POSTING #119

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NOTE

In my last Posting---#118 at the beginning of July---I asked permission to continue my blog holiday so I could finish some chores around the house.

Things have gone well.

I can now go into the garage, the work room, my study and the store room without shuddering at the confusion and disorganization. When I want to find something or fix a problem, it is a breeze.

Now I am ready to get back to blogging.

As I have been bringing order out of the chaos, my mind has been working away on its own, as minds sometimes do.

The mind is suggesting that I should have two blogs, not just one.

The rationale is that I should have one blog for telling stories ---this blog, Letter from Virgil---and a second blog in which I can discuss current issues.

I have always tried to avoid mixing opinions in with the stories, and looking back over the Postings I think I have generally been successful. (There have been some slips, for example, when I offered some comments on the US health care system.)

My government career involved a fair bit of policy development, which I enjoyed. Today when I read or listen to pundits discussing this or that social, political or economic issue I find myself arguing with them. "You are giving too much prominence to this factor and not enough to that." Or, "You are overlooking an underlying trend that makes your proposal nonsensical."

Instead of just continuing to complain to Pat, who I must say is a very patient and tolerant listener, I have decided to send my views into cyberspace. Hopefully this will reduce the number of tirades that Pat has to put up with.

The second blog will be called, The Icewine Guru, and will be found at http://theicewineguru.blogspot.com/

It will consist (hopefully) of lively and entertaining Postings of imaginary conversations between two friends, one a semi-retired consultant whose hobby is producing the world's best organic icewine, and a retired high school history teacher.

When in my government work, I had to come up with recommendations on complex policy issues, I sometimes imagined a debate between two intelligent, well-informed people who although strong-willed were open to being convinced by a proposition that involved better facts and stronger arguments.

The two blogs will alternate, with Letter from Virgil one Sunday, the Icewine Guru the next.

The first Icewine Guru Posting will appear on August 14.

Please give The Icewine Guru a try and let me know what you think.

Now, here is today's Letter from Virgil.

The Contractor and the Lincoln

There is a story that I have been wanting to tell for some time involving a friend I have known since we were young, let's call him Freddy.

But I didn't want to tell it until I had a chance to check the facts with him, which I was able to do recently.

When we were young, I was always envious of Freddy's skill in woodworking. In shop class he could turn out bird houses that didn't need plastic wood to fill in gaps from  poorly fitting joints---I always had a problem with joints (to be clear, I should say we're talking here about joints of the wooden, not pot kind).

He could take a block of hardwood and shape it into a glorious fruit bowl.

He was a whiz.

After leaving school, Freddy started working as a carpenter building houses and ended up as a very successful and respected contractor,  building not just houses, but apartments, nursing homes, that kind of thing.

Freddy never advertised and always had more work than he could handle, because of word-of-mouth recommendations.

On one occasion, the owner of a Lincoln dealership intent on diversifying his savings tried to persuade Freddy to construct an apartment building for him as an investment property. Freddy declined, saying he had enough on his plate, he just couldn't' handle any more work.

The car dealer tried to sweeten the deal by saying he would throw in a  new Lincoln.

Freddy thought about it, and agreed to drop by the dealership some time and check out the Lincolns.

Now, Freddy's success was largely due to the fact that he was a hands-on manager. He didn't sit in an office, he was on the site each day pitching in with whatever task was falling behind.

At the end of  a particular workday, he showed up at the dealership in his dusty  boots and overalls. The salesman, dressed in an impeccable suit and tie---he was selling Lincolns, after all--- clearly didn't know what to make of this strange customer.

Freddy opened the driver's door of a big Lincoln and leaning in checked out the dashboard and the fine upholstery on the seats.

"That looks OK, " Freddy said as he shut the door. I imagine the salesman started breathing again when it became clear that this man in the dusty overalls wasn't going to get in and sully the Lincoln's pristine upholstery.

 "Could you open the trunk?", Freddie asked.

"The trunk?", the salesman looked puzzled. No one buying a Lincoln was ever interested in the trunk.

"Yes, I just want to see if I can get a wheelbarrow and a bag of cement in it."

The salesman gasped, but he opened the trunk and Freddy checked it out.

Nodding, he left the dealership, leaving behind a totally confused salesman who couldn't wait to regale his colleagues with the story about his bizarre customer.

Freddy rearranged his projects, and soon took delivery of a large silver-grey Lincoln, provided by a grateful dealer.

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When I checked the above details with Freddy, he said that I had the story right.

He added one factor. He said that at that time he had been suffering from back pains and his doctor had been trying to persuade him to stop driving a pickup truck---to get a sedan instead. After checking out the Lincoln, Freddy had asked the doctor if he thought that a Lincoln would be better for his back.

The bemused doctor thought for a moment and then gave his considered medical opinion---that a Lincoln would indeed be just fine for his back. He may also have been wondering whether he was in the wrong business.

Freddy added another story about the Lincoln. He was once driving on the 401 highway on his way to a project, with the trunk lid up and a builder's jack sticking out the back.

An OPP constable waved him over. Freddy rolled down his window and the constable said, "OK where'd you steal this car. No one who owns a Lincoln drives around with the trunk full of stuff and the lid up."

After Freddy showed his documentation, the policeman walked back to his car shaking his head.

Although around 80, Freddy continues to work, helping his son who has now taken over the business. The company still doesn't advertise and still has more business than it can handle.

A Sequel to Jonas Robinson

At our anniversary party (see Posting 118) I had a chat with a cousin from Florida who had seen Posting 108  in which I described buying some paintings from---at that time---an unknown Ottawa Valley folk artist, Jonas Robinson.

My cousin said that the story reminded him of two paintings his father---my uncle----had brought home some years before his death,

His father had read about a terrible fire on Lake Rose, near Orlando, in which a man had died and his artist wife had been badly burned. When the wife returned from an extended stay in hospital, his father had driven over to see if he could help. He found that the woman had resumed painting and he bought  two paintings---of pelicans---as a gift for his wife.

The paintings hung in the living room of my cousin's parents home on the Inland Waterway, near Edgewater, Florida. He says that his parents loved to look at the paintings and then move to the porch to watch live  pelicans fly over or glide onto the Waterway.

When his dad and mother had died, my cousin and his siblings had to sort out their belongings. They studied the paintings, found them attractive, but the cousin and his siblings couldn't figure out what to do with them. No one had space on their walls for the rather large pictures (24 by 30 inches), and yet they didn't want to get rid of them.

Finally, it was agreed that one of the siblings and his wife would take the pictures and store them in their laundry room. Recently they  saw a  newspaper story about 'a local artist', Joy Postle (pronounced 'postal') Blackstone who for years before her death in 1989 loved to paint Florida scenes, especially of pelicans and flamingos. An author, Judy Madsen Johnson, had just published a book, "Joy Cometh in the Morning: the Joy Postle Blackstone Story"

My cousins checked the paintings in the laundry room and sure enough they were by Joy Postle Blackstone.

(I have found that many articles about the artist refer to her just by her maiden name, Joy Postle.)

The University of Central Florida has recently developed a website featuring Joy and her work. Here is a another sample of Joy's work, taken from that website.

The Wikipedia Encyclopaedia has an article on Joy Postle Blackstone in which she is described as "...a pioneering American environmental artist and creator of celebrated murals depicting Florida wildlife." 

The paintings have now been moved from the laundry room to the living room, and my cousins are delighted they had the good sense---and taste---to keep the pictures. (I am grateful to them for taking the pictures of the pelican paintings shown above!)

Jonas Robinson and Joy Postle are similar in some respects. Their paintings are being rediscovered after their deaths, and they were both devoted to preserving, through their work, the world around them.

But there are marked differences.

Jonas was a self-taught artist who captured local scenes in a lively and happy but naive style. Joy on the other hand was a highly-trained artist who produced elegant pictures in a variety of media: oil paintings, water colours, murals etc.

According to the articles I have been able to read, she lived a life full of both adventure and adversity, and through it all she kept on painting.

I wonder how long it will be before someone in Hollywood decides that Judy Madsen Johnson's new biography should be turned into a movie.

I am so grateful to my cousins for introducing me to Joy Postle, and for giving me some (more) warm memories of their parents---my aunt and uncle---who were very special people to all who knew them.

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See you on August 21st for Posting #120 with more stories from our family’s universe! If you have comments or suggestions, please leave a comment at the bottom of this posting,  or email me at johnpathunter@gmail.com.

On August 14th, you may like to check out the first Posting of The Icewine Guru. http://theicewineguru.blogspot.com/

Tags: my contractor friend and his Lincoln, Jonas Robinson, Joy Postle Blackstone, Judy Madsen Johnson,