懐かしの極貧生活　１９７８年のエピソード　その一

以前にも書きましたが、私が、一番最初に入社した会社の寮は横浜市戸塚区にありました。
私たちの生活する部屋番号は３０３号室。
そこには同じく入社した同期が二人おり、私との３人での共同生活をしなければなりません。
３人の出身は福島県、岩手県の東北組。そして、遠い九州の大分県です。
さあ、この田舎者トリオでの人生初の共同生活のスタートです。

当時を思い出すと、一番印象深いのは、給料がとても安かった事ですね。
確か、手取り額が６万３千円程度で、そこから更に、入寮時に会社から購入した
寝具の分割払いを差し引くと、手元に残るのはたったの１万五千円でした。
これで一か月生活しなければならないのです。
そうなると、当然困るのは一番大事な食事事情です。

平日の食事は寮費を払っているので朝と晩は寮の食堂で賄えますが、
平日の昼と土日の食費は全てが自費になります。

そんなだから、休日の夕方になると３人のうちの誰かが、「おい今日は何にする？」ぼそっと言い出します。
すると、「俺、やきそば」「俺はラーメン」「俺は金が無いから我慢するか」となります。
勿論、やきそばやラーメンは外食でのメニューではなく、即席カップ麺の種類の事です。

月末はこの様に、なけなしの小銭をはたいてカップ麺をすすったものです。
なんて哀れな貧乏三人組でしょうね。

まあ、それでも給料日後の最初の祝日に、近くのレストランで食べるランチはささやかな贅沢でした。
が、もう一つの目的は、そこに行けば、ウェイトレスで働いているとても可愛いアルバイトの娘に会える事でした。
彼女は当時のアイドルであった、「相本久美子」似の目のパッチリとした、小柄な娘です。
特に、大分県出身のS氏は彼女にご執心でした。

ある日の事。、彼女を思うあまり、矢も盾もたまらなくなったS氏が彼女に告白したいと言い出しました。
当時、三人組の中では知略を担当していた私が彼に懇願され、仕方なく彼に成りすまして彼女へのラブレターを
代行作成したものです。（我ながら上々の出来だったと記憶していますが。）

そして、私たちは一大計画実行の為に、翌週の休日にレストランへと出向きます。
いつもの様に席に座ると、予定通り彼女が注文を取る為に、こちらにやってきました。
絶好のチャンス到来です。
しかし、ドキドキの彼は流石に何度か躊躇しましたが、他の無責任な二人に面白半分に背中を押され、
ようやく彼女にラブレターを渡すことに成功です。

….続くです。

A Nostalgic Episode of Extreme Poverty in 1978, Part I

As I have written before, the dormitory of the very first company I joined was located in Totsuka-ku, Yokohama.
Our room number was 303.
There were two of my colleagues who had also joined the company, and the three of us had to live together.
The three of us are from Fukushima and Iwate prefectures in the Tohoku group. And Oita Prefecture in faraway Kyushu.
Now, we are starting our first shared life together as a country trio.

When I think back to those days, what impresses me the most is that the salary was very low.
As I recall, the take-home pay was about 63,000 yen, minus the installment of bedding purchased from the company at the time of entering the dormitory.
After deducting the installment payment for the bedding that I had purchased from the company when I entered the dormitory, I was left with only 15,000 yen.
I had to live on this for a month.
This meant that the most important thing to worry about was the food situation.

Since I had paid the dormitory fee, I could have breakfast and dinner at the dorm cafeteria on weekdays, but I had to pay for lunch on weekdays and meals on weekends.
However, all meals for lunch on weekdays and on weekends have to be paid for by the students themselves.

So on weekday evenings, one of the three of us will whisper, "Hey, what do you want to eat today? He says, "Hey, what are you having today?
Then, "I'll have yakisoba," "I'll have ramen," or "I don't have any money, so I'll just have to put up with it.
Of course, yakisoba and ramen are not the menu items at restaurants, but instant cup noodles.

At the end of the month, we used to slurp up these cup noodles with what little coins we had.
What a pathetic group of three poor people we were.

Well, even so, it was a small luxury to have lunch at a nearby restaurant on the first holiday after payday.
But the other purpose was that we could meet a very pretty part-time girl working as a waitress there.
She was a petite girl with bright eyes who looked like Kumiko Aimoto, one of my idols at the time.
Mr. S, who was from Oita Prefecture, was especially fond of her.

One day. One day, Mr. S., who was so much in love with her that he couldn't resist the urge to confess his feelings to her, said he wanted to confess his feelings to her.
I, who was in charge of intelligence in the trio at the time, was begged by him and had no choice but to pretend to be him and compose a love letter to her on his behalf.
I was in charge of intelligence among the three of us at the time. (I remember it was a good job, though…).

We went to a restaurant on our day off the following week to execute our grand plan.
As we sit down as usual, she comes over to take our order as planned.
The perfect opportunity has arrived.
However, he hesitated a couple of times, but the other two irresponsible guys pushed him back in an amusing manner and he finally succeeded in handing her a love letter.
Finally, he succeeds in giving her a love letter.

…. To be continued.

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)