Plastered Primates--or--Where Did Those Photos Come From???

I had a question about the monkey photos, and it is a story worth repeating. First off, because it was in the day before political correctness and secondly, it will prove how utterly immature I am.

These photos are of my Aunt and Uncle, and no, the monkey is neither, though I have to admit I would have rather been related to the monkey.......I am not sure what year they were taken, but it had to be the early '60's I am guessing, or the end of the '50's at the very earliest.  My Uncle is in the photo on the left, my Aunt is the woman in the photo on the right. Every New Years Eve, Gary posts the combo of these to the Base website as a warning not to drink and drive.

Anyway, the backstory.....

There was a bar in a small town called Mexico, Indiana, not far from where I live now, and the owner had a pet monkey. As I recall, and this is iffy---it's been a long time---the monkey was always with the owner and was a regular at the bar. There was also a family room, or maybe at that time they were allowed to serve food to minors if accompanied by an adult. No matter, I remember being there because the chimp grabbed my hand one day and we escaped, running as fast as we could down the road! I loved that chimp! (mother was less than impressed, but that's how mom's are, right?)

Fast forward to me graduating from high school, picking a college and going there. I receive a letter from my Aunt (they were my godparents, and all my life I had heard how they had started a Christmas Fund so I could attend college, etc, I mean, I heard this A LOT...). I open the letter and a single dollar bill falls out. Within the text of the letter was the following, which is paraphrased, due to the shock of reading it and me being rather annoyed and throwing the actual letter away while on a volatile swearing spree:

".........You have been such a great disappointment to us. You have embarrassed us, haven't done what we wanted, you have bad friends, so here is all you are getting of your college fund.

Have fun with it.

Don't spend it all in one place.

Love, Your Aunt Lena"

Well, that was a shocker, to say the least. I considered them a great embarrassment to the family at large and there were always rows when they would come during the Holidays, etc. It got ugly indeed. They were two exceptionally cruel people, fueled by each other's company. And the letter was the straw that broke the camel's back for me, and talk about trouble, oh yes, I had a marvelous time finding different ways I could mortify them......and I never finished school.

Fast forward again: both have passed away and I was the sole heir due to Tom being the last to die. The lawyer says, "There's a little money left....I'm sending a check out." Well, *little money* to me means $20-$50....right?

Wrong.

It was enough to build the studio. It was, more than likely, the Christmas Fund that I had never seen other than that one, single dollar bill.

And so I built the studio, and have made art, and have been happy and had success. And I am thankful every day for that. And I share as much as I can, know what it is like to have something you want so badly dangled in front of you and snatched away. And, being humiliated in the process.

So once a year, I have to revert to the snotty little child, the hurt teenager, the young girl who had done nothing to earn that letter and the pain it brought, and the bad decisions that arose from it and I post pictures of them--Tom and Lena--drunk in a bar, with a drunk monkey, and send the photos flying into cyberspace.

And somehow, it eases the doubts that still occasionally arise and I laugh because truly, I am having the last laugh on this one!

There. My secret immature side is revealed for all to read. Dear gentle readers, I hope you can laugh at this with me, because they truly were the *holier-than-thou* sort of folk one loves to do something like this to........and it proves you can't pick your family, but you can certainly pick your friends!

And I still would rather be related to the monkey!

And so, after that heartwarming story, I wish for you success, and cheer, and the good things in life.......

And yes.....

Pax.