The Studs Lonigan Trilogy - James T. Farrell [363]
Because they’re out here twenty-four hours a day, battling for the coveted prize and honor. They’re here every day, rain or shine, the weather doesn’t mean much to them. Yes, sir, it means a lot to them when doggedly and persistently they fight sleep, it means a lot to them to know that you of the public are with them. Next, I’m going to present another favorite, Harold Morgan, one of our solos. Harold was coupled with Lilly Lewis, of team thirteen, and he thinks that his number is a jinx. Because a few days ago, after a game, game fight, his partner, Miss Lilly Lewis, was forced to retire. Well, Harold still has his heart set on the coveted honors, and his game solo fight here has been making dance marathon history. Harold Morgan.”
“Hello, folks,” Harold Morgan, tall, lanky and bucolic, began in a twangy voice, “I want to thank you all for the interest you have taken in my fight against odds in this here contest. Well, sirs, now my partner she put up a hard fight, a great fight, but, well, sirs, she got her feet blistered on the soles. She walked on those blistered soles of hers when nobody would have thought that she could have walked on such blistered feet. My partner, Lilly Lewis, she put up a hard fight. So Lilly had to give up and here I am, and of course I don’t wish bad luck to any of the boys here. They’re one and all a fine fighting bunch of boys, and I don’t wish them bad luck, but I am just wishing that somebody drops out and gives rue a girl for a partner, because you can’t win this here World’s Championship Super Dance Marathon if you’re a solo. And if any of the folks back home in Coonville, Missouri, are listening in, I want to say to them to tell everybody that Harold Morgan is agonna stick right in here until hades freezes over to bring home the bacon to Coonville, and also I want to say hello to Thad Shelden, and Ruth Allen, and to my ma and pa and tell them Harold is fine. Well, sirs, I thank you one and all for your kind interest and attention.”
“Say, I’ll bet he grows hay in his nose,” Studs said to Catherine while there was laughter and applause.
“If any of the folks of Coonville, Missouri, are listening in, let me tell you Harold is one boy that Coonville can be mighty proud of. I’ve watched him sticking it out here solo, and I tell you, Harold is one boy who shows all the earmarks of making good here in the city. He’s showing the real spirit of the hardy old pioneers who made America what it is today.”
“That’s putting it on thick,” Studs whispered.
“Since the time for this broadcast is getting short, we’ll only have time to put one more of our contestants on the mike, and I’ll now call on Katy Jones of team number two. Katy is another girl who has thrilled marathon fans out here at the World Championship Super Dance Marathon now in progress at the Silver Eagle Ballroom. You know, a week ago it looked like we were going to lose our Katy. She had already taken some bad tumbles, and then one night an abscessed tooth began to trouble her. If most of us had as painful a toothache as Katy’s, we would have howled all night in bed. But not Katy. Holding ice packs to her swollen face, she stuck it out through the dog hours of the night, and took the pain philosophically. I remember how she said to me, `The tooth makes it easier for me to stay awake.’ And the next morning she refused to leave the floor, even to have it pulled, and then she marched gamely forward. Was that a thrill! Seeing this brave little girl join the marathon dancers here a few moments after that painful extraction of that abscessed tooth. Was it a thrill... Now, here’s Katy Jones, and she’ll sing one of her favorite songs.”
Katy Jones, built to barrel-like proportions, stepped forward in a short brown dress and sweater, her legs stockingless, her ripe-sized breasts bobbling. Her thick black bobbed hair was uncombed, and her face, white with powder, almost resembled a clown’s mask. She sang Rose of Picardy, her voice whiny and monotonous in its even accenting.