Established Marvel : a Monk by Abbreviation

137. FAR AND AWAY THE BEST (nyc and out, 1970):

Frenchy Smoothy Crazy Lips Honey Mad Man Lover Boy Sal - whatever I got to be called was always OK with me because in street-lingo terms anybody in New York was recognized by their face - if you were some form of Dago wise-guy then Sal would work for you if you were good with the ladies then 'Lover Boy' was useful - and all the rest - it never mattered what you were called because it was just a name and every junky had a handle every killer had a moniker every bitch-whore had a curb-name and so it went but out here in the ass-wilds of Columbia Crossroads Pennsylvania ten miles off Route Six north of Springfield Road just east of Route Fourteen at Springfield-East Smithfield Road things were different up above Mount Pisgah - you needed a regular name and presence a 'something' people would know you by and it had better be right and correct and proper too for there wasn't too much tolerance for bullshit either and although I kind of knew I could put out whatever story I wanted to them and they'd not know the difference between truth and fabrication - no not because they were dumb or simple but just because they'd have no other means of comparison or ways to vouchsafe whatever I said - pretty much just as I would have no means of confirming whatever they said about their own personal pasts and families either - I'd have to be very careful about what I concluded about myself as the 'self' to me : good with a hammer or quick with a wrench they'd know the difference easily there if I wasn't or another choice say well-versed in roofing or good doing plumbing same thing there as any of those stories could be easily found out to be true or not and at the same time if they went around thinking I was a stupid washed-up criminal that would work against me too so I had to decide early on what to be - experience-encrusted big-city gadabout veteran at any early age of so many wild experiences I couldn't remember half of them and a guy now taking a hiatus from everything by just hanging out here for a while with some small money to keep me going and that was how it worked - pretty well OK - me in a simple house with another person now and then coming and going and I made a few friends as they needed things and I needed things - one nearby farmer was having his burned-down barn rebuilt and I got involved in that project - thus meeting people on friendly terms as I pitched in and helped with the construction in whichever ways I could - hammer-wielding banging nails cutting boards etc. - it was simple thereby to get along and meet others on the right side of things and another day my car wasn't running right at all barely in fact and coughing and churning and I got it up to a local mechanic guy about a mile away and we both together pitched in and re-tuned and jetted the carburetor and things like that in his yard - again a perfect in for meeting and learning people in a new situation and all that sort of stuff helped ease me into place and build up a sort of lazy trust around everywhere - which I liked and which was always a help : and these people were different in their ways from what I'd known before unschooled and certainly not cultural nor cultured in any way not mass-minded about style or fashion or art or books or any of that they just rather more solidly went about their tasks closer to nature one with their animals and barnyard tasks and there was very little complaining or carping or setting about to change things or reinterpret things and instead everything was merely what it was - the next big storm coming through or the damages from the last one the next crop or the last disaster and death was a constant animals and people got injured or died things didn't work crops failed or were too late or too early people were either old or very old or young or newborn and having children just went with the territory and sex was like animals - just happened and nothing else - kids grew up in sight of bulls fucking and cows dropping calves and all the rest so none of that featured in any story except maybe as a joke when played well and work was work and it was apparent and had to be done and all of that was truly a reality check for me - who'd been cerebral for years and used to so many different things but I wouldn't say this was the better life - could never bring myself to say that - just a different one a more tactile one more grounded in something or in natural terms and I understood all that but actually found myself thinking of it in some ways as definitely secondary in pursuit and value even as I sat there looking out at the morning sky in some other kind of wonderment as geese flew overhead honking and I looked around for what was next - time was the same though it seemed slower things were the same though they tasted different and richer the air and the wind was the same but it was sleeker cooler warmer and thinner somehow and I knew what things to do but I found myself doing them differently and many of things I'd taken for granted were completely exceptional now - water was a finite supply and needed to be pumped from a gravity-fed holding box at the spring behind the house while sewerage was a cesspool and not a 'system' it all had to be treated electricity was expensive and needed to be hooked into and gas was nonexistent the furnace was an old monster - only wood was plentiful if you worked at it and kept fires going - everything that once was easy was now more difficult and went along with storage preservation refrigeration getting and carting and all the rest - it was truly a different life all around me with no errant words no shady dealings no suspicions mechanizations and very very few creative weird or crafty people and the old urban ways were NOT the ways of these folk.