12,745. LET'S HAVE A QUEMASA

LET'S HAVE A QUEMASA

-(here's a story about 1966)-

No, but maybe yes. I can bring

a gift for the man from Formosa,

and you can quilt a cat. Fifty years

ago I used to buy Okinawa mugs

on Sheridan Square. It was a really

big deal. They were pottery mugs,

large size too, back when coffee wasn't

such the same major big deal as 

in all the places that it is now. An 

Okinawa mug made all the difference 

to show you were hip and endowed

with the great fever of all the 

beatniks who then were gone.

And they were cheap enough too,

for a budget-crank like me who

only operated on IOU's and theft.

Even, at age 16, when I picked up

'40-year old women, it was all on

IOU's. None of it ever worked out

anyway. They were Price-Is-Right

boring as hell. I brought the doorbell,

but only if they brought the door.

That Okinawa mug showed them a

thing or two about me. Everything

once was famous, then. I noticed that.

In old photos now, the place at the

corner, underneath the second floor

Okinawa mug place, gets all the

credit. Cigar shop, candy store,

whatever it was. It was nothing

compared to what was upstairs.

I remember, we played dominoes

with the fusillade, and no one

ever lost, and no one ever won.