SceneI

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Scene

I

City streets. A crowd of students standing on a corner. It is raining.

Bertie

Believe me, this is the last time I’ll ever come to this town.

Tommy

Applesauce. That’s what you said last year. Wasn’t the game worth it?

Bertie

Yeah, but lookit the rain and me with no slicker!

Spike

I’ll say. It’s rained tom cats and chicken’s teeth very time I’ve come to Snako. Say, how about takin’ a slicker offa some of these bozos?

An old man passes, wearing a slicker.

Johnny

There’s your chance, Spike.

Spike

Nix, I respect age. Here comes somebody.

A Jalor student passes. He is six feet three inches and weighs 217 pounds.

Tommy

I respect age, all right, but I respect size a lot more.

Another Student

Say, you snake eaters, on your toes, there goes the gong.

Johnny

Hold on, that’s a green light.

Jerry

Aw, come on. That means go. He starts across the street.

Traffic cop

Hey! What you trying to pull *!*!*!xx* Censored.

Spike

There’s the right signal.

They walk down the street.

Bertie

Anyhow, we showed more pep than the Jalor student body. Eh! Johnny?

Johnny

What? Yeah⁠—I⁠—uh⁠—gottasneeze! Ka-choo! A girl screams and runs in a store, a traffic cop jumps eight feet and reaches for his hip, and the clerks all look out of the stores.

Jerry

Say, save them red-blooded, he-man sneezes for the wide open spaces of West Texas. These Easterners ain’t rugged like we are.

Spike, Tommy and Bertie turn off from the rest and enter a café.

Tommy

Me eye, I ain’t ate nothin’ since supper yesterday, except a hamburger or two, a couple of ham sandwiches, three buns, an apricot tart, two ice-cream sodas, a chocolate malted milk, a couple of chocolate bars, and a sack of peanuts. Come on, I’m broke.

Both

So are we.

Tommy

This is a fine crowd.

Bertie

Hey, we’ve just got time to catch the train.

Tommy

Migosh! I’ve lost my ticket!

Exit.