“Oh my God, you still have this picture framed?”
Daughter was helping me turn her old bedroom into an office now that she’s been out of it since college and she came across a photo of herself that used to sit on my desk at work. It’s a nice 5×7 of folk icon Richie Havens with his arm around her shoulder at an Earth Day Festival for which she volunteered to run his booth.
This image under glass symbolizes many things for me, among them my daughter’s devotion to ecology and the environment; her attraction to new experiences; her tendency not to be intimidated by famous people; the joyous way she celebrates life; and how thrilled I am when people see similarities between us.
Several years ago when I first displayed this photo on my desk at work, a younger co-worker passed by and remarked, “That girl looks a lot like you. Is it your daughter?” When I replied that it was his next question caught me off guard. “So she’s dating an older black guy?”
I was stupefied. “What?! This is RICHIE HAVENS.”
He looked at me blankly and shrugged. I stood up at my desk and gestured with my whole body.
“Woodstock?! Freedom? Freedom, Freedom, Freedom?” I waved my fingers in front of my mouth to indicate those famous missing teeth. “Where were you born?”
A colleague close to my age passing by shook his head and said, “It’s more a matter of WHEN he was born.”
As Daughter’s 27th year on the planet approaches, I’m reminded that one of my favorite things about her is that she always gets it. No matter what it is, when it happened, how insignificant or momentous, she just simply gets it. Which means that a percentage of my time has been spent showing her that I get it too.
While we were clearing the room of her leftover teenage memorabilia, we came across a flier that took us both back. The last time I saw it was her senior year in high school when it was lying on the floor as I entered her room. It was reminiscent of one of those Missing – Have You Seen This Person? posters and it featured a graphic rear view of a young guy with his pants down and his hairy butt exposed. The writing underneath it said, “Where’s Mikey? Call 1-800-THIS-ASS.”
At the time, I knew right away it referred to a friend and classmate of Daughter’s who had stopped attending school that year and basically dropped out of sight. Rumors suggested everything from his leaving the country suddenly to being holed up in a swank Manhattan apartment with a famous model having round-the-clock sex. No one knew anything and it was the talk of the senior class.
Daughter said she arrived at school early that morning to prepare the daily announcements she would deliver over the PA only to find the administration bugging. Someone had snuck in even earlier and covered every wall in every hallway with these spoof fliers. Because the building contained grades 7 through 12, every available teacher was rushing around trying to tear them down before the most impressionable students arrived.
Since Daughter was a trusted straight-A student, they asked her if she had seen anything or anyone unusual when she arrived. She said she hadn’t. They asked if she would keep her eyes and ears open and let them know if she found out anything. She said she would. As first period began, there were still fliers scattered throughout the school and the urban legend grew.
When Daughter finished speaking and glanced up she was surprised to see me laughing.
DTR: You think this is funny? The administration was pissed.
OSV: I think it’s a scream. If I were a senior in high school I would wish I were friends with whoever posted these things.
Daughter averted her eyes down to her homework.
OSV: Was it one of your friends?
DTR: It might have been.
I sat down on the rug next to her. I knew most of her friends at school and my mind raced to picture which one of them went sailing down the hallways at dawn slapping fliers on the walls.
OSV: If you tell me I swear I’ll never say another word about it.
DTR: Are you sure?
OSV: Positive.
DTR: All right then. It was me.
Happy birthday, you little maniac.
Fun At The Equator is the subject of Daughter’s Fotos taken in Costa Rica
stepping out in san jose
my tarzan jump
the guy who jumped ahead of me, whoever he is
payasso: my ride
1-800-HORSES-ASS