When I say two words … ‘Great memories’
… what comes to mind? And if I were to add one particular factor, that is your earliest childhood
memory, what would it be? Perhaps as interesting is what is the trigger that ranks
this as one of those great memories? For me, it's all about Orange Nesbitt’s.
Many were the visits to the southwest corner of my father’s home
state of Iowa, most to good ole Red Oak, but this memory … it takes place in
the spot on the road called ‘Hastings'. I challenge you to find it on the map.
Although I easily recall the two or three trips to Iowa
aboard my grandfather's semi, at least one flight, one via car and perhaps even
one via train. Whether it was one of these or another, I have not a clue to how
I arrived in Hasting on this visit.
If my memory serves me right I stayed with my uncle Jimmy for
perhaps three or four nights. It was circa the summer of 1966, with baseball
and Sandy Koufax becoming an integral part of this lads life. Shortly after
arriving Jimmy took me around the town so I could be familiar with all six or
seven streets. Then we walked up to the town center to the store, the post
office and the pool hall … oh, of course these were all one and the same. He introduced
me to the man behind the counter of the store, no not Oz … most likely the
owner. And he told him that he could add whatever his nephew Ricky
purchased onto his tab.
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| Jimmy 1958 |
The following days were filled with new buddies, a new game
called billiards and a childhood favorite Orange Nesbitt’s. On my last visit to
downtown Hastings, accompanied by Jimmy, he asked the man behind the counter
what the amount was on his nephew's tab. Now remember a soda in the mid sixties
was but a mere 10 cents and a candy bar even less at 5 cents. I would imagine that
Jimmy was likely expecting that I might have had two, maybe three soda pop's
per day and perhaps the same amount of candy bars and hence a tab somewhere
between one to two dollars would be reasonable. What my uncle's initial
response was, I don't know, but looking back I now realize that the ten dollar
plus tab must have been quite the surprise.
 |
| Jimmy 2010 |
Apparently somewhere I had heard the phrase, “Give them
another round on me”. I'm thinking that I made some new found buddies quite happy,
at least for a couple days during that summer of 66'. The man behind the
counter, well he was making a little extra on Jimmy and I'm sure smiling all
the way to the proverbial bank. And uncle Jimmy, he just grinned, paid his
nephew Ricky's tab and learned not to be fooled by the savviness of an eight
year old boy.
There will
likely be some in my family whose remembrance of Jimmy is much less favorable. And
I totally understand. You see, my uncle Jimmy would become, or was likely even
then, an alcoholic. Many lives were hurt in his wake. I know that my own father
tried to assist a couple times with jobs, that in turn he would once again lose
because of the bottle.
September of 2010 brought two
big surprises in my life. One, the sudden death of my father. Two, while
notifying family and friends of his death, to discover that uncle Jimmy, whom I
presumed dead since the 90's, was actually alive. Later that month I would call
and talk to Jimmy. Living with his wife
in a shelter, Jimmy told me that he had recently received his twenty year
sobriety pin. Shame and many burnt bridges had kept him from reconnecting with
family. We enjoyed a couple laughs, including the mention of that brief visit
and his nephew having quite the affinity for Orange Nesbitt's.
Jimmy died the summer of
2017. I imagine that he was sober until the end. For me, he is often remembered
when drinking an orange soda, if only it could be a Nesbitt’s 😃
