I think I have something, like a whole slew, in common with someone I met when I was 14 years old. We didn't stay in touch. 

One day in January 2021 late afternoon my cousin Dotty text messaged me informing me she received an email from one of our childhood friends and wanted me to guess who. It took me less than a minute to guess. Since my cousin and I were 3 years apart, and she had her friends but I really didn't consider myself their friend too. And, I was pretty much into my photography, my typewriter, and not gregarious, in the least, until in high school when Kathy Howard noticed me when I was wearing my homemade t-shirt which I had painted The Rocky Horror Picture, just like the movie's title, with the dripping bloody letters. I will save that for another blog story. 

It had to be Johnny Williams. The younger brother of the young woman who lived next door to me. Back in our childhood, I had a little crush on Johnny. Johnny had a crush on my cousin Dotty. Dotty already had a boyfriend. Secretly, I had a hard girl crush on Johnny's oldest sister Pat, who lived next door. I was tortured every minute of the day for as long as she lived there, with her husband, and adorable four-year-old boy, Mark. Totally and completely another blog story. Possibly a short story.

The reason for this text is so I can post my picture, taken yesterday. That's my tripping on the old days back in 1973/4 look.

 

S for sink

 Click: https://vimeo.com/418210280

S-only from Kat Joy on Vimeo.

Meet Lil' Ricky

 

My Beta fish, Mr. Kapoo, finally kicked the bucket. My friends at work got me a new beta. I think it was one of the cheaper ones. He's all red and his fins move like flames coming from his sides. Not the orange color like fire, but they move like fire moves that way, yet sideways. He's very active. Especially when he notices me coming toward the bowl. He doesn't even mind when I gently pet him. Then I let him kiss my finger. Actually, he may be trying to bite it. Feels like fish kisses to me. I've been called him Lil' Ricky. It may morph into another name, as my fish names seem to get called something different along the way.

 Sometimes you're in the shade, sometimes you're in the light.

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Tigger

Sadly, when I was eighteen years old, one night I came home after getting stoned on weed (but, not that stoned, you know how it wears off) and accidentally ran her over.

We had two cats, Tigger, and Loco. They usually both immediately moved out of the way when I pull up. But, I guess Tigger didn't make it in time, this time. I got out of the car and our next-door neighbor, my friend Parris, came running over to me and said, "Kathleen, I think you ran over your cat!" I got out and looked under my car, she wasn't there. Quickly we discovered she had made it over underneath my mom's car already parked next to my car. My mom, hearing what was said from inside the house, came out the front door with a flashlight just in time as we saw Tigger take her few last breaths. One of the most worse feelings in the world is killing someone you love.

I had to work the next day. So did mom. My parents had just divorced a few months earlier. The next early morning my mom called up my dad and asked him to please come over to take Tigger to be cremated. We placed her on a blanket in the garage that night before. He agreed.  

P.S. I took that photo on a film camera and developed the film and print it myself in Torrance High's Photography classroom with Mr. Steinberg. That's where I spent most of my time in high school - in the darkroom.

Finger shootin

2009 mini video with Photoshop effects and an error Final Cut effect that worked out for this sequence.

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