RUDMENTS, pt. 1,355
(no golden lining to what the world gives you)
Most of the people that ever came to
visit us - not all, but most - always
found something to complain about.
The kindred spirits to us never did
that; they just brought along their
merry selves (and sometimes cats)
and we all got on fine. Loose and
without the restrictions that tie
people to attitudes, etc. For myself,
I was as easy as butter on toast, so
I usually made sure nothing bothered
me. They'd be going on about cold,
a crummy bed, distances, or travel;
but I never cared about any of that.
Neither did my wife; the point was
that we'd long ago learned to life with
the situation you're given; that there's
no golden lining to what the world
gives you, so take and make the best
of the situation. It always worked.
Times when I'd just want to say, 'shut
up, and quit your whining,' I'd just
stay quiet instead.
-
That Elmira house, yep, it turned out
well although I quickly enough found a
need for a piano. There was a great spot
and a wall for it. I guess I probably said
something, because next thing I knew
my father shows up for a couple of days'
stay, with the family, and in tow he's got
a trailer, with my piano on it - the one
from Inman Avenue, that I had all those
lessons on and which had been languishing
in the basement for a few years. We did
manage to get it inside, and I had some
piano guy come by to look it over and
tune it up. He said it was 'marginal', but
the sounding board wasn't crack (often
a lousy moving job like we had, does that,
rendering the piano mostly useless. He
tuned it up, etc., and it wasn't so bad.
I got some good years out of it, and I
guess we left it there when we moved.
Can't remember.
-
Things were pretty easy. I've told the
stories here before - meeting Tommy
Hilfiger in his little clothing store
before he was 'anybody' at all. Doing
all the weird printing for 'Dancemasters
of America' - like a dancing school
monthly, or so, bulletin with all the
new dancing news (!). And another
thing like it, much the same, called
Toastmasters - which was a newsrag
of sorts for Masters of Ceremonies,
and people who ran 'Roasts' and
Conferences and stuff and had to
open proceedings and keep things
going. Some of this stuff was
priceless : firetruck companies
newsletters, and fire hydrant
company newsletters too! One
of the last industrial 'hot spots'
of Elmira was firetrucks and
fire equipment companies.
-
It was pretty easy to maybe laugh at
this stuff, but I never did. There were
serious people, probably still living in
the 1940's - when things were more
formal, when items like introduction
and openings and ceremonies were
still meaningful. Nothing was out of
order, and no snide words were ever
used. They had made their places, all
these people, and money too, to show
from it all. My 'newer' world, which
would soon come crackling into their
old world, hadn't yet happened. It still
had 10-15 years to be born. Little did
the world know how steep that strong
downward slope would get to be.
-
There were some mornings in that old
Elmira town when it was so quiet you'd
just go thinking you were somewhere
else; some Missouri River town, maybe,
slowly squishing along. I always pretended
the Chemung River was the Mississippi -
all meandering and clogged up with bounding
riverboats and little islets and river obstacles
and shoreline shacks. It wasn't of course,
and there wasn't even anything near like
it to be found around - but that never
stopped me. And then, just about the
opposite of that there's come 10 days
of zero temperatures, or below, with
no or little thought of sun, and old
snow and ice paths everywhere,
between and across peoples' yards
and across lanes and parking lots. I'd
walk them, freezing, each day, into
Elmira College - right past the
college women's health clinic -
a new, 1970's, round two story
building. I always figured their
biggest product was abortions,
and/or birth control dispensing.
Funny, 35 years later, the same
type of building, and for the same
purposes, but square instead of
round, popped up at Princeton.
What was that big craze sweeping
the nation? Got me to wondering.
-
Elmira was nothing special; it was
kind of removed from the world and
had its own clock. The same with
Ithaca, which, in the early 70's yet
had its own private contingent of
hippies and loose-fits; a sort of
leftover college crowed not often
seen. While Elmira too had its own
time-warp, it was only a few stores
and exchanges. The Elmira College
kids themselves hadn't much of that.
Ithaca, on the other hand, and Cornell
still bore a full-frontal assault of the
hippie ethos; I guess that was part
of its fascinating appeal - in the
high hills and part of nowhere.
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