shared memories – tobacco

That’s not a blur… just cigarette smoke. Rick and Cheryl back in the day.

Before I had made my way out of my parking spot on I Street, Henry asked if I wanted him to read a story by David Sedaris, which was printed in the May 5th New Yorker. I think that since he wouldn’t be driving, he opted to provide entertainment. It was 6:40, which meant a very late arrival time home in North Carolina.

By the time we hit Massachusetts Avenue, (which is maybe one tenth of a mile) I told him to cut the computer animated voice. Three sentences of a computer generated reader was not exactly relaxing, plus I was already dreading 95. He then asked me if I wanted him to read it to me in the voice of David Sedaris. We share great memories of listening to David Sedaris singing his personal rendition of Billie Holiday and “Merry Christmas” while riding back to DC with Jason. But I don’t think that Henry had enough to go on to read the entire article in David Sedaris’ voice. He is pretty good at impersonations, but nothing like Heath.

So he started over and immediately my mind was flooded with my own personal childhood memories… the topic – tobacco. “Unasnwered Prayers and debates over Ford vs. Chevy. Plus my all time favorite story, which we heard on quite a few occasions…

One time my teacher was on a date with his wife and they went necking down this dirt road. His brother was in another car somewhere else on this dirt road with his date. He decided to creep up on him in the car. For some reason, he decided to cut his lights on. And his brother had the same idea! They were about to run into one another. So thank God …. I am not sure if that is the same reason for playing the song. But sounds like a good one to me.