At nineteen I became conscious of social injustice and so forth. During the Christmas holidays, I spent time at home in Fort Worth and got a job for a couple of weeks in the toy section of a department store downtown. I got really good at sizing up a shopping cart full of toys and figuring out the right size box to pack them in and packing them in snugly. I had to write out an itemized list with prices for each sale. The manager pulled me aside one days and asked if I'd please cease describing toy guns and tanks as "Implement to kill people," and such and toy soldiers as "cannon fodder" or whatever came to mind. Having that channel of expression cut off, I took to hiding notes in toys such as, "Help! I'm a prisoner in a toy factory!" It was rewarding work.
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