To Big John

I did some work for a 76 year old man named John last week. John's a tough old guy, thin and in decent shape but he says if it was all over tomorrow it would be fine by him. He says he's had a good life and he wouldn't change much but getting old is no damn fun. His only concern is for his wife who's a good deal younger than he. He said he just wants everything to be in good working order so she doesn't have to worry.
He liked to talk and I didn't mind listening so we got on quite well.
Listening to the stories of his life, it was easy to see why he felt the way he did. He used to get around and do a lot of things but he can't anymore and he misses it.
He was born dirt poor and one line summed it all up. He said, "if it cost a nickel to go round the world, we didn't have enough to get out of sight." About his parents he said poverty was the best thing they could have ever given him. His mother was a saint but about his father he said" he could snatch failure right out of the mouth of success better than anyone I ever knew." He said things like, "You know, back when ships were made of wood and men were made of steel." He went on and on like this and the more I listened and laughed the more he remembered.
He told me that when he was eight years old he found some wood and built a shoe shine box and shined shoes, charging a nickel for servicemen and a dime for everyone else. He had to give the money to his mother so he felt it only right that since he did all that work that he keep a little back and treat himself to a hamburger on Fridays. He says to this day he looks forward to Fridays because of those hamburgers. He also said because of those early scrounging days, he'll never throw anything away that he thinks he could make something out of some day . His back yard is proof of that.
He spent a good deal of time at sea in the Korean war and then did two tours of duty in Viet Nam and after that was a merchant seaman. He wouldn't say much about his time in the service but did say he lost a good deal of his hearing in Viet Nam and considered that war to be a big waste of time and added about the war in Iraq that he never thought he'd see the day we'd make the same mistake twice.
John told lots of drunken bar stories. He claimed to be a "west side champion drinker." His friend Dick owned the Malibu cottage where the "Maliboozers" hung out. According to John they were mostly movie people. Lee Marvin, Keenan Wynn, Dewey Martin, Peter Lawford and somebody Hunter are the names he rattled off. He said they were good guys who loved to have lots of fun.
John worked at the studios and on location building sets for many years but didn't like movies much. He said, "back then when you saw how damn make-believe it all was it just didn't appeal to me, I wanted to do and see the real thing,"
Later in life he spent a lot of time battling with his local city council over this and that, "keeping them honest," as he says. Once he told them they're all overpaid and that the people in the city are not here for the benefit of the city council. It's supposed to be the other way around. He said the words that finally wore out his welcome were, "You know, I respect a man who walks into a bank with a gun in his hand because I know what he's up to."
There was a lot more that he told me but I think you get the general idea about John. It would be easy to start talking about how people are shaped in society. How they acquire their values and all that but that wasn't my intent. I just wanted to record something about his life because I doubt he's talked about this stuff to many people in a long time. It seems that most of his friends have died. So here's to you John, for leading a productive life, never accepting a dime of help from anybody, serving your country and still having a few good lines. There is a lot to be proud of there.