A Grateful Heart (ONC 2023; manxman)✅

Chapter 3

If I was teaching English back in 2023, I'd incorporate John Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath, a pivotal Great Depression novel. However, it wasn't published until 1939. The junior class was in the middle of Tom Hardy's Jude, the Obscure, a book I'd never read. I read Tess of the D'Urbervilles instead. The freshmen had just started Romeo and Juliet, and the sophomores were about to dive into the Red Badge of Courage, which coincided with the American Civil War. I looked forward to teaching that unit.

By noon, I was starving. Even if I left the school to search for food, I had no money. As my stomach growled, an older woman who resembled a stereotypical lunch lady entered the classroom with a tray of food. "I thought you might like some lunch," she said.

"Thank you," I said as she placed the tray on my desk. I recognized the spaghetti and tomato sauce, but I didn't recognize the soup. "What is this?" I asked.

"Pea soup."

I had no desire to eat green soup. The smell reminded me of rotting garbage. I would have preferred water, but I got milk. In the thirties, low fat milk didn't exist. Even though I hated whole milk, I drank it. Now wasn't the time to be a picky eater.

As I twirled my overcooked spaghetti on my fork, I counted the stars on the American flag; Forty-eight, not fifty. Both Alaska and Hawaii became states in 1959. During my lunch period, I reviewed the remaining lesson plans for the day. After this week, I'd create my own.

At three o'clock, Jimmy met me outside the school, like he said he would. By then, the snow had stopped. All the surrounding buildings and sites distracted me. Not paying attention to the snow-covered roads, I tripped and fell twice. With the antique cars on the road, I felt like I was on a movie set. As Jimmy and I crossed the street, I nearly got hit by a car. I would have gotten hit if the driver hadn't beeped at me.

"You gotta pay attention," Jimmy said. "The roads are slippery, and there's a lot of bad drivers out there."

"Where are we going?"

"To my house."

"And where 's your house?"

"The Highlands."

I lived in the Highlands, one of the more residential neighborhoods in Lowell. My house was built in 1962, though. "We're walking all the way to the Highlands?"

"It's only a couple of miles."

Even though it was only two miles from downtown, it would still take forty minutes to walk two miles in the snowy Massachusetts winter.

We walked through downtown, along the cobblestone streets. Many of the building's facades were recognizable. As we headed down Merrimack Street, we passed a building that was now Community Teamworks, an organization in Lowell that assists homeless and the disadvantaged. But this wasn't Community Teamworks; rather, it was the infamous Bon Marché Department Store, first opened in 1878 and considered one of the largest department stores in the country. The store sold almost every product a family needed. In the seventies, it was sold and turned into Jordan Marsh department store. Jordan Marsh didn't survive, either, thanks to the creation and popularity of shopping malls.

In 1950, Jack Kerouac, a native of Lowell, held a book signing here launching his first novel, The Town and the City. In complete awe, I admired the Victorian style fronting, wondering if my grandparents or great grandparents shopped here. I bet they did.

"We have to keep going," Jimmy said. "It's getting colder out."

"Yeah, I'm coming."

As we made our way out of downtown Lowell, we came across more vacant mill buildings and a bank that was temporarily closed. The city became more unrecognizable the farther out we went. "I have to warn you about Teddy," Jimmy said. "He's not too happy you've taken over his space."