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 Week 505: Guest Writer in the Sky; the Week That Is and Further Bumps in the Night

ireneallison12

A Brief Introduction

This week we are turning over the controls to another of our frequent contributors and friends, Doug Hawley. Doug has been a constant presence at LS for years as a writer, commentator and now as a Guest Weekend Wrapper. I have only awkward names for that position, because the hiphop industry has pretty much usurped the word rap and its homophone. 

Regardless, Doug is an original, and we welcome you to his world.

 Haunted

                                     A Journey Through The Rodent Burrow

A few years ago, nearly as I can tell, I started to think about an isolated store that I used to pass going west in Portland before the West Hills.  There was nothing special about it and I didn’t think about it for close to sixty years.  For a while it obsessed me for no reason.

In 2021 after Clever Magazine had quickly rejected one story from me, the editor noticed I was from Portland.  She was doing a wind-up issue and wanted a Portland story. I sent her something about the mystery store.  She was originally from Portland, but lived in San Jose, and knew it was a Mode ‘O Day.  As I dug deeper with her and other sources, I found that Mode O’ Day became a huge chain with affordable fashion, but then collapsed quickly.  More surprising, the editor graduated from Grant High School in the same class as my now late sister.  Neither of them knew the other.

An obsession about a building is weird.  My others are more reasonable.  Old girlfriends of course.  A couple of years ago while reading obituaries (an old man thing) I noticed that the widow was my first serious girlfriend who lived seven miles from me (thank you internet).  We ended on bad terms, but I called to offer condolences.  She still hated me. There’s the one who had what could have been her last heterosexual act with me.  Not a legacy I want.  Prior to the attractive blonde wife and now editor, there was bright and beautiful one with whom there was a tumultuous relationship.  Fifty years after she told me to leave her alone, I wrote her to ask what happened.  She said it wasn’t me; she had some past trauma which caused her to change her life.  Our difficulty was aided by my immaturity and insecurity.

Then there are our wonderful cat companions over the years, the last one of which, Kitzhaber, died in my arms.  Despite our mouse invasion, no more cats to break out hearts.  I thought Kitz might outlive me, but no luck.

Two days ago a cousin that I had been close to in the early years died.  Several new friends have died since my return to Portland.  The dead haunt me (covered in a story in Pure Slush), but the live ones as well.  When we came back to Portland I tried to reconnect with no luck.

I largely live in my head, a condition that I would not wish on anyone with the exception of some politicians.  What are your thoughts or obsessions before sleep and after waking?  Serious question, I want to know.  If possible, make me feel less weird.  At least I’m less weird than a vice presidential candidate.

The Week That Was and Is

Hi There! We hope you are enjoying this glimpse into the mind of Doug Hawley. We shall hand this post back over to Doug after we extol the virtues of this week’s fine group of writers.

Christopher J. Ananias returned this week with his heart rending Where Everything Got Broken. Our lives can be ruined in seconds, and the echoes of the disaster may call until the last beat of our hearts…to those final thoughts in the dark. Truly powerful stuff. 

Newcomer Landon Galliott completely changed the tone (save for quality) on Tuesday in his site debut Garf and the Purple Pickles. “Off-beat” is a term perhaps applied too often, but it truly fits here. And despite the quirkiness, there’s a sadness to be found in this–one that speaks to the random absurdity of just being.

 Emergence Delirium by our second site debut author, Danielle Altman is about thriving in the wild experience of youth, courting “death by misadventure,” always having something to talk about the next day. The reckless freedom is vivid in this one, as is wit and a bit of lament in this reader’s mind of times gone by.

Sarp Sozdinler was the third of three first time contributors. His tense and highly clever March keeps you guessing. Sometimes the end of a story should mess with you. Sometimes impossible things must happen to keep the reader honest. Sometimes you want to corner the author and not let him go until he tells you what it means. Well done on all accounts.

On Friday we had the pleasure of meeting Ed N White, whose The Narrow Gauge is the first of three stories he has already had accepted. Like Tom Sheehan, Ed is a master of beautiful descriptions and restrained prose. Ed is also a fine gentleman and we are overjoyed to introduce him to our readers.

Well that’s the cast and we entreat you to give them a read if you haven’t already done so.

Now we will do the return of our guest wrapper like they do on the TV news:

“Back to you Doug…Hey how about closing with a list of your personal favorite horror films in keeping with the season?”

Big Finale: Doug’s Top Horror Films (each one is the original version)

Frankenstein – Obvious choice.  I may have first seen it when it was rerun in the early 1950s.

The Thing From Another World – Notable in that technology at that time ensured the original shape shifter story was modified, but the old tech monster electrocution was good.

Halloween – Monster in a William Shatner mask.  How horrifying is that?

Dracula – The Bram Stoker story that endures.  Nosferatu good, but sued for copying the original too closely.

Night Of The Living Dead – They are ghouls, not zombies, but still.

Doug’s Bonus Music List

The Wreck of The Edmund Fitzgerald —Gordon Lightfoot – (Hypnotic and historic)

Roll With It —Steve Winwood – (See the video if you get a chance)

The Fat Man and Natural Born Lover – Fats Domino – (An early hit and a late hit)

I Wish and Superstition –Stevie Wonder –  (Peak wonderful Steven)

Let It Rock –Chuck Berry – (I think this one was sent into space so aliens would know we rock)

Going Home Tomorrow –Little Richard – (Slows it down and grooves)

Reconsider Baby–Elvis Presley – (Means business in this cover)

You Win Again -Jerry Lee Lewis – (He covers a Hank William number and The Killer kills it)

Doug Hawley

And in memory of Teri Garr

Image – White sheet type ghost from Pixabay.com. A white shape with it’s hands raised in a woooo manner and big black starey eyes.

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Published by ireneallison12

37 thoughts on “ Week 505: Guest Writer in the Sky; the Week That Is and Further Bumps in the Night”

    1. Hi Leila,

      I reckon that ‘Bobby Boris Walton’ would be cast as the show’s monster. he would continually forget his prayer book of a Sunday!!

      I only found out not that long ago about the follow up song – ‘Monster Swim’.

      We’ve spoken many a time about the brilliance of ‘Young Frankenstein’ – What I loved about that film was all the actors shared the funniest of lines equally.

      Probably the most risque line from Teri Garr was when Victor wanted his creation pulleyd (Sp??) up to the roof to get a charge.

      Victor – ‘Elevate me!!’

      Helga – ‘What?? Here??…Now??’

      I also remember in an episode of ‘Star Trek’ where she underacted Shatner. She did the right thing!!

      Hugh

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      1. Hi Hugh
        The entire cast was perfect in the film. Teri Garr will be missed, but Mel lives on at 98. I saw him interviewed last summer, he looked every second his age but his mind and vitality are still keen. May the Schwartz be with us all.
        Leila

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  2. Good post. The somewhat strange thoughts I have to slow my mind down when I can’t sleep is to go over baseball rosters. As for the music, I’d add If You Could Read My Mind by Lightfoot. Stevie Wonder did a cover of We Can Work It Out that I’ve always liked. Another excellent horror movie is House on Haunted Hill the original and the Netflix series. RIP Terri Garr. Keep dancing, Bobby Boris.

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    1. I have a thousand or so fives on my itunes list, but just a few more:
      Got To Give It Up Marvin Gaye – short version or ten minutes it’s a groove.
      Don’t You Want To Live With Me – Clever lyrics and rocks your socks off.
      Helter Skelter Beatles – Of Charles Manson fame. I’ve got blisters on my fingers.
      Kashmir Led Zep – How could I forget the Bolero of rock with tumescence, detumescence and repeat.
      Jerry Lee Lewis was declared the best act Sam Phillips of Sun records had. Elvis had the most charisma.

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  3. Doug,
    I was drawn in by your life’s account of girl friends and friends. It gave me pause thinking about the past like I often do. “So it goes…” as K. Vonnegut wrote. There is also a Ray Bradbury story that Iv’e wanted to read again about this subject. 50 years have passed and four friends who haven’t seen each other in all those years, are set to meet. I won’t give away the ending or the title because I can’t remember it–wish I could. But your account reminds me of that haunting story of time passing and life.
    I really enjoyed your story! Even though it did make me a little sad. You have done your writer’s job and reached out from the void and touched this reader’s emotions. Excellent!
    Christopher

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    1. Christopher
      You’ve definitely got what Patti Smith called “the language of enthusiasm,” during a riff on one of her great heroes, William Blake. Looking forward to reading more of your fiction and commentary in the future.
      You mentioned reading Maupassant the other day. I have a few words on my favorite story by him you might be interested in, which I’ll put under your story from the other day. Thanks!
      Dale

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      1. Dale

        Thank you! The language of enthusiasm–that’s a nice phrase. I like that. Likewise, I’m looking forward to your work too. I need to check out the archives. See what gems you have in there. Yes I would like to hear about your favorite story by Maupassant. What a name huh–the French right, lol.

        Christopher

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  4. Doug
    To answer your question, two weeks ago a monster hurricane, with the unlikely name of Milton, struck down my electricity and internet for 5 days, leaving me in the dark after sunset until I could fall asleep. So naturally I interviewed myself — about all the girls and women I loved during my life.
    “Gerry, who was the first? . . . The best? . . . The one you wished you could be with now, here in the dark and In what order?” These were easy. I’d return each night to revise answers. Then I asked: “Gerry, when as the ‘first time?’” Of course, I knew what I would say.
    “Well Gerry, we were a virgin for too long. All the girls were as conflicted as we were. One night I met a nice-looking, very funny girl down the New Jersey Shore. By morning, I was a Veteran. Score: Devil 1 God 0.”
    “Then what?”
    “In a few days it was confirmed — gonorrhea. God had evened the score practically overnight. Devil 1 God 1.”
    “Would you have done it if you had known?”
    “You know perfectly well. I remember her name fifty years later. Sarah Saks. There’s both poetry and burlesque to the sound of it. Sarah. Saks”
    That, Doug, is all you get for now., but thanks for asking. There’ll be other storms. – Gerry

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      1. Yeah. Life keeps providing shitty stories that I can totally change into anything I want through the magic of lying — or fiction writing. Gerry

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  5. Thanks Doug. Afraid that my late-night obsessions are usually one or more of the appalling social gaffes I’ve committed over the years – Beam me up, Scotty. Had quite forgotten ‘The Monster Mash’ -Lovely, I seem to remember that it came out around the same time as Booker T’s ‘Green Onions’, which became an instant classic and is played all the time.

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    1. Here’s one. I’m told memories are cemented by emotional states. Not exactly that, but I remember sitting at a girlfriend’s house with her family. The dog proudly and openly displayed his erection for all present while we determined to ignore it.

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      1. Dead right, Doug. Though if that’s one of the most embarrassing things that’s ever happened to you in what, I trust, has been a full and incident-packed life, then you have both my admiration and congratulations. Keep on rockin’ in the free world.

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  6. Doug
    I really enjoyed your supple, no-nonsense prose style and the questions you ended with were great, both challenging and thought-provoking.
    I was reminded of what Mark Twain said about writing his autobiography. He said that at one point it occurred to him that the real story was his thoughts about everything that happened to him, not the outward events. The outward events are focused on in nearly every autobiography ever written, he said, but what is TRULY thought about it all is almost universally avoided. He said he started writing the truth about his thoughts, then started destroying the pages almost immediately. He admitted that he gave up on the project, because he knew that if he put the absolute truth about his thoughts on paper, he would only destroy it all again long before releasing it to the world. I have a feeling that very few to almost none of us would ever answer this question with complete honesty or even anything close. But it’ still a great question!
    I can admit one thing. For some reason, right before sleep, my mind often descends into, or gives in to, revenge fantasies. Every night when the Orange One was president I would, in a waking state, dream about him being sent to prison (or worse) for the duration. Not because of his policies necessarily, but because of his LIES, his endless, shameless, mean-spirited, ridiculous lies. I felt like Hamlet smelling something rotten in Denmark, or Conrad’s Kurtz who went mad because “the truth” didn’t exist in his world. It was a kind of fever dream shared by, I’m sure, millions of other people. My nights will become a lot more haunted if the greatest American snake-oil salesperson of all time returns to power, never mind his horrible economic policies.
    I can also admit that my first thoughts on waking are usually about books, writing, and/or the written word, which has been true for many decades now. A few females I’ve known have found this to be frustrating, irritating, pathetic, or downright laughable by turns, depending. It was a huge reason why I decided a long time ago that I operate much better as a solo act.
    Probably also a huge reason why I love songs like “She Even Woke Me Up to Say Goodbye,” which was performed in genius fashion by Jerry Lee Lewis on the Ed Sullivan show in ’69. My favorite Jerry Lee you tube video is him on the BBC in ’72 singing “Think About It Darlin’.” He’s wearing a beard and his minimalistic, explosive piano playing in this song is beyond great, touching the heights that Beethoven could reach on the piano (or so they say). Because when you’re thinking about something else and they walk away from you (permanently) behind your back, and you turn around to find them gone, you do tend to remember what it was you liked about them in the first place quite a bit (and become permanently haunted by it). Thanks for telling the truth in this post, Doug! Great job!
    Dale

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    1. Well said. I’d bet those interior musing are largely made up of what I should have done / said. I think there are two times in my life when I had a great come back. I can think of one. I was introduced as “My Buddy Doug Hawley”, woman responded “That make you Buddy Hawley. Got a comeback?” Me “That’ll Be The Day”.

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  7. Hi Doug,

    It’s brilliant to see you here today.

    Thanks so much for doing this.

    I enjoyed the wee peek into your past history.

    I’ve done a lot of jobs where I have worked alone and also I walk for about an hour to get to my work. I understand when you say that you ‘…largely live in my head (Well, yours!!)’

    My thoughts normally go very dark. At one point I tried to shake them off but now, I accept them as curiosity and simply me looking for a story. (Not sure if I’m simply kidding myself!!)

    Excellent film list – I’m a sucker for the Black and White horrors. I would add in ‘House of Frankenstein’.

    You also have some cracking songs there. I know you have a love for certain artists. Two songs that I have ‘found’ lately are from artists of the fifties although I don’t know when they were released. (To make this more intelligent, I should have checked that out!)

    I hadn’t paid attention or even heard, Elvis Presley’s ‘Long Black Limousine’ or Chuck Berry’s ‘Havana’. I must say, I really enjoyed them both.

    Thanks again my fine friend and keep being you!!!!

    Hugh

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    1. Hugh, can’t place the Elvis, and have just about everything of his. Faves – “A stanger In My Home Town” (applies to me after being gone for 1965-1997), “Feel So Bad” (a Chuck Willis cover), “Surrender”, “Washed My Hands In Muddy Water”, “I Was The One”. I may take some heat, but he did “Cultural Appropriation” right. Fine Chuck “Roll Over Beethoven”, “We Wee Hours” (b side of Maybelline), “I Got A Booking”.

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  8. Engagingly candid & thoughtful.
    I’m with MICKBLOOR3 : gaffes of all kinds will rear up in the dark. The negative generally holds sway. Among worst nights though, for anyone, are those when the WHOLE of one’s life is seen from a shockingly new perspective – so fresh & appalling it seems EVERY memory comes with a cringe. As to waking at those times: good to have a hard surface to hand, something you can grip.
    Astonishing too – or not in the least bit astonishing – how, at, say, 60, so much that’s long been forgotten comes suddenly into view, unbidden.

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  10. You Win Again, used to play that in the olde country band I was in. Scary show? The Ring ….also I saw “The Exorcist” in a small cinema in France, overdubbed in French. Very scary. Portland… I haven’t been there for years but as I recall they had an excellent bookstore, Powell Books I think it was called. I stayed at a hotel where in the middle of the night a man in another room started screaming that he’d lost his hand. I went to the reception area to say that a person might be injured and the guy said “Aw, don’t worry, he screams like that every night.”

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  11. Harrison – Sounds like Portland. Used to was there was a skid road (not row) around West Burnside close to the Willamette. Tempest Storm used to play the the strip house there when I was at Portland State College in the early 60s.
    I have like / dislike with Portland. Lived there 1943-1969, and came back to the burb just south of Portland, Lake Oswego. Now cost of living is high, crime and drugs are rampant, and people camp all over town. The times that I am there is mostly going somewhere else. Art Museum, OMSI (science) are OK. The story I alluded to is a hatchet job on Portland https://www.clevermag.com/essays2/portp.htm.

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  12. Thanks Doug for a great and thought-provoking post. What obsessions keep me awake before sleep and greet me in the morning? Well, I could be flippant and say certain grammar mistakes my students continue to make, I could be casual and say I think about food, drink, the weekend, or I could be dark and say I think about death and the future. The answer is all three to be honest. Great selection of horror films and music – for the horror films I’d add the original The Omen.

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    1. Hi Paul,

      How weird,

      Just looking through the comments and seen your inclusion of ‘The Omen’. I’m at this very moment drinking too much gin and going back to that very film!!!!

      …Man that was an unsettling wee fucker!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

      All the very best my fine friend.

      Hugh

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      2. Likes are nice. But I don’t know if they are genuine or some kind of automated reply. Every day “Royii” likes my comment on the story of the day almost exactly at the same time. I noticed it about TWO YEARS ago. The other appears to be a human driven site and not for a business.
        Leila

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