One of my chores was to sweep the floor of the 4-H dormitory. The dorm was the cavernous upstairs of the large 4-H building at the Orange County fairgrounds in Middletown. It was like a haymow without the hay and was populated with metal-framed bunk beds that squeaked like mice all the sleepless night long. The bunkbeds were in long lines across the floor which, I think I recall, was heavy plywood. I wasn’t the kind of kid that liked being around boys my own age or older -- my mother could never keep me in summer camp more than the first day and I dropped out of Cub Scouts after the second meeting.  Yet, I was willing to learn toleration and the benefits of the week at the fair overroad my hesitation in front of dormitory life. 

 

To sweep the floors without producing a cloud of debilitating dust, I was taught to spread a substance by hand from a bucket, a substance God-knows-what, like soft sand, damply granular, and I would sweep my hand through the air, scattering whatever the substance was -- probably poison in some fashion. And then, I swept the floor with a wide, long-handled push broom with responsive bristles and a light weight. I was good at it and fast. One of benefits of being a dorm floor sweeper was that you got to find everything lost on the floor. One of those treasures was Beanie balls, small, hard rubber, round balls that, when thrown by a farm kid’s arm, were like bullets and could bruise the leanest leg or sting the back, belly, or head of anyone like a pellet gun. Beanie balls were stolen by all of us from the beanie-ball-bingo-booth on the far side of the Midway, the largest booth on the Midway, and near the entrance to the stock car race track.   

 

The Bingo establishment had rows of swivel stools where you sat and when commanded by a man on a platform with a microphone, you threw or tossed your Beanie ball into a wooden box in front of you and the ball bounced around and settled into depressions in the bottom of the box. The first contestant to get a full row all lined up, side to side, or vertical, or diagonal, won a nice prize not long for the landfill. The man with the microphone was on to us and on the lookout for 4-H people. It was risky. The safe way to get Beanie balls was to sweep the dorm floors in the morning. I had a healthy collection. Tonight, they were calling for war.

 

TO BE CONTINUED...