Boy+on+Fairfield+Street

Boy on Fairfield Street by Kathleen Krull
 * Once upon a time, there lived a boy who feasted on books and was wild about animals. 7
 * The gray three story house was exactly three blocks from the public library. 7
 * All in all, he excelled at fooling around. 7
 * No one could have said how he, that funny boy, would turn out. 7
 * At night, their hotts and cries sometimes found their way into his dreams. 8
 * Her dream was to get them, into college, as the first in their family to go. 10
 * Each night she lulled them to sleep with stories and nonsense verse. 10
 * He celebrated his birthdays with noisy parties of dozens of neighborhood children wearing funny costumes and hats. 12
 * Neighbors were always interesting to him. 12
 * They invented ways to test each other-- like chin up or ear wiggling contests. 12
 * The family san or told stories at night, usually outside, where he could count fireflies and stars. 14
 * there was so much to take in-- circus acrobats, flashy marching bands with trumpets blasting and drums pulsing, people twirling by on bicycles of all kinds. 14
 * Events in Europe were causing anger at German Americans here. 16
 * It was on the playground that he developed his strong awareness of injustice. 16
 * Plenty of citizens frowned on people who drank beer. 16
 * He was always urging him to take up target shooting or some competitive sport. 16
 * Gym teachers signed at his lack of muscles. 16
 * PHYSICAL CLUE--- 3 legged dog
 * Certainly, no one he knew seemed to like drawing as much as he did. 18
 * The day she warned him he would never be successful at art, he quit the class. 20
 * He was starting to notice when rules didn't make sense. 20
 * He just had this unusal way of looking at the world, and more often than not, this seemed like a bad thing to other people. 20
 * Luckily, no one could question his patritism. 22
 * PHYSCIAL CLUE-- Boy Scout
 * But when the former president cam to him, Roosevelt blurted, "What's this little boy doing here?" 22
 * His usual instinct was to be awkward in public, and after that day he tried to avoid being in public at all. 22
 * Sometimes he skipped class altogether, to go to the movies. 24
 * Even his mother frowned at him then, warning that people who went to movies in the daytime ended up as failures, not doctores. 24
 * He was clearly gifted, though no one knew at exatcly what. 26
 * Classmates, on their way to becoming doctors and lawyers and bankder, voted him "Least Likely to Succeed". 26
 * He did have a place to go-- he could always move back into his parents' house. 28
 * To save face, his father came up with the money to send his son the exaggerator to Oxford anyway. 28
 * Oddly enough, this one remark suddenly put the world into focus for him. 30
 * All of his energy would now go into finding ways to make money doing what he loved, not what others might want him to do. 32
 * Then he could save his real name, for the the Great Works that he would dash off in some vague future. 32
 * In fact, one day he even received a request for his autograph from a twelve- year old boy. 34
 * He was twenty two years old, and his future looked bright. 36
 * This work left him with a lot of money and free time and more energy than ever. 38
 * A few years later, while coming back from Europe on a ship, he was distracted by the rhythm of the ship's engines. 38
 * One morning he noticed a stranger wearing a pompous hat on the train. 38
 * They were always respectful toward children, and not always respectful toward authority-- the rule makers. 39
 * Stage fright had remained a problem for him, and he avoided the spotlight whenever possible. 41