Imagine: “Mule” stuck fast. Larry hated it and his friends were never bold enough to drum up his sister’s nickname in front of him, but Larry knew that was what the town was calling her. It could have been worse and he supposed there was at least a little bit of sympathy that passed when the name left their snickering lips. They all knew that Darlene wasn’t always like this, a five year old child in a twenty-two year old body.
But he stuck by her all the same. Even after high school ended and his friends left for big cities or for the 17th Parallel in Vietnam, he stayed with her. Even when the old vets threw him sour frowns when word got around he’d asked for a draft exemption, he stuck with her. He did it because he owed her a debt for the one night when it was Darlene that had stuck with him. Continue reading The 2011 Imaginary Family Project – Week 4→
Always the life of the party, this is a photograph of Lorne Hughbert doing his best Red Skelton impersonation. I took this on the evening of December 31, 1958 at my New Year’s Eve Party celebrating the ringing in of 1959. We were in the basement room at my home on Chautauqua Avenue. Lorne attended the party with my friend Paul Noth, who is in the dark suit, laughing along. At midnight the boys pretended to dance a tango together, Lorne with a long silk rose in his mouth. Everyone laughed at the antics of these confirmed bachelors.
Imagine:
“And that,” Ava dealt the photo onto the Duncan Phyfe tabletop like it was the final card in a high-stakes game of Twenty-One, “is a reeeaaal Southern agriculturalist, taking a fine-weather day from his crop-tending to catch some fish! He was so kind to let us take his picture, would you just LOOK at that cane pole?” She peered over her reading glasses at her bridge group assembled around the table. They stared intently at the photograph as though it were unlocking the mysteries of life and they should take care to soak in every bit of magic it had to offer them. It was Ava’s turn to host, she had made the refreshments, and they were determined to act interested.
