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.Which was why they were getting their parts for such low prices.The craft shops in the area weredesperate for business, any business.The HSMC's money was buying more than it should have been.August 27, 1631: Delia Higgins' Garage"It's still good," said Brent, as they fiddled with one of the five partially completed sewing machines, "it'sonly about an eighth of an inch shallow.""I don't know," said Trent."If the catcher is an eighth of an inch off the other way it'll jam." The catcherwas the twins' term for a device that hooked the thread and pulled it around the bobbin every otherstitch.Unfortunately, several of the parts to the bobbin assembly were still waiting on finishing machinesto come out of Mr.Marcantonio's shop.So, while the needles went up and down, and the "thread puller"Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.htmlpulled the thread at the right time as far as the boys could tell, they were still some distance from actuallysewing a single stitch.September 1, 1631: Grantville High School"Hey, Brent.Do you really own a company?""What are you taking this year?""What's this shit about you owning a company?""Yea, they make sewing machines so they can have cloths for their dollies.""Except, they ain't actually made no sewing machines yet, and I hear they never will.""I don't know.I heard that Mr.Marcantonio said that they designed good machines, and that some ofthem are going to be used in shop class." Which was the first Brent had heard about that.The first day as a sophomore in high school is supposed to be different from the first day as a freshman.Well, this was certainly different.People who would not talk to lowly freshmen when they weresophomores and juniors, now as juniors and seniors, seemed quite willing to talk to lowly sophomores, atleast if those sophomores owned a company.Others seemed to resent them for not staying in their place.Then there were their classmates.A significant percentage thought the whole thing was ridiculous.That Delia and the kids were wastingvaluable resources that Grantville needed for other things.That they would never build a working sewingmachine, and even if they did, why weren't they using the money for something that mattered? Likeweapons or reapers?"I'll tell you why," said one would-be wit."Because no one would let the Bill Gates wannabes mess withsomething that mattered."Sarah almost got in a fight over that one."Baby Gates" was the first, but not the most popular of thenicknames the four got.The "sewing circle" was the favorite.Then there was the rather convoluted"Barbershop quartet," based on the notion that they were four would-be "singers."They found a similar range of attitudes, mostly without the name calling, among the teachers.Some wereenthusiastic, some concerned, and some sarcastic.All in all, the change in status made it a difficult and confusing first day, to be followed by a difficult andconfusing first week.All of the "Sewing Circle" had some heavy-duty adjustments to make.Over thesummer they had been less involved in high school stuff than most of the kids in Grantville.They had afterall, been rather busy."This too shall pass," and it did.There was altogether too much going on for any but the most obsessiveto keep up the teasing for long.It rapidly became just one more thing among many that the sophomoresin Grantville High concerned themselves with.There were discussions about the army, about the future ofGenerated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.htmlGrantville, and about the German immigrants.Then there were the German students.Who had their ownattitudes and beliefs.The German students were, for the first few weeks, reluctant to put themselves forward.Partly this wasbecause of the language barrier, but not entirely.They also felt a status difference.The up-timers wererich, with rich parents, and the down-timers were refugees.Don't give offense, study hard, and makefriends.These instructions, often contradictory in practice, were impressed on the down-timer kids bytheir parents, all too often using a belt or a rod to reinforce the point.Their attitude toward the "Sewing Circle" was somewhat different.To them, the important point was notwhether the sewing machine company would actually succeed.That wasn't unimportant, but the reallyimportant point was that the "Sewing Circle" had parents who could afford to start them in a business.Granted, all the up-timers were rich, but there's rich, and then there'srich.Since Delia Higgins was the backer of the enterprise, this attitude focused on David.Short and skinny for his age, David Bartley had never been one of the popular kids among theup-timers.Mostly, he still wasn't.But among the down-timers he was very popular especially with thedown-timer girls.The down-time girls took a pragmatic view of romance.David, Brent and Trent but especiallyDavid looked like they might be wealthy enough to marry years before most other boys in school.Notthat the girls were looking to marry right away, but the period between puberty and satisfaction wasuncomfortably long for a tailor's daughter.Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, David didn't really know how to handle the situation.September 10, 1631: Delia Higgins' HouseThere were extra guests for dinner at Delia Higgins' house the night of the first TV broadcast.Ramonahad invited Karl Schmidt and his family.They had been seeing each other since mid-August.Not everyday, but once a week or so, Karl would bring in a load of parts and Ramona would take the afternoonoff.Delia was slightly concerned.David wasn't, not anymore.Acculturation works both ways and it worksfaster on kids.Johan had been acculturating David right along.Besides, it wasn't that much of a jumpreally, just putting it in terms appropriate to the time.David had had a conversation with Master Schmidt.Ramona Higgins was a lady of high station, with a family that would take it very badly if she were treatedwith a lack of respect.Normally such comments from a boy just turned fifteen might be ignored [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]