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%u00a9Jack Fritscher, Ph.D., All Rights ReservedHOW TO LEGALLY QUOTE FROM THIS BOOK74 Jack Fritscherstacks. It%u2019s been taken out without being stamped...Also there were some, I think, secular periodicals, health magazines from Charles Atlas, stuck under the stored mattresses until yesterday, but today they%u2019re gone, except for this one called Tomorrow%u2019s Man.%u201dTo keep from smiling, I ran my tongue over my bridge of front teeth.May 1, 1957What I hadn%u2019t figured was how cleverly quick Hank could be appealing to German discipline. Gunn was so impressed with Hank%u2019s quick-flexing explanation of physical fitness that every boy in our class had to come up with seven dollars, so Hank the Tank could order us each a rubber strap with a handle on both ends to build up our chests and lung capacity. For the first week, our senior-class wash room, where twenty wash bowls stood side by side under a wall of mirrors, was dangerous with boys holding the red rubber strap straight out at arms%u2019 length and stretching%u2014three, four, five, ten repetitions%u2014till our faces exploded.Hank the Tank, of course, had no trouble pumping the red rubber strap that looked like he was stretching a huge hot water bottle.I waited my chance and when Hank the Tank was at full explosion, I snapped my red rubber strap like a locker-room towel at his backside and we both went chasing down the stairs, falling over hooting boys.May 24, 1957Lock called a senior class meeting and announced that we deserved to celebrate our high-school graduation with an actual ceremony. Dick Dempsey made forty-two diplomas out of typing paper, lettered them, and rolled them up. We all came together in our senior classroom the last Sunday afternoon in May. Actually, our intellectual independence was sad. Lock and Dempsey tried to make the occasion solemn and real. Father Gunn refused to come. The other priests said they were busy grading final exams or preparing for Ordination, except for one priest, who came and stood uneasy near the back door and left, embarrassed, as soon as all the rolled typing paper was distributed.He was a young priest, new that year, quiet and unreachable. Maybe he ran out on us because it made him sad we were just a bunch of kids, just kids, trying to make something out of something that was forbidden. Lock, pleased that at least one faculty priest attended, ad-libbed into his