My Tracker was in for service at Goodyear. With a few hours to kill, I grabbed the camera and headed to Wisner Memorial Park. Some photos of the memorials there would be so appropriate to this time of year. But the traffic noises interfere with my poor hearing, and I didn't catch the signals that the photos wouldn't take. I must've looked a bit at sea, because I was approached by an older gentleman. He thought I was a tourist, and if I were interested, there was a small museum inside the hotel.
For the next three and a half hours, Louis regaled me with stories, history and personal anectdotes. ( Reminded me of My Dinner With Andre. Fascinating.) There was nothing he didn't have an opinion on, and few things he couldn't discuss. Our conversation took us indoors to the tiny museum on the Second Floor, where I finally realized that my camera's batteries were dead.
Louis knew everyone in the Mark Twain, and a few things about its workings. He talked about life here in Elmira, and in the boroughs of NYC, and Long Island. He is a repository of information about 20th century history, movie stars and entertainers, the films themselves, and just people, people, people! If it were not for the usual discomfort I feel being too long in one place, I would have stayed to talk all day. (Louis lucked out.)
Here was a man who disdains cars, computers and telephones, but was much more entertaining than all three combined. I was itching to connect him up with many of my friends who are afficionados of movies, war history, etc. So much personality walking daily through our downtown.
So these photos, which are a tiny (aborted) beginning to my Cityblogs, are dedicated to Louis. I hope to spend more time with him, and promise to return downtown for the photos that were lost to bad batteries.
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Little Pond
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