I have decided to make friend Keith my official social secretary for now and evermore. He comes up with the greatest people to invite to dinner. The list is getting longer and longer:
- Christopher Hitchens
- Fran Lebowitz
- John Lennon
- Eleanor Roosevelt
- Harvey Milk
- Maya Angelou
- Mark Twain
- Albert Einstein
- Robert Frost
I want to add my great grandfather John Guess and his namesake, my uncle, John Guess, Jr. I have often thought how great if I could just spend a couple of hours with these two relatives that I never had a chance to meet. I want to know what my grandfather's thoughts were when he loaded his bride of two months onto that covered wagon and headed west from his home in Arkansas and took off on the Santa Fe Trail to make a new life in never seen before California.
And to have a chance to be able to talk with my uncle and have him tell me first-hand what is was like in France back in 1918 during those few months he spent there before the end of the war and sadly the end of his life. I know from his letters it wasn't all about war. He met the locals, dined with them and found them interesting. I want to know more of what his experiences were like.
I love thinking about these 'special' dinner parties and I'd like to keep them small, maybe eight at the most each time, but we won't limit the list, we'll just have dinner parties more often. Here are a few of my adds:
- Che Guevara
- Ernest Hemingway
- Thomas Jefferson
- Billie Jean King
- Rosa Parks
- Ellen DeGeneres
I am going to have to call a caterer or start cooking now...
I see you're still celebrating Keith Week. And that's as fine and American as a thing can be! I'm okay with your additions, and the table looks lovely. I just hope Che is in a good mood during dinner. You know how he can be.
ReplyDeletePS: I'm looking forward to meeting your family in your upcoming book. It will be like getting on that wagon train, myself. Tell me, are you feeling closer to these unmet people now that you're writing about them? I imagine that would be the result, strange as it might seem.
ReplyDeleteYes, you know for the longest time I could not make myself write about the incident where my uncle sustained the wound that would cost him his life in the end. I thought if I didn't write it down I could keep him alive. I just so want to know more...
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