First Grade Avoidance Sub-Routine

The piano seat screwed down too low, did I care? That idiot, Buell Case, should have ducked under the camera's cape before he pressed the automatic shutter release......Maybe both of us were just born this way.......Time to take the bus for the first day of school, careful to be the last to enter, to avoid all that commotion and shrill, unchanged voices, but just in time to hear Mrs. Layman making those noises with that dusty chalk on the huge blackboard......and what were her first words?......."See Dick.....See Jane and See Spot!".....It's going to be a while before this gets interesting.....I think I'll sneak out of here, go to the auditorium and practice Piano......Well.....all the luck!..... Miss Hazel Robinson's in the Auditorium, recruiting boys who want to learn to tap dance!.......Yes! This'll be better than chalk on the blackboard...for sure! Will there be satin and sequins in this deal?

THINKING, NOSTALGICALLY, ABOUT TEMI BRESLER SILVER.....NEAR THE ANNIVERSARY OF HER DEATH

At my age, with many friends that have come and gone from my Life, I am continually...and increasingly....surprised and saddened by the demise of those that I remember as youthful, vibrant, creative, intelligent and compassionate humans......This morning, through conversation with an 'old' friend...once a 'new' friend....I was informed of the death of Temi Silver....just over a month from the death of her husband (for 63 years!), Marvin.....When we met, Temi was the chatty 'shrink/bartender' at Sidney's 2nd Act, where I and a dozen other friends were employed, to serve and entertain Ron Cohen and Sidney Glazer's faithful followers, while doling out our 'soulfood' chef's interpretations of Hungarian cuisine in Penny Goldwasser's "Hungarian" decor......A short-lived, but creatively enthusiastic mini-career after I returned from sojourning in Holland, hanging with the NYC Village Art Scene, then returning to Atlanta....penniless.... Ubiquitous Temi seemed to be 'Everywhere'......in the movie line, at Arts Benefits, Democrat Party Fundraisers, Historical Society Luncheons, The Skating Rink and even bank and grocery store lines......She often visited my Buckhead jewelry establishment...bringing along, in the fashion of Clarice Geigerman Woodruff, a few 'potential' buyers of my eccentric collections of objets d'art........She could mix a great drink too!.....And, we needed to serve really good drinks to 'soften up' potential eaters of paprika-drenched veal, goulash and stuffed cabbage......

VIEW FROM A THICKET.....OR......

EVEN BEFORE COVID...AND AIDS, BEFORE THAT...AND EVERYTHING ELSE THAT CULLS AND ISOLATES US......

For whatever 'reasons'.....or does 'reason' have anything to do with it.......even basically 'a bit anti-social' types, like myself, have received invitations to Spring 'gatherings' and 'events'........loquacious or just reverberative loud 'social groupings' of primates with clannishly mutual 'interests' that seem to be much more content and satisfied when in large groups.....some, in very large groups....concerts....even packed movie houses.....shopping centers.....weekend supermarkets.......fireworks and sporting events....'theme' parks....cocktail parties and 'Art' openings.....cacophonic, Woodstock-like outdoor music and theater events........and crowded juke joints.......Sometimes, but not 'always', I long for a close, very personal relationship....the kind where we primates pick off one another's fleas and ticks, massage aching muscles or just engage in more meaningful conversation while watching the clouds roll by, overhead........So, some pejoratively call me 'anti-social', because that kind of life has and has never been very appealing........Give me an amitié amoureuse....or two, or three.......wherein we can look reassuringly into one another's eyes and hearts.....without the fear of impending combat.......and find some real cortical connections beneath the casual superficialities and defensive superciliousness.....

My Ding A Ling - Songs from the Era of Suburban Middle Class Sexual Repression

and a high school photo of my cousin, Debbie, during her  1960's High School Oblivion Days....just before the Consciousness-Raising that was soon to help us 'GET IT"!    

                  Chuck, certainly, GOT IT!    While little white adolescents were singing 'Lollipop, Lollipop.....OOOOh.....Lollipop!"

ADD/ADHD | What Is Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder?

Seemingly Perpetual Recurrence From The Abyss of Longing

First manifest when I was entering puberty....and returns, from it's 'dream storage' room in my brain, occasionally..and even very recently....just to 'see' if I finally 'get it'......