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Show 75 know I get social security." Then he told how he got a $282.00 yearly increase and figured he could.buy a roast once in awhile or take in a picture show. In November, his property tax went up 300.00. He was really uptight talking about it, crossing and uncrossing his legs. "Now one of you kids-" he'd pointed at the guys, "one of you kids studying higher mathematics-you tell me. What are my chances of survival? How'm I going to keep my home and eat, too?" Aunt Grace and Miss Mary shook their heads. "I paid $3,000. for my home in 1950," Mr. Frazier went on, "but the market value this year was $36,000. The taxes today are more than my mortgage payments ever were. Does that sound like the good old U. S. of A? Here's what I'd say to the rest of the country-'Give us old devils a chance! "• Miss Mary started clapping. Sitting straight across from him, she'd lip-read everything he said and couldn't contain herself any longer. Thinking about it now, stretched out on her bed, Dyna was sure glad the guy from the TV station didn't get there right at the first or he'd have had nothing but the sound of silence on his video film. In just a few minutes, Frazier and Pony Boy had livened up the room considerably. The Pope himself could have walked in after that and gone unnoticed unless he had a tax problem to complain about. Of course, Gram nearly fainted when she found a man from Channel 4 standing at the front door. No one knew who had tipped off the local station, even Simpson. Though the kids acted a little nervous at first, the seniors' discussion hardly took a breath. The first picture the camerman got, standing squished in the southeast corner of the living room, was of Mr. Vedson, a "foreigner," as Gram always called him, who lived across the park. He was so formal he wore a black suit and tie to walk his dogs. "Looks like a Mormon missionary," Gram said one day, laughing at him behind the curtains. If he'd seen her, he'd have tipped his hat. Dyna remembered how Cathy Sedgwick and she had him all figured for an Interpol spy, how they used to practice curtsies, just in case he hat-tipped them some day. Anyway, Mr. Vedson, being polite as usual, asked permission before he said his piece. |
