{"id":"01KG076APV5WT38ZQT23YEDH75","cid":"bafkreicwghporffyxidjlkyz5lpqoqw5axasmph5ow2lmhuocwwsa3tm2u","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":917,"extracted_at":"2026-01-27T17:14:33.289Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 1","source_file":"01KFYTG9MG93RTB6YAW34V48XG","start_line":871,"text":" 834\t5\n 835\tWe always had the same meal on Saturday nights at Pencey. It was supposed to\n 836\tbe a big deal, because they gave you steak. I'll bet a thousand bucks the reason they did\n 837\tthat was because a lot of guys' parents came up to school on Sunday, and old Thurmer\n 838\tprobably figured everybody's mother would ask their darling boy what he had for dinner\n 839\tlast night, and he'd say, \"Steak.\" What a racket. You should've seen the steaks. They were\n 840\tthese little hard, dry jobs that you could hardly even cut. You always got these very\n 841\tlumpy mashed potatoes on steak night, and for dessert you got Brown Betty, which\n 842\tnobody ate, except maybe the little kids in the lower school that didn't know any better--\n 843\tand guys like Ackley that ate everything.\n\n\n 844\tIt was nice, though, when we got out of the dining room. There were about three\n 845\tinches of snow on the ground, and it was still coming down like a madman. It looked\n 846\tpretty as hell, and we all started throwing snowballs and horsing around all over the\n 847\tplace. It was very childish, but everybody was really enjoying themselves.\n 848\tI didn't have a date or anything, so I and this friend of mine, Mal Brossard, that\n 849\twas on the wrestling team, decided we'd take a bus into Agerstown and have a hamburger\n 850\tand maybe see a lousy movie. Neither of us felt like sitting around on our ass all night. I\n 851\tasked Mal if he minded if Ackley came along with us. The reason I asked was because\n 852\tAckley never did anything on Saturday night, except stay in his room and squeeze his\n 853\tpimples or something. Mal said he didn't mind but that he wasn't too crazy about the idea.\n 854\tHe didn't like Ackley much. Anyway, we both went to our rooms to get ready and all,\n 855\tand while I was putting on my galoshes and crap, I yelled over and asked old Ackley if\n 856\the wanted to go to the movies. He could hear me all right through the shower curtains,\n 857\tbut he didn't answer me right away. He was the kind of a guy that hates to answer you\n 858\tright away. Finally he came over, through the goddam curtains, and stood on the shower\n 859\tledge and asked who was going besides me. He always had to know who was going. I\n 860\tswear, if that guy was shipwrecked somewhere, and you rescued him in a goddam boat,\n 861\the'd want to know who the guy was that was rowing it before he'd even get in. I told him\n 862\tMal Brossard was going. He said, \"That bastard . . . All right. Wait a second.\" You'd\n 863\tthink he was doing you a big favor.\n 864\tIt took him about five hours to get ready. While he was doing it, I went over to\n 865\tmy window and opened it and packed a snowball with my bare hands. The snow was\n 866\tvery good for packing. I didn't throw it at anything, though. I started to throw it. At a car\n 867\tthat was parked across the street. But I changed my mind. The car looked so nice and\n 868\twhite. Then I started to throw it at a hydrant, but that looked too nice and white, too.\n 869\tFinally I didn't throw it at anything. All I did was close the window and walk around the\n 870\troom with the snowball, packing it harder. A little while later, I still had it with me when\n 871\tI and Brossnad and Ackley got on the bus. The bus driver opened the doors and made me\n 872\tthrow it out. I told him I wasn't going to chuck it at anybody, but he wouldn't believe me.\n 873\tPeople never believe you.\n 874\tBrossard and Ackley both had seen the picture that was playing, so all we did, we\n 875\tjust had a couple of hamburgers and played the pinball machine for a little while, then\n 876\ttook the bus back to Pencey. I didn't care about not seeing the movie, anyway. It was\n 877\tsupposed to be a comedy, with Cary Grant in it, and all that crap. Besides, I'd been to the\n 878\tmovies with Brossard and Ackley before. They both laughed like hyenas at stuff that","title":"Chunk 1"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG07254XVK70408T0BJB63WT","peer_label":"5","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KFXT0KM64XT6K8W52TDEE0YS","peer_label":"More Classics","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"}],"ver":1,"created_at":"2026-01-27T17:14:33.841Z","ts":"2026-01-27T17:14:33.841Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}