“The Boy Who Knew When to Change His Clothes”

“The Boy Who Knew When to Change His Clothes”

(An Autobiographical Story)

By Ronald Davis

©1983

On a hot summer afternoon, Evan put on his best pair of short pants and his favorite, brown, stripped, short-sleeved shirt. Since he was going to town, he decided to wear his Sunday shoes instead of his old tennis shoes.

Evan asked his mother if this really were the day he could go to town by himself. He was almost 10 years old, but his older brother Edward always went with him. They usually would spend a summer afternoon “window shopping”—trying to decide how they would spend their allowance. The two boys would almost always return home without spending any money. They would save it for the next trip when they would have more money added from the next week’s allowance.

Today was a different day. Evan had saved his money for a long time. He knew what he wanted, but only now did he have enough money to buy the gold ring with the square ruby stone.

His mother told him that he was old enough to go to town by himself as long as he would hurry past “Capitol Park” on his way to and from town—making sure he walked on the opposite side of the street from the park. “Capitol Park” was a large area of land on 5^th Street that at one time was the home of the state capital of Alabama. There were still large foundation stones that loomed up in the tall grass where once stood the Alabama State Capitol Building. Evan knew that older boys often played at the old park, and they liked to pick fights or even bully younger children.

On his way to town, Evan imagined how it would feel to wear a real ring. He had never had one and now his dream was going to come true. The boy hurried past the park and finally arrived in front of the old five and dime store which the store marquee said was Kresge’s Five and Dime. Evan made his way to the jewelry case and pointed to the ruby ring he had seen so many times before. After he paid his money to the clerk, she was about to put the ring in a box, but Evan told her he wanted to wear the ring home so he didn’t need a box. How proud he was as he placed the ring on his finger!

Going back home the same way that he came, Evan walked slowly. As he walked along 5^th Street, Evan was thinking of all the places he would wear his new ring—to school in the fall, to his piano lessons, to Boy Scout meetings, to his uncle’s farm when he visited his cousin Elliott in a few weeks, and to church.

All of a sudden, Evan was shocked to realize that he was walking right past Capitol Park on the same side of the street as the park--the side he had avoided when he had first come that way earlier on his way to town. Just as his mother warned, a group of older boys was playing near the old foundation stones of buildings that had been there long ago. To his horror, the boys saw him and rushed toward him yelling, “Hey, let’s get him!” The young boy froze knowing that he could never outrun the roughnecks. They surrounded him and began to pick at him, “Hey, sissy, you wanna fight? Look at the sissy; he’s even wearing a ring!”

Evan knew that he had to think up something quickly or he was going to be pulverized by these hoodlums. He didn’t like to fight even though he had his fair share of fights at home. With three older brothers and two younger, it was hard to escape a day without a fight of some sort. Today was different, however, because he knew there was no chance for a fair fight.

Evan answered the boys in a calm but tough tone of voice, “Yeah, guys, I’ll fight ya, but you will have to give me time to run home and change my clothes. Meet me back here in fifteen minutes.”

To his surprise the bullies believed his bluff, and let him start for home. As Evan turned the corner at 32^nd Avenue and Fifth Street, the ruffians shouted, “Hurry and change your clothes, Sissy. We’ll be waitin’ for ya!”

With a sigh of relief and a witty chuckle, Evan ran home to change his clothes. BUT, he did not return to the park.

(An update 53 years later—The original ruby ring was lost a long time ago for reasons I do not recall. I looked for a similar ring over the years to replace the one I bought when I was almost 10 years old. But, I could never locate one that I felt was even close to the original ring. Then, on Saturday, October 7, 2000, two days after my birthday, my wife told me we were going to go shopping. Since I don’t like to shop, I inquired where this shopping trip was destined. She told me that we were going to look for the ruby ring of long ago. We were going to The Wooden Skate Antique Jewelry Store in Okemos, Michigan. I told her that it was to no use. I had looked for 46 years and had never found a match. She said that maybe this would be the day. Anyway, she wanted to buy a birthday gift for me. I reluctantly went along. We arrived at The Wooden Skate. I asked to be shown the men’s rings. The clerk led us to another section of the building. I looked through the class countertop where the rings were displayed. Immediately I saw a ruby ring just like the one I had long ago. I tried it on and it fit perfectly. My wife said that I should buy it, but I resisted because I thought $60 was too much to pay for a ring even though it was an art deco style ring from the 1920’s. Not buying the ring wasn’t going to be the order for the day. My persistent wife said that I had been looking for such a ring for 4 decades, and if I were not going to buy it, she would buy it for me. Which she did and that was the end of that!)