210 - Two Hundred Ten

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So, today I asked Donnie what he remembered about me.  I thought you all might enjoy an update. 

At first he, of course, turned the question around on me. I don’t think he heard my entire transmission the other day talking about it, about feeling safe around him, but he knows I’ve talked a little about everyone—and yeah, I think I’m okay to talk about my perception of Don, and how accurate it is, and still respect his rule that I don’t reveal too much about him or his life. 

Huh?

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Yeah, he says it’s fine, as long as I’m being honest about what the says about me. Which is fair. 

And—

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(laughing) I’ll take that as a compliment. 

Don says I’m a regular Jean Shepherd. Maybe that’s not a cultural reference that’ll land with everyone, I think he may have just been a New York guy—he had this radio show on WOR, for us “night people”. That’s what he calls—called—all of us who were fighting against the…what was it?

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—that’s right, yeah. The “creeping meatballism”. Of course you remember that.  Mediocrity, basically. And the celebration of it.

Shep could talk and talk and talk and he’d talk about everything from his childhood in Indiana to railing against cultural conformity and, yeah, I guess I get the comparison. What can I say, I get why he did this for so many years. There’s something to speaking all your thoughts into a radio. 

But back to the point I’m trying to make—Don is basically who I remember him being. Yeah—I remember you being pretty easy-going and warm, when you know someone at least, but when you’re serious about something, you’re serious. There’s no arguing with you or talking you out of it. 

You also deflect questions about yourself or your feelings with humor, which—

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Okay, yeah, that’s fair, I do that too. But you remember me differently than I was. I’m still pretty straight-forward, and I don’t take shit from you, which you always liked, but it’s…easier to be around me. Don’t shake your head, that’s right! You said I used to be harder. That living here, with Harry, has made me soft. 

What?

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—not right now. Because I don’t want to—

Okay, clearly there’s a reason Shep didn’t have a co-host. I think I’ll call it there.

So goodnight, dear night people. Goodnight. 

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