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The Long & Winding Road
Life has a way of making us scratch our head. People sometimes pass in and out of our lives like cars at a busy intersection. My daily strolls around the Clinton County fairgrounds last week led me to a new friend and the chance meeting made a connection to a night in downtown Plattsburgh 21 years ago.
Back in 1985 I was going through some troubled times. At the age of 37 and alone for the first time in my life I was having a particularly lonely night in my quiet apartment. I decided to have a drink and listen to music at the Monopole in downtown Plattsburgh. It was early in the evening and there was plenty of room at the bar. The music of the Doors was blasting from the sound system and I ordered a beer from Noel.
I noticed an older man sitting a few bar stools away on my left. As I pondered my life and Jim Morrison noted that "people are strange," I glanced at the old fellow, adorned in a scraggly beard and old black trench coat. He was staring at me. Before long I couldn't help but notice that he was making a sketch of me on a sheet of white paper. I kept to myself, sipped my beer and contemplated my life.
Minutes later the man leaned to his right and slid the paper down the bar towards me. I looked at it. It was an interesting black ink sketch of my profile, capturing my own thick black beard and black cap perched on my head. I liked it. It made me smile, my first smile of the day. I thanked him and told Noel to pour the artist a beer.
Upon receiving the beer the old fellow leaned once again towards me, took back my sketch, and he asked, "What's your name?" Trying to be heard over Jim Morrison I yelled, "Foxy!" The guy gave me a grin and went back to work on my sketch. A minute later he slid the sketch back towards me. I looked at it. He had signed it. And in large black letters above my cap he had written "Boxie."
Apparantly I hadn't done a good enough job of outshouting Jim Morrison. Most people would think, oh, no, now it's ruined. Or perhaps shouted back, "You fool, I told you it was Foxy, not Boxie." But I found this error terribly funny. I began smiling and I smiled the rest of the evening, thinking about this unusual man who I had never encountered before.
For years I've kept that sketch on a wall in one of my rooms. Last year I moved it to my living room wall to replace the photos of people I no longer know. For years I've had that story to tell of that simple encounter from 1985.
Back then when I told this story to my friend Dick Trombly he almost fell on the floor with laughter. Weeks later I started receiving catalogs of all kinds addressed to "Boxie Gagnon" or "Foxy Boxie" or other Boxie names. I knew that Trombly was behind that joke. And the way companies trade address lists the Boxie name appeared intermittently in my mailbox for years.
So last week while at the fair to make a TV show about fair vendors, I came upon a man drawing caricatures for a small fee. I talked with him about his work and, with the camera running, wondered how long it would take to make a black ink caricature of me. He offered to do one of me with the camera rolling. So while I interviewed him and Cortney videotaped, R. J. Duffey the artist worked on my sketch. In less than five minutes he produced a nice caricature of the Fox at age 58, ponytail and all.
I told Duffey that this chance meeting and his caricature reminded me of the old fellow in 1985. I told Duffey the story and he asked me the name of the artist back then. I said it was Jack something. Duffey asked if I could bring the 1985 sketch to the fairgrounds so he could see it.
The next day I showed Duffey my sketch from the Monopole. Duffey nodded his head and said, "That's Jack McDonough. I know him. I worked with him in Florida." Duffey told me that he had met this old fellow in a bar in Florida. McDonough was doing sketches of people, trading them for drinks.
It's amazing to me that my chance meeting with R. J. Duffey would have such a connection to an event in my life 21 years ago. How could this be? As the Beatles sang so long ago, it's a "long and winding road." Life is like that. People pass through our lives. My circle of friends today is so different from even five years ago.
We never know what new road lies ahead. My chance meetings of artists McDonough and Duffey, 21 years apart, make me wonder. On my living room wall tonight is a sketch by McDonough and next to it a sketch by Duffey. One says "Boxie" and the other says "Foxy."
Comments
Hi Foxy; Born and raised in Plattsbugh and moved in 1969! Enjoy the look back and often copy some of articles on Plattsburgh Boys Club Boxing team which I was a member! Also the human interest stories about the past are really great! Keep the stories coming! Retire to Florida! God Bless,Lenny Smallacombe
(Foxy's note: Nice to hear from Lenny Smallacombe! Some of us remember him as a great Gold Gloves boxer when he was young. The one and only "Popcorn" Smallacombe!)
Posted by: Lenny Smallacombe | August 10, 2006 10:43 AM
Foxy
I love this story...one of your best.
Posted by: Linda Boire | August 4, 2006 7:35 AM
I remember you showed that sketch to Lizz and I when we stopped by one day. =]
Posted by: Emily B. | July 30, 2006 11:07 PM