Date: Sun, 20 Jul 2014 10:46:57 -0400
From: “N.A. Booko”
Subject: Just Another Lonely Old Man . . .
Time was, in one of Chatham county’s small towns, there was an eighty five year old man that rode around on a motorized scooter. We’ll call him Chuck. Chuck’s scooter had all the accessories that it could accommodate. A big wire basket on the handlebars. Headlights and tail lights. Reflectors and deflectors. Pouch bags on the back and a wire that carried a small American flag high in the air.
Chuck was a World War II veteran- A navy man. Thrust into the war a very young age, he could tell you all about it, if you had the time and inclination to listen. It was his thing. He, like a lot of us, didn’t fully understand what it was all about, but he was defending his country. He was right there, in the thick of it.
On his well tanned arm was a seven inch tattoo of a nude woman- ‘Lola’ was tattooed just beneath . ‘Lola’ he told me, at the time was his girlfriend. One night, in the early 1940s , he got drunk and got the tattoo on a dare. Not too long after that, Lola and Chuck parted ways. ‘Lola’ now on his arm for a lifetime, was an old lady, with age spots and wrinkles. He did not marry Lola- He married Corrine.
Chuck would ride the streets of our small town, on the sidewalks, talking to friends and strangers. Anyone that had the time. Few did. Most of us were too busy- oblivious that we too, someday might have time on our hands and need someone to talk with. He would park his scooter outside a store, go in and if there was a place to sit, he would sit, visit and talk to the store owner and any customers that might happen in. Small town U.S.A. I spoke to one store owner, after one of Chuck’s visits and asked about him- Her cold reply summed up her opinion “Just another lonely old man . . .”
But not any more- Chuck died several years ago and with him died a part of Americana and his personal history of a war that was supposed to end all wars . . .
N.A. Booko
N.A. Booko lives and remembers in Chatham County