Goodbye to an Old Friend
categories: Cocktail Hour
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Tomorrow morning I head up for a week of packing up and cleaning out the Cape house to ready it for final sale on May 25. Here is the painting I did of it that was the frontispiece of my first book, A Wild, Rank Place. Strange for this to be happening when the Ultimate book is coming out since so much of my life in those years revolved around the house. Also strange that the narrator of my just-finished novel is in the process of packing up a house on Cape Cod (though I started the book many years ago). So many memories. Just spoke to the plumber who solved the mystery of the unworking bathrooms when he discovered the beer can that had been dropped down and clogged up the roof pipe. I will be working hard this week but will also be sure to toast the house and piss on my favorite trees one last time.
Thanks Jon. You said it. (Many felt it.)
A touchstone, surely, for Dave and all Gessners, and for many friends who were lucky to be their guests. Impossible to say how Cape Cod iconic this great dwelling was under Gessner dominion — cozy, cramped, creaky, convivial — I see Barbara, Dave Sr, and open arms — stories, drinks, stars — a privilege to be there, and in their company, toasting, marking, breathing the harbor air, and believing in friends and the world. Thanks Dave and family.