulk of a man. Poor Lloyd trembled at the thought of what his dad might do to him. Soon his mom came home. He was relieved that she came home first. Then came dad. Lloyd was now in his house and I prayed that he wouldn’t be too severely punished. I didn’t see him the rest of that day.  

The next morning I went outside and waited to see Lloyd. It seemed like hours before he came outside. When he did, I asked “What happened?” He said “Well, we won’t be playing monopoly anymore.” I asked “Did he take it away from you?” Then Lloyd said “Come see.” I went with Lloyd into his house. He pointed to the floor. His dad had nailed the Monopoly board over the hole. Then with great relief Lloyd said “But at least I didn’t get a whupin’”.

Back to HOME page and TABLE OF CONTENTS