Today would be my parents 60th wedding anniversary if either of them was still around. They didn’t make 50 years, even, since my Dad died a couple of months after their 47th anniversary in 1998. I liked it when Clinton was president and my parents were alive because I’d usually hear on the news one way or another that it was Clinton’s birthday, and that served as my reminder to call my folks and say, “Happy Anniversary”. Actually I liked a lot about those times in the early 1990s when Clinton was president and my parents were still alive, but it would take this whole post to list those things here, and that’s not exactly what I had in mind today. And I’d probably get all weepy and nostalgic partway through.
This morning I remembered my parents’ anniversary as soon as the public radio guy said, “It’s August 19th”; they didn’t mention Bill until the next news break. I’d rather celebrate my parents. Even though Bill’s birthday has been quite handy for me as a memory device over the years, I kind of feel like he killed Ahmet Ertegun – or had a hand in his death anyways. Ahmet died as a result of head injuries sustained back stage at a Rolling Stones concert. Martin Scorsese filmed it for his documentary, Shine A Light – the Stones playing, not Ahmet falling. It was kind of a faux show, for the purposes of the movie, and a benefit for Bill’s Clinton Foundation. Limited admittance, star-studded attendees. I read someplace that the invites promoted it as Bill’s 60th birthday party, even though the concerts were in late October and Bill had been 60 since August. Still I don’t want to be down on Bill – just like I’m not saying word one against Obama – Bill was probably the best president the US has had in my life time, save JFK – and since Kennedy got shot after only two years in office, who knows how things really would have turned out had he served longer.
Art I made about my parents' wedding - screen prints of their wedding photos printed on cloth, patchworked and stuffed to stand up in a box
