What was billed as my final scheduled trip to Memphis—the consulting contract is up, and Answerjack and his confrères had booked one-way tickets back to their respective homes—was conducted under a distinctly elegiac air.
We poked around a great old cemetery, founded on the far fringes of Memphis during Reconstruction. It's within the city limits now, ringed by rusted-out factories, hopeful new housing developments, and Interstate 240.
I've spent so much time in Memphis over the past 2 1/2 years that when people on the flight in ask me the inevitable question about the "best" barbecue, I can give an answer as informed and enigmatic as what the locals will tell you. It's been fun. BYOB at Neely's Interstate...
and terrific mint juleps at the Hunt-Phelan.
A very dry martini at the loft.
We've tried hard to blend in.
And so it continues. After packing up Answer-J's stuff to ship home to Marin County, got the word last night that his contract in Memphis is being extended. My feelings about this are complicated. What do women want, anyway?
I wouldn't mind a pair of Freudian slippers...
Who doesn't doesn't love a man in uniform? Yet another picture of wee Answer dressed to kill. I'm thinking his mummy definitely had a fetish for hats.
Here's mom, with Answer's father rocking classic ruralwear. They were teenage sweethearts in Cache, Oklahoma; he died during Army basic training, leaving behind a 17-year-old widow, pregnant with his son.
Overalls were the go-to garment in Oklahoma...Answerjack's father is top row, far left.
More Oklahomans. I love this album page, with the folks dressed up for their photo-booth pictures. I think that's A-Jack's father on the top right, and that may be the infant A-J next to him. Hard to tell without a hat.
Another shot to love. The woman rubbing her nose, leading a well-dressed child down a city street in his bare feet; what's the story here? A scrawled notation on the back says she is A-J's aunt. There was no contact with his father's family, and this may be the only picture of any of his paternal relatives. It's an interesting one.
Came home to this. Awesome.
And to this; also awesome.
Minx apparently had not moved in 4 days. Hey, in people years, she's as old as Keith Richards looks.
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