Last Days of Summer

Correspondence between Joey and Charlie continues in this segment, which opens with the boy nagging the ballplayer about when he will fulfill his promise to have dinner with the family. While Charlie responds in the negative regarding dinner, he does recount the visit in which he personally frightened the infamous neighborhood bully, Bierman, into stopping his assaults on Joey and Craig, stating: “And it worked, didn’t it? You’re damn lucky I batted you home from third” (74).Conversely, he sends Joey contact information for his road games, asks questions about Judaism, and credits the boy with the return of his girlfriend, Hazel McKay. Their political differences are emphasized when he sends the boy a button reading “NO THIRD TERM-ITES” (78), even though the Margolis family are all rabid Democratic supporters of FDR.

Banks experiences an aberrational series of fumble errors during a game against the St. Louis Cardinals and ultimately does accept the Margolis diner invitation. Banks, a Midwesterner who has limited experience with New York ethnics, mails Hazel, a more sophisticated and urban character, a series of questions regarding matzoh balls (“yellow meatballs”) (84) and kosher dietary laws. A series of missives between Joey and Craig reveal that the boys are planning to have “29 kids […] at a nickel a head” (82) and the opportunity to peer at Banks from the fire escape during his visit.

Joey and Dr. Weston undergo a role reversal during their sessions, which now largely consist of the boy responding to the psychologist’s questions about Banks, whom Joey advises “looked kind of funny in a yarmulke” (83).After dinner, Banks brings Joey to the local ice cream shop and spends time actually playing with him by “blowing paper wrappers from straws” (84) at another customer. Subsequently, Charlie writes a more mature letter to Joey, indicating that, despite the absence of his father, “you got a terrific 2-for-1 deal with your mother” (84). He expresses appreciation regarding a phone call that Joey made to him, in which he apparently explained how he had obtained information about Charlie’s late brother, Harlan, whom Charlie states had “hung on for 4 days” (85) before dying as the result of being hit in the head by a bad pitch. In a highly composed manner, he advises Joey that “you don’t play games with things like that” (85) and implies that their relationship may end. In return, Joey lashes out and advises the ballplayer that the only thing he had ever requested was a home run in his honor, and that he is no longer his hero. Banks becomes increasingly philosophical, particularly after experiencing an aberrational series of strike outs in a single game and writes to Joey to say that he is “making a mess of [his] life” (87).He sends a contract, which Joey signs and returns, stipulating rules for their future relationship. Charlie promises to remember that Joey is young and to support the boy if someone hurts him; he further tells Joey that he is “probably someone very special” (87).In return, Joey must always be “square” (87), to listen to Charlie’s advice due to his relative maturity.

Another entry details a letter from President Roosevelt to Joey, expressing gratitude for the “37 votes” (91) that the boy secured him in Brooklyn, as well as his accurate polling analysis of the results of the third term election. Banks receives a Christmas card from Joey and sends the boy a Hanukah card signed “from your buddy” (93).

This section opens with a memo sent via messenger from the principal of Joey’s school, Herb Demarest, to Charles Banks asking him to explain the radical views that he has taught Joey regarding the Dickens’ classic David Copperfield. Banks responds that the main character is overly acquiescent and implies that he is a bad role model for youngsters, citing Heathcliff, a male character in Wuthering Heights, as a stronger, more appropriate archetype. As a result, Charlie writes Joey: “[W]hen I teach you things, some of them are suppose to stay between us” (99).Nonetheless, he provides the boy with his Spring game schedule and location. Joey tries to manipulate Banks into bringing him along on the team’s summer road trip. He advises that he and Craig are the only residents of their block who will not attend summer camp: “[H]im because of tilty eyes and me because of not being Gentile” (102). Joey further wonders what would happen if the team’s current batboy were to become ill, and nobody (such as himself) was available to take the job, but it appears that Banks will not relent on the issue.

When the N.Y. Giants return to Brooklyn, Charlie writes a note to Joey’s teacher, the long-suffering Mrs. Hicks, requesting that Joey and Craig be excused from school the following day to watch “[him] and the team kick the crap out of Brooklyn” (107). The principal intercepts the missive and requests direct phone contact in the future. As predicted, Charles and his team win a resounding victory over the Brooklyn team.

Joseph is approaching his 13th birthday and Rabbi Morris Lieberman writes the boy’s father, David Margolis, to discuss preparations that should be made for his bar mitzvah; however, Mr. Margolis advises by letter that he and his wife will be “out of the country” at that point and maintains: “However, we will be with you in spirit” (109).Joey regales his psychologist, Dr. Weston, with the highlights of the game, noting that he and his friend Craig had seats right behind home plate. Additionally, when Charlie got up to bat, Joey boasts: “[H]e’d turn around and ask us what he should do […] They thought we were really short coaches” (111).Dr. Weston enjoys reliving such a glorious day with Joey, but the boy switches gears quickly and asks: “How come my father doesn’t like me?” (111), since he has declined attendance at his bar mitzvah. When Joey advises Charlie of the situation by letter, he responds: “[J]ust because your old man does not know a good thing when he’s got one means you cannot have a Bar Mitzvah? I don’t think so” (114).

Charlie writes to “Rabby Lieberman” (116) that although Joey’s father refuses to participate in the ceremony, Charlies maintains: “Who says it has to be a relative?” (116). Even though the rabbi’s initial reaction is that it would be impossible for a Gentile to serve as a substitute, he eventually relents and agrees to allow Charlie to substitute in the role of the boy’s father at his bar mitzvah, noting that “the special circumstances involved permit us to accept your offer” (122).Joey has implied that Charlie wishes to convert to Judaism, and Charlie warns the boy that he will have to “[l]earn this Hebrew thing frontwards and backwards so many times that you’re going to dream about it” (128). Conversely, Charlie recalls that he promised Joey “that [he] would not have to fight the big ones by [him]self anymore” (129).