they made, and they don’t want you to make them feel even worse. I am an old man and most people hate me, but I don’t like them, so that makes it all even. "To make it even" means to balance things in general, or perhaps to get revenge for what someone has done to you. This is Potter’s generally sick view of life. You know that I run practically everything in this town, except the Baily Building and Loan. Note that "to run" can mean to own or control. You have beaten me…and that takes some doing. "That requires a lot of effort." During the Depression, you and I were the only ones who kept our heads. "The Depression" is the great economic crisis of the 1930s. "To keep one’s head" is to stay calm and not panic, especially during a crisis. Most people say you stole all the rest. :: The envious ones, the suckers. A person who is "envious" of someone else wants what they have. I have stated my side very frankly. "To state" something is to say or declare it. To do it "frankly" is to do it with complete honestly (Frankly is often used to start a new sentence). You make 45, and after paying your bills, you’re able to save 10, if you skimp. "To skimp" is to save as much money as possible. Note the number of dollars that people were making back in 1940! George Baily is….an intelligent, smart and ambitious young man. "Ambitious" is a useful adjective to describe a person who tries hard to achieve many things, including making lots of money. He’s a young man who has to watch his friends go places…because he’s trapped into fritting his life away playing nursemaid to a lot of garlic eaters. This is Potter’s way of trying to make George feel horrible about his life. "To frit your life away" is to waste it, though this is rarely used. A "nursemaid" is an old word for a babysitter or nanny, and I suppose for Potter, common "yokels" ate a lot of garlic! Do I paint a correct picture, or do I exaggerate? "To exaggerate" is an important verb meaning to make something seem more extreme (worse, bigger, poorer, etc) than it is in reality. I want you to manage my properties. I’ll start you out at $20,000 a year. Note the numbers! This is ten times more than George was making! George Baily, whose ship has come in, provided he has enough brains to climb aboard. If a person’s "ship has come in," this means that they have been given a great opportunity. Note that you can "climb aboard" a ship or bus. Oh confound it, man! Are you afraid of success?! An old-fashioned way of showing emotion such as anger, like screaming "damn it" today. Interesting, but no longer used. The answer is no, dog gone it! A very old-fashioned and more conservative way of saying damn it! You sit around here and you spin your webs and you think the world revolves around you and your
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