The Home - 12. Chapter 12

School started the second week of August. The first week was meet and greet with families of the students starting college. The second week was the first week of classes for the freshmen. I was a little uptight, my first class lecture. Once I got started, I was on a roll. I handed out the syllabus for the class, took roll. This I’ll do only once.

“I’ll take roll today only as I want to be able to match names with faces. I expect you to study your syllabus, which includes your assignment. The first course of freshmen history will cover the period from 1200 to 1600. When you stand to tell me your name, I would like each of you to tell me what your objectives are for taking this course.”

Looking at the group, I knew some of them would say curriculum requirement. I spotted Tom and Brad. They smiled when I looked at them. I had broken the course down into four individual centuries, starting at 1200 to 1300, proceeding to the last century of 1500 to 1600.

This course was listed as, Introduction to World History. All first-year students were required to take this course. The course was offered at four different times. I taught a course in the morning and one in the afternoon. One lecture session, Dr. Wilcox and I shared that it was on a Friday afternoon, designed for History majors. Classroom instruction was held on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

Each of my students stood, gave their name and their major. I was interested to know what Brad and Tom’s majors were. I expected agriculture or animal husbandry, but I would be wrong. Both of them were enrolled in the education department, studying to be high school teachers. I knew we’d be discussing this when we were home this evening.

I arrived home at 6, and I had stopped at the grocer for coffee, milk, and sugar. Although I didn’t use sugar or milk, the boys did. I was met at the door by the boys. “Are you hungry?”

I was laughing. These boys could eat any time, was my guess. “Give me 30 minutes, and we’ll eat.” I planed on hamburgers. They would be fast. I dropped my briefcase in the study, headed to the kitchen with the boys in tow.

I got out veggies for a salad, “I can do that.” I gave the veggies to Tom with a smile. I got out potatoes for fries, and I gave those to Brad. He knew what to do.

With the boys pitching in, I started mixing the ground beef and turkey, add my seasonings and eggs, form my patties, and got the oven ready. Frying would take too long, and these boys would probably eat the burghers raw. In the oven, I could broil them, and we would eat sooner. Brad had the potatoes ready, and I put them in the oven. While everything was cooking, I made coffee, set the table, poured glasses of water. I asked the boys if they wanted any wine, they said no, not after smelling my glass of wine.

Sitting down to dinner, I asked how their day was. From that moment on, I just listened.

They spoke about their classes, new friends, and being hit upon by some of the girls. “Tony, what do you think about fraternities?”

“Why?”

“Several of the guys in our classes were discussing joining fraternities. One of the guys said if we wanted to meet some cool girls, we should join his fraternity.”

“Do you want to meet some cool girls?” I knew that would be the last thing they wanted.

They looked at each other, and when they looked back at me, I was laughing. “Tony, you aren’t like us. Why don’t you have a girlfriend?”

I thought about that a second before answering. They were right; I didn’t have a girlfriend, well I had friends that were girls, but not as they were thinking. “I don’t know, I have a lot of friends who are girls, but no one who I ever thought seriously about. I guess I never felt the need to have someone to share my life with. I have my family, school, and now this home. I put my family and my education as my top priority. Who knows, maybe my future wife will walk through that door soon. For now, I still have my hands full between teaching and settling here. Tonight I need to begin grinding the meat for salamis and sausages. You going to help?”

“We could help once we get our homework finish.”

“Okay, I’ll be in the basement. Just come over when you are finished.”

“You can start now. Brad and I will clean up.”

“Deal” I knew they would clean up. There wouldn’t be any leftovers.