11,528. RUDIMENTS, pt. 589

RUDIMENTS, pt 589

(tommy hilfiger and me)

During my time in Elmira, as

resident, homeowner, college 

guy, drifter, family man, you

name it, I was all over the 

place. Two things stand out,

apart from the flood stuff I've

been retelling. Well, more than

two probably, yes, but I'll be

getting to all that. Tommy

Hilfilger. I know, you're

saying huh? Well, back in

about 1970, this local Elmira

guy named Tom was working

in a clothing store. In 1972,

I guess it was, I'd become

friends with the old guy who

ran the clothing store -  our

interests intersected after I'd

written and had published an

Elmira-Star-Gazette news

thing which they ran  -  

about urban renewal and 

old buildings being torn 

down and the annoying and

usual junk they do when they're

supposedly 'improving' towns

and villages. I went on and on

about the culture of disgust and

our newly dawning degenerate

age, and more... It went over well

and this old guy called me up

and invited me to one of his 

group's meetings, etc., about

plans for Elmira's future, and

all that civic activism stuff. He

wanted me involved, maybe to

take the helm as he passed it off;

he liked my work and words. 

None of that went anywhere,

but his clothing store back then

was already outmoded, stodgy, 

and almost still stuck in the

1940's. This kid he had working

with him, Hilfiger, wasn't happy

with any of that, so he moved

out and started his own little

store, which he called 'People's

Place.' It started with tee shirts,

etc., and went from that to trips

to NYC, Soho, and environs,

where he buy some fashions and

come back to Elmira with them

and sell them at a mark-up. That

then progressed into, I'd guess,

design mimicry, knock-offs, etc.

It did eventually, some years

later, all go big-time and this

rather unassuming kid became

Tommy Hilfiger. We became 

casual friends, small-ways 

acquaintances. When my son 

was about, oh 5, maybe 6, in 

about 1975, one day Tommy 

gave him an adult size extra

large 'People's Place' tee shirt

to sleep in. It was pretty cool,

with the sort of hippie-ish

logo and layout on it. We still

have it around here somewhere,

left behind from those days. It

was never much used, and when

we realized we had it and our son

had not taken it, we just stored it

away. Probably worth a million

bucks by now, if a penny.

-

People's Place ended up as a

sort of hippie store, maybe 6 

8 years behind the curve in an

Elmira way. It took things time

to properly reach there. Elmira

College was an ex-seminary

for girls, from the late 1800's,

and much of it remained in that

slow and conservative way,

even with males admitted at

some point during the previous 

years. It just never got hip or

crazy. For that you needed to

go 20 miles or so north, to

Ithaca, where all Hell was 

still raging and Hippie culture

was well-established, sometimes

violent and super-crass too.

In Elmira, whatever People's 

Place was, it stuck out soon 

enough like a sore thumb. OK,

so that's a truncated version

of the Tommy Hilfilger story.

-

The other, or 'another' Elmira 

surprise was the prison camp.

In its present day guise as

Elmira Prison  -  high-security,

major offenders, etc, in short

lockdown or for long-term,

it brought serious New York

City offenders here to serve

their, mostly long, sentences.

Meaning it also brought, 

eventually, their families, 

parents, kids, aunts and every 

other malcontent and discontent

you'd think of. Small cheesy

apartments and housing blocks

were built for them; they stayed

for terms and held the grudge 

that the entire 'system' was

against them and their kind  - 

no matter that their son had

been tried and sentenced for,

say, killing three people in

a drug shootout : no matter;

the whole white world was 

rotten. Notwithstanding the

fact of their being given the

subsidized housing, food,

school, and clothing needs

they so vociferously 

demanded. Never were 

'thanks' for anything ever

given. It was all anger, fire

and hatred. And there was no

talking to them  -  their minds

were made up. Justifiable

requests for accountability

or payback for responsibility

were scrupulously avoided.

Frankly, the black hole drain

of the system had been opened

for them and the entire town paid

the price and at the cost selected.

There was no choice. A form of

self-created ghettoization of one

entire end of Elmira therefore

took place. (Something like,

here, the Rahway Prison and

State School and the Sex

Offenders facility, have 

created, but here it's just

starting, while there it was

already 70 years deep, with

generations of criminals idling

their time). 'Hello Avenel,

this is Elmira calling.'

-

Anyway, a hundred years 

previous, in the Civil War 1860's

the well-documented use of

the original Elmira facility,

referred to as 'Hellmira' was

as a notorious, vicious, cruel,

cold and unforgiving prisoner

of war encampment for captured

Confederate soldiers, no matter 

what their condition  -  wounded,

bloodied, diseased, etc. By cruel

and harsh transport, of boat, mule,

feet or chained march, they were

taken here. The South had its own 

version of this cruelty, Andersonville.

'Hellmira' was the North's answer.

Little was made of any of this then.

In this present day, of course, 

there are memorial, historic,

salvage, and educational groups 

who preserve the memory,

lessons and evidences of the 

past. The present-day Elmira is

filled with 'prison-camp-memory'

societies and preservationists,
it now being hip to care about.

When last there, myself, I spent

hours just early-morning walking

the rows and rows and rows of 

Confederate dead  -  they're

lined out neatly, Arlington-like,

in row after row of name/state

and regiment, dates of death, 

and birth, when known. I

don't know the number of the

dead, but it's a large number.

This military graveyard tumbles 

from the hill at the base of the

prison, and rolls itself eventually

into Woodlawn Cemetery  -  the

resting place of Mark Twain

and others  -  Hal Roach, the

Hollywood movie studio guy,

among them. Elmira had lots

of names come out of it. And
not just Tommy Hilfiger. When

I first laid eyes on and got wind

of any of this, back when I

lived there, it was to me one

of the most interesting things

around, aside from the flood 

and Mark Twain and all that.

Tangible items. In Elmira

there were, as well, many 

intangibles that kept me going;

in fact, the place and area was

ghosted with historical echoes

and still-resonating secrets and

tales. Those sorts of things

and places have always drawn 

me in  -  I've never had much 

use for a 'modern-day' franchise

of anything. Elmira was quite

proficient in presenting to me

history, the back-stories of the

people and locales of history, 

and the thunderous trail of tears

it often left. Which I always

made sure to follow, once I'd

sniffed it out.

-

It was always odd to me how

people could live somewhere 

and not know anything, nor 

want to, about the place(s) 

they lived. History and the

past goes begging; yet History

and the Past are always the

underpinnings of the present.

Whether betrayed or just killed

off, the Past remains as a beacon

for the basis of the thought and

approach of the modern day.

BUT, of course, you have to 

know of it. Otherwise you get

the usual ignorant assholes

who perforate our times selling

us out, seeking office with lies 

and cheating, and then selling

us out again and asking us to

pay for it, AND them! The

nerve. It's the same in Avenel

and Woodbridge as it was in

Elmira, and that's what I was

writing about then. Just different

names, families, kids and wives,

but the form-fitting rubric of

their pathetic beings remains.

You know how in movies they

used to say the 'names have

been changed to protect the

innocent.' Well, now the names

are changed to conceal the guilty.

But it's the same crock-boat

of mental hillbillies. They can't

talk, they can't write, they can't

sing. All they can do us gurgle

-

Andersonville, Elmira, the Civil

War, the prison, the dead and the

famished, all of that drew me in.

I absorbed that stuff, and having

the Elmira College library and

Resource Center right at the end

of my block was a major Godsend.

Man, I was on my way. Tommy

Hilfilger may have slipped town

and gone on to his peculiar fashion

fame and fortune, but for the next

few years I was dug in and furiously

searching. I formed my very own

character, right there. 

Recognizable, and

for the good.