Page 246 - WhyAsInY

Why (as in yaverbaum)
I was such a big success that, when I told Mr. Futterman that my plans had changed, that I had decided to finish my college education and therefore had to take July and most of August to prepare myself for my junior year (in case you hadn’t guessed, I had decided to go to Camp Brookwood for the summer), I was subjected to a very heartfelt and stern lecture, not about what a success in the company I would thereby be throwing away but about the importance of loyalty: United Lawyers Service had provided a great opportunity to me and paid a great deal of money to me (probably less than fifty dollars per week, in cash) and expected that I would show the loyalty to them that they showed to their employees. After all, had I forgotten that when I somehow trekked in from Brooklyn in order to make my rounds in a severe snowstorm, they had given a five-dollar bonus to me (in cash as well)? A business just could not be run without the loyalty of its workers.
Somehow, even at that stage of my life, that did not have the ring of truth to it, not even a tinkle. However, even though there was no way in which I had led United to believe that I didn’t intend to return to Amherst, my sense of responsibility did kick in—and it was once again the night before my last day at P.S. 193. After I finished with Mr. Fut- terman (or was it that he finished with me?), I sat down at my Smith-Corona at home and typed a twenty-five-page handbook, prob- ably still in use, detailing the ins and outs of the New York County Surrogates Court from the perspective of United Lawyers Service (for example, “Make Room 402, the Office of Probate, your first stop, and see Sal if you need the Letters Testamentary that Miss McGovern, also of the Probate office, has told you have been issued in the Jones estate.” The handbook in hand, I offered to train a replacement and then leave—as I did, at the end of June.
As you will recall, I had intended from the very moment of my exit from Amherst to return to school. In fact, even while I was at home, I was looking forward to getting back into the college mix. Thanks to Lesley Posner, I had had a number of dates at Vassar during the year, starting soon after I came home from Amherst. Of those, one, named
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