CLINTON ST. QUARTERLY Some Explanations by Cheryl Wyatt: Here are a few letters that were written over a year ago, along with many others that I wish to print in a book someday. They are the carbons o f a bunch o f letters 1 was able to “borrow" from my neighbor and fr iend Bob Desnos. My name is Cheryl Wyatt and a little b it about me is that 1 am twenty years o f age and a barmaid who makes tons o f tips in a swanky downtown bar, and so I am not that worried about not having a differentjob. I am happy with my work and my life. My parents can be fuddy-duddys forever about my not getting married to a rich guy yet, bu t I figure there’s plenty o f time fo r that still. I am very good at typing up s tu f f by other people because fo r a while I went to a secretarial school, bu t 1 know that 1 am not a writer myselfyet. Bob thinks 1 am pretty okay and ‘‘topnotch' ’ and has become my parent or grandparent away from home which was in Ann Arbor. 1 met him two years ago in Plaid Pantry. I saw this real o ld man walking around about eleven at night and staring at things, one after another, without picking anything up. The Plaid Pantry guy was looking mean at this o ld man so 1 asked him i f I could help him f i n d something. He said a nice thank you but that he was only checking prices as a hobby when he got insomnia though he was getting a little tired. I asked him where he lived because he was so sweet and I was surprised to discover that he lived in my building jus t down the hall. We got to talking as we walked home together and from then our friendship started and goes on to this day. He got to trusting me with his book, the story o f his long life, which is very funny and great. He gave me nearly 30 or more pages every week under my door so 1could type them up neatly. Bob was senile even then and that's not a put-down. I know because I have worked fo r senile people before. His writing was too good and wild fo r me to ever want him to change. Sometimes though 1 think he is jus t acting senile out o f fun, bu t I don 't know because it makes no difference when someone is so wise, and he doesn 't seem to m ind being the way he is anyway._ Bob is almost ninety but I don 't know that fo r sure and he doesn't let on except that he is eighty or more, so neither one o f us knows his real age. last April he had a stroke and went to a nursing home because o f some sort o f benefits and he hated it and I took care o f his place fo r a few months because he had money to pay for it. He came back after nearly ha lf o f a year and it was great because I was worried sick. He said that he didn 't have to pay for that k ind o f “sh i t" — 1 don 't know i f you can say that word in your paper, but i f you can't Bob says that you should say ‘‘poppycock'' or some more nice word instead — and that he has money anyway and would rather get back to work at his book and going to Fred’s and everything else, where he is happy. I don 't blame him one bit and was so happy to see him and he looked ju s t fine and like before. When I took care o f his place I fo u n d these letters and other s tu f f and I fo u n d some interesting facts which 1 know he never meant out o f trickery or badness. One is that Bob Desnos is a fake name. I t is the name o f a poet who died in 1945 and was so good that my Bob could not allow. I fo u n d this out in a book under B ob ’s record player. Bob ’s real name is Ralph Reverdy I think and he changed his name when his wife d ied in 1957. Bob is nearly back to his o ld se lf— I read this line to Bob and he laughed because o f the way I used “o ld " and he says that a word saying something like that at exactly the right time is ‘'style ’’ so you can see how good o f a teacher he is already — and he says he wishes his o ld friends and the “youngfo lk who are the gestating fu tu re " would write to him since he is feeling a little tired lately now that he is back at home and can only go to Fred’s fo r a coupla hours each day. The address is a fake address but we get the mail from it because Bob has this fr iend at the address he uses so it's okay and we get the mail because this fr iend is nice and says he ’l l do it fo r anybody. Bob would love to hear from you and I know it would make him even healthier like it used to be. So His address is Bob Desnos, 2324 N. W. Johnson #2, Portland, Oregon 97210 and w e’l l get it bu t d on ’t say where you saw it or say that you met him once in Eve’s or someplace and he won’t remember anyway enough to get suspicous. I just want people who enjoy Bob’s letters and style to know more o f what is up now and that also there is plenty more to come from this lovely old man who is a genius. A n d that's about everything okay ? Thank you, Th-e TO FRED MEYER March the 13th 1979 Dear Mr. President and the Management, I have been a Golden Ager for a good many years now and since my wife died and passed onto Glory I like to spend my time browsing through your store or sitting in those nice chairs for a look at the Young Folks. Don’t get me wrong, I have Savings along with a fixed income so I ’m not a burden on anyone and I buy nearly everything I need at Fred Meyer the Stadium branch and I eat at Eve’s a lot too with some friends. So I ’m not a loiterer or anything like that though once a young man with shaggy hair over his ears (I think he was working in Produce!) told me tha t I wasn’t in a daycare center or some such wisecrack. I told him Sonny You Know I ’m Not And I Pay My Way! He didn’t bother me again and he must have gotten fired because he didn’t last much longer. No one else is ever bothered by my enjoying myself at Fred Meyer’s. Sometimes a Security Man will be polite enough to chat for a bit. I even met Mr. Meyer Himself a few times and we shook hands. I told him what a good place he had made and that how he had gotten all so much under One Roof! was a Miracle! I spend a lot of time looking over aisles and aisles of items tha t I never even heard of — like things in a museum. Mr. Meyer was a good-herted person. He told me I was Always Welcome to enjoy his stores and that he appreciated my business. Once he said tha t I should drop him a letter if I had any ideas — swap some shop talk — I used to run a printshop back East over the mountains. Well i t ’s funny 'th a t now I ’m finally writing and Mr. Meyer is gone, but I know he would think highly of the way you’ve tried to keep things up with such a heavy blow like losing him. I ’ll tell you a little bit about some Comments and Suggestions and then get out of here before I waste All Your Time! I have a lot of time you see so I get carried away. I Appreciate your Time and Thank You for always having that suggestion box with the pink forms where everyone can see them. I have one of those right next to me now but I thought a personal letter would be more in keeping with the friendship I feel. First off I ’ll tell you tha t these employees are fine! Top Notch! Always a smile! Every now and then they’ll follow me up and down a row of goods just to watch how I ’m doing! I ’m as healthy as the biggest kid you’ve got but I like to let them th ink they’re watching me because the heart gets stronger tha t way. I like to come in around 10 or 11 in the a.m. and browse around Variety for a couple of hours before going for coffee and a Special at Eve’s. I always buy one or two things at such good prices for the house or some silly electrical gadget for my Museum Box! In the afternoon I spend a tiny time in Drugs because I don’t need them but i t ’s good to know how many you got and what you’ve got because — God Forbid — sometimes something will come up. Then I sit. The Young Folks make me feel young. And I ’m older than I sound. I ’m older than Mr. Meyer was if he were alive today! Before I go ••••••( 217 N.W. COUCH ST. (OLD TOWN) PORTLAND, ORE. 97209 (503) 248-9069 A WOMAN'S PLACE A COLLECTIVELY-RUN FEMINIST BOOKSTORE Portland's largest selection o f women's books & records free lending library; information & referral open 11-8 M -T 1(5-6 W -Sa t. 2349 SE Ankeny 236-3609 42 Layout by Eric Edwards
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