OH! I am soooo delighted! a couple of requests to know what happened with Peter and I...so here it is.
'Down to Earth' - the musical extravaganza - began to unwind. I won't go into the reasons - but at the end - the biggest problem was the writer's strike that summer. I was told that one of our backers pulled out, and the whole show sort of collapsed. And with the writer's strike threatening to go on all summer (it did) the business of acting and THEATRE seemed to freeze temporarily.
It was during the beginning of this period that Peter and I found ourselves dead, flat broke.
We had hosted a party at my "penthouse" flat - Hilary's suggestion, and - also Hilary's suggestion - we got a great big piece of paper to pin on the wall and asked everyone who came to sign it when they came in the door. IF YOU SIGNED THIS BIG PIECE OF PAPER - DOOOO TEEELLLLLL!!!!!! It seemed like there were a lot of our old friends from Interlochen there that evening. I remember Hilary (of course) and Brad, and Lothair! Ahhh! great Lothair! And I think Lisa may have been there, and Drew, and the Husky girls, and Brad's room-mate from NYU, and Stuart, and John,and.... YOU must tell ME. If you were there - I need to know! There were a lot of people, and it was a long time ago!
Anyway, somehow - we got a ham. I do remember that. We carved it up for that bizarre and wonderful party, and it was so big that Peter and I lived off of that thing for a week afterwards. When it was finally gone, and neither of us ever wanted to see a ham ever, ever again - we realized that we were stone cold broke. I don't know if we had just spent all of our money on the party (knowing me that's a 'yes') - or what the deal was - but we were broke. And Peter had the great idea of hunting John Patton down at work and asking him to borrow some money. So we did.
We met John down on the street, and for some reason he seemed a little more grown up than either of us. I am cracking up thinking about it! It may have been ONLY because we were in dire need of borrowing some money from him! Ridiculous. John looked at us both like we'd gone off our nuts.
"Well, I don't have a lot of cash on me at the moment..." he said to Peter. He fished in his pockets and came out with some bills and some change. "What is this?...eleven dollars and...ninety eight cents. That's all I've got. Will that help?"
Peter and I nodded our heads enthusiastically.
"It's GREAT, John! Thanks so much, man!" Peter said.
We walked down the street giggling like a couple of morons, I swear. Not at JOHN - but at ourselves!
Peter and I got a great big burger and a coke with that money, and shared them. We both agreed that it was the best burger we'd ever had in our whole lives. We couldn't stop laughing the whole time we were eating.
"If I NEVER see another ham or ham related food item, it 'll be soon enough for me!" Peter exclaimed.
I practically choked I was laughing so hard. "Me too! Amen!"
"Well, here's to our good friend and savior John Patton!" Peter toasted.
"Amen again!" I chimed in.
"I'll probably go find him and pay him back tomorrow." said Peter.
"Good man. Yes.We shall pay him back immediately! Most definitely." I agreed.
"And we shall, neither of us, forget this glorious day, when the kind gentleman, John Patton, saved us from starvation!"
"Here, here! Never!" I exclaimed. "We shall NEVER forget this kind deed. Never!"
We both forgot to pay John back in the coming weeks. Life just swept us up - and I do not believe EITHER of us have ever paid him back. But, as you can see - neither was his kind deed forgotten.
My dearest John, if you ever read this, please calculate the interest on $11.98 over ALL these years and let me know how much money I owe you. I shall send it toute suite.
And THANK YOU. For the best burger and coke I have EVER had.
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