Ham On Rye - Charles Bukowski [0]
A NOVEL BY
CHARLES BUKOWSKI
for all the fathers
Contents
1
The first thing I remember is being under something. It…
2
I remember the Model-T. Sitting high, the running boards seemed…
3
My father had two brothers. The younger was named Ben…
4
It was another Sunday that we got into the Model-T…
5
I had begun to dislike my father. He was always…
6
I didn’t have any friends at school, didn’t want any.
7
There were continual fights. The teachers didn’t seem to know…
8
I took the envelope home to my mother and handed…
9
By the time they called me to dinner I was…
10
Lila Jane was a girl my age who lived next…
11
During the second and third grades I still didn’t get…
12
One night my father took me on his milk route.
13
I was in the 4th grade when I found out…
14
Later in the hospital they were dabbing at my knees…
15
My father always ran the neighborhood kids away from our…
16
I didn’t know exactly why but Chuck, Eddie, Gene and…
17
Of all the guys left in the neighborhood, Frank was…
18
Frank liked airplanes. He lent me all his pulp magazines…
19
The 5th grade was a little better. The other students…
20
There were times when Frank and I were friendly with…
21
Then I started attending Mt. Justin Jr. High. About half…
22
One day, just like in grammar school, like with David…
23
At Mt. Justin, biology class was neat. We had Mr. Stanhope…
24
Our English teacher, Miss Gredis, was the absolute best. She…
25
Curly Wagner picked out Morris Moscowitz. It was after school…
26
My mother went to her low-paying job each morning and…
27
Wagner wasn’t done with us. I was standing in the…
28
Jr. high went by quickly enough. About the 8th grade…
29
That summer, July 1934, they gunned down John Dillinger outside…
30
I got lucky the next day. They called my name.
31
The next day I sat in the hall in my…
32
The drilling and squeezing continued for weeks but there was…
33
The ultra-violet ray machine clicked off. I had been treated…
34
The next day in bed I got tired of waiting…
35
The bandages were helpful. L.A. County Hospital had finally come…
36
Back at Chelsey High it was the same. One group…
37
But there were some good moments. My sometime friend from…
38
Abe Mortenson was bad enough to be around but he…
39
One Sunday Jimmy talked me into going to the beach…
40
R.O.T.C. (Reserve Officer Training Corps) was for the misfits. Like…
41
R.O.T.C. kept me away from sports while the other guys…
42
“You ought to try to be like Abe Mortenson,” said…
43
Jimmy Hatcher worked part time in a grocery store. While…
44
I could see the road ahead of me. I was…
45
Graduation Day. We filed in with our caps and gowns…
46
Times were still hard. Nobody was any more surprised than…
47
The first three or four days at Mears-Starbuck were identical.
48
“So you couldn’t hold a job for a week?”
49
I looked for a job all summer and couldn’t find…
50
Everybody had gym period at the same time. Baldy’s locker…
51
I only met one student at City College that I…
52
The war was going very well in Europe, for Hitler.
53
I was coming home from classes down Westview hill. I…
54
I found a room on Temple Street in the Filipino…
55
A couple of nights later Becker walked in. I guess…
56
I saw a vacancy sign in the window in front…
57
After English class one day Mrs. Curtis asked me to…
58
I made practice runs down to skid row to get…
About the Author
Other Books by Charles Bukowski
Copyright
About the Publisher
1
The first thing I remember is being under something. It was a table, I saw a table leg, I saw the legs of the people, and a portion of the tablecloth hanging down. It was dark under there, I liked being under there. It must have been in Germany. I must have been between one and two years old. It was 1922. I felt good under the table. Nobody seemed to know that I was there. There was sunlight upon the rug and on the legs of the people. I liked the sunlight. The legs of the people were not interesting, not like the tablecloth