on ice
Tag Archives: portrait
Father and Daughter
Wm and his little girl in an uncharacteristically sober mood. You’re far more likely to see them like this . . .
$26 for the happiest day of his life
He knocked on my front door, needing money . . . the exact amount to the penny for a bus ticket to Chicago: $25.65
Did I have any odd jobs he could do? (this got my respect)
Overcoming my default NO, I said I figured I had $5 for pulling weeds out of the cracks in my driveway.
It’ll help, he said. And he started yanking at the crabgrass.
After about five minutes, I couldn’t stand the white privilege roiling off me; I approached him with a better idea.
OK, I’ll cover the full price of your ticket if you write about the best day of your life.
He just stared at me, confused.
How do I do that, he asked.
So I handed him a can of Cherry Pepsi, something to sit on, a notepad and paper.
Just tell me what happened that made it happy, I said. Write what you remember.
I went back into my house. Every time I peeked through the curtain or around the door frame, the boy was writing intently.
After 20 minutes, I went to see how he was doing. I asked if he would read it to me and said he would, but it made him shy. Shyly, he read. Sensei-ish, I listened.
I liked his theme and told him so. He said he wasn’t done yet, so I went back to my work. Maybe 15 minutes later, he was ready. Did I want him to read it out loud again? I said no, you don’t have to.
He returned the notepad and pen. I shook his hand and gave him an envelope with $26 cash in it.
Congratulations, I said, this is your first paid writing project. You are now a writer. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. Go to Chicago and keep writing even if no one is paying you. One day they will. You’ll be amazed by your life one day.
I’ve no idea why I felt authorized to say that, but that’s what I said. I think I just always wanted someone to say that to me when I didn’t know who I was.
Then he smiled awkwardly, trying to hide his broken front teeth. He thanked me and walked off.
Later in the early evening, I was walking Nessy and saw a nearly full can of Cherry Pepsi sitting on the curb just up the next block from my place. It wasn’t thrown down, not even dented; somehow politely, it was just sitting there, punctuating the end of our exchange.
It charmed me. It embarrassed me. It was something I would have done at his age when I wasn’t brave enough to say no thank you . . . decades before I learned how to be the person I myself needed when I was 17.
Portrait of my daughter
Now and then . . .
“Can I take your picture?”
Kit, age 12
Rabbi on a cell, O’Hare Airport, 2013
G. Breedon, Cromarty Firth, Scotland, October 2013
Ilya Kaminsky, Poet, Kalamazoo Poetry Festival, April 2014
Faegheh, Arrowtown, Aotearoa, November 2011
James Still, Pulitzer-nominated playwright & author, November 2014
the little sister, Whangerei, New Zealand, December 2011
William Ellwood, actor, Kalamazoo, April 2015
Young Bear, South Dakota 2012
Apple of her Daddy’s Eye, Madison, Wisconsin 2012
Walter Gabriel Trachsler XIII, lead vocalist & guitarist with the Rotting Corpses, August 2014
Makena, St. Joseph County, Michigan, Fall 2014
Jonathan Hall, actor, October 2014
Terri, the Brown-eyed Girl, Atlanta, 2014
Huingangutu, Aotearoa 2011 (her name means “people gathered to discuss something important”). The chin tat is called a “Tā moko” and it’s considered a sign of beauty.
Nicholas Baxter, musician, April 2015
Lhaoghiere, Hill of Tara, Eire, June 2014
Henri Medinilla Grau, photographer, New Mexico 2014
Elizabeth Joy Roe, The Gilmore Keyboard Festival 2014
Sarah, student, Spring Semester 2013
Giuseppe Q., actor/director, Albuquerque 2014
Ariel, Prom Ready in Vicksburg, Michigan, 2014
Lynn Manning, Actor, New York City, March 2013
Makena, age 16, northern Michigan
Susan in the bathtub of the first home she owned alone, Des Moines 2014
A Kansas Farmer, Fall 2014
Hubbard Street Dance Studio, Chicago, April 2013
Bell Book & Canto, February 2016
Wm Roberts, classical guitarist/composer, Kalamazoo 2017
Anna Marie Crovetti, artist, Chicago 2015
Majken Ruppert, 2019
Alexander Harsha, senior picture in front of the schoolhouse his ggrandfather built, Vicksburg 2018
Byce Evergreen, age 15, Freeport, Michigan
Stephanie Evergreen & Michael Doyle on their wedding day 16 May 2020
2019 Madelyne H.
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