I was standing on the banks of the Ohio River in a little park just west of the US Grant Bridge in
Portsmouth. I was in my second year of law school. A group of other law students were also here. I was studying constitutional law in preparation for a final examination which was only a week away. I was taking the second half of a constitutional law course and I had already completed the first half in my first year of law school. I was studying from a large law book which I had also used for the first year.I had put off studying until the end of the course and I thought about how Jon put off studying for his exams until the last few days. But I thought I still had enough time. I actually had more than a week in which to study because it was Friday and the exams didn't begin until a week from Monday.
My method of studying was to simply think about constitutional law and about the issues which I needed to clarify. First I considered civil rights and I felt confident I more clearly understood exactly what civil rights were in the context of constitutional law.
I began thinking about other areas of constitutional law which interested me and I considered the powers of the president of the United States to make executive orders. I had never been quite clear by what authority the president was able to make those orders, or how those orders were carried out in the context of other laws and what effect the orders had as law.
The contemplation of the various issues was quite a strain and I began thinking about how nice it would be to drink something alcoholic this afternoon. I thought maybe perhaps this evening I would drink something alcoholic. But then I thought, "No I really can't do that today because I have to keep a clear mind."
I noticed floating by in the river a wooden keg probably two thirds of a meter in diameter and about a meter high. The top was on it and I wondered if it had anything in it. Several more kegs floated by. I hollered to some fellows closer to the river's edge that the kegs were floating by. Suddenly one fellow jumped into the water, swam out to the kegs and grabbed one. Then another fellow jumped in. I had thought the water would be very cold, but after I saw both fellows jump in, I concluded it must not be so cold after all. As some more kegs floated by I thought of jumping in the water myself, but I decided I didn't want to do so simply for a keg.
Some other things floated by and then I noticed a large, plastic, blue ice chest floating by. A large cardboard box filled with empty beer bottles floated by. I pointed the things out to someone standing next to me and then I walked down to the water's edge. The ice chest was close enough to shore as it floated past so I was able to simply reach out and grab it. I then saw another round ice chest made of Styrofoam and I was likewise able to pull it onto the shore. Then I pulled out still a third Styrofoam ice chest. I also pulled out some lids for the ice chests. And finally I even pulled the cardboard box onto the shore. I thought there had probably been a fraternity party upstream and all the things I had pulled out had been thrown away by people at the party.
The box had many different things in it including quite a few articles of clothes. I pulled a nice-looking, blue and white stripped, short-sleeved shirt out of the box. I liked it, looked at the size and saw it was a large. I thought it might fit me, but I felt a bit embarrassed picking through the garbage in front of the other people around me. However I did like the shirt and I held it out in front of everybody. No one objected to what I was doing, but I thought they probably disparaged me.
Next I pulled out a large beach towel and unrolled it. It was a bit dirty but I could tell it could be cleaned. On the towel was a picture of a rooster and a chicken, shown in profile with their beaks touching as if they were kissing. I also noticed their red tops.
I next saw a pair of pants with a red belt which I thought I might like. I thought everything could be washed and then could be placed in the large cooler which I had. I felt a bit ashamed, but at the same time I didn't think there was anything wrong with picking through the garbage for some new clothes.
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