Andrew to the
Rescue
by Don Drewniak
Subsequent to
our graduating from college in June 1965, Dolores,
my wife-to-be, headed off to New York City to
work as a summer replacement Radio City Music
Hall Rockette. With two very important exceptions,
I stayed in Worcester, MA and spent the majority
of my time relaxing. The exceptions? A couple of
trips to the Big Apple. We married on August 12th
during the second visit.
One of the
reasons for the lazy summer was convincing myself
that I should use the time to prepare for the
upcoming teaching position that was to begin the
day after Labor Day. My transportation? A 1957
black, two-door ’57 Chevrolet that cost me a
whopping $150. Among some of its “features”
was a gas gauge in which the needle never moved
from empty.
No problem,
I’ll use the odometer to estimate when I’ll
need to add gas.
And it was no
problem until an afternoon during the fourth week
of school when I ran out of gas less than two
miles into the 27-mile drive back to our
apartment in Worcester. The nearest service
station was at least three miles away. As I sat
in the car pondering what I was going to do, I
heard a familiar voice.
“Hey, Mr.
D, is your car dead?”
“I ran
out of gas, Andrew.” (Andrew was one of my
sixth-grade students.)
“How’d
you do that?”
“My gas
gauge doesn’t work.”
“Why didn’t
you fix it?”
“I don’t
make enough money.”
“Honest?”
“No, just
a little lazy.”
“My dad
has a couple of cans of gas in his garage. I’ll
bring one back.”
“Are you
sure it will be okay with your dad?”
“He’s
a good guy.”
Off he went
and returned in about fifteen minutes.
“Let me
pour the gas into your tank.”
I pumped the
gas pedal a few times and started the car.
“Here
Andrew, one dollar for your dad and one for you.”
The price of gas in 1967 ranged between $0.30 and
$0.34 a gallon.
He stuffed one
of the bills into a pocket and tried to return
the other bill. “Here, Mr. D., take this
back and give me A’s arithmetic and reading.”
I couldn’t
stop laughing. When I finally gained my composure,
I told him that could get me fired.
“Nobody
would know.”
“Andrew,
you would know and I would know. Please keep the
dollar.”
“Okay,
see you tomorrow.”
Andrew never
said a word about my running out of gas to anyone
in the school. He earned an A in arithmetic and
an A- in reading for the first marking period.
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