From the Desk of Pat Greene
Confessions of an Autodidact by Pat Greene
When I was eight years old , I organized the neighborhood kids on a project that I was sure would change all of our lives for the better . Using discarded boards from picnic tables and other junk , I decided that we would build a raft much like Thor Heyerdahl ’ s Kon-Tiki , which Heyerdahl took from Peru to the French Polynesian islands .
It took us a few days to build . When it was fi nished , we carried it to a lake and it immediately sank . I ’ m sure my parents were not only relieved , but also unsurprised . I had told the kids in the neighborhood that when we were fi nished , we could get one of our parents who had a truck to take us to St . Petersburg from our Winter Park home , where we then could take the boat to New Orleans . When I asked my father later why he didn ’ t try to stop me from doing such an outlandish thing , he said I fi gured it would sink , and if it didn ’ t , then we would need to talk .
At the time , I hadn ’ t read Heyerdahl ’ s book , but it was one of many books sitting on my grandmother ’ s bookshelves . She had talked about the book . In my mid-20s , I stayed at her house for about a month and fi nally read the book . Her house was fi lled with books , globes , maps with pins in them indicating that she had been to the pinned part of the world .
My mother , brother , and I spent about eight months living in Plantation , Florida with my grandparents . During those eight months , I attended Plantation Middle School . I was a sixth grader . My grandmother , Edee , was a columnist for the old Fort Lauderdale News . My step-grandfather , Joe , was a sports reporter for the paper . Every morning they would sit on the back porch reading the Fort Lauderdale News and the Miami Herald papers that were delivered to their house . They would smoke cigarettes , drink coffee , and discuss current events . I would sit out on the porch reading , too , and discussing what I ’ d read . My grandmother insisted that everyone should get up in the morning and read the daily paper and stay informed . I had no problem with that idea .
During my brief stay with my grandmother in my mid-20s , she had stepped up the newspaper delivery to include the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal . My step-grandfather , Joe had passed away a
11
couple of years before . Edee ( everyone called her Edee ) and I would sit on the back porch — that now had a screened in swimming pool — drink coffee , and read four newspapers every morning .
I lived a few miles from Edee for about a year . She would always be willing to go see a foreign or independent fi lm with me . We exchanged books . When I think of John Kennedy Toole ’ s “ Confederacy of Dunces ” I think of this period . Edee , my father , and I all read it around this time .
When I was a kid living with her , I remember saying something about how I hated some group of people . She asked me what I hated about them . I gave her a vague blanket answer . She countered everything I said , and pointed out that I was too smart to say things that were not thought out . She asked me to think about what I say — really think about it — and if I think hate something , I should only say I hate if I can give a real reason for hating it . I think about this conversation every day .
When I was in the 7 th grade , we moved back to Winter Park , Florida . A neighbor of mine had every Beatles album and 45 ever made . The Beatles had broken up a year earlier . We listened to the collection over and over . Then , I bought some Yoko albums . She had been vilifi ed by most Beatles fans for breaking up the lads . At that time , her role in art movements like Fluxus seemed to be dismissed as crap by all of the Beatles fans that I knew . Her records were the strangest things that I had ever heard . My friend seemed almost angry that I was intrigued by her . I kept thinking , “ Wow , someone did this .” It made me feel like any art form was valid . Then I ’ d read that John Lennon had started listening to composers like Karlheinz Stockhausen and John Cage , because of Yoko Ono . I would go to the Winter Park Public Library and check out albums by these two , and others that I knew were on the Lennon ’ s list . I would listen over and over , wondering what I was missing . In my 20s , I started to read a lot about these composers and other 20 th century classical composers . It started to make sense . I really enjoyed them and became obsessed with the quest to fi nd more .
An Illustrative Re-enactment , pen and ink illustration by Matt Duke
Lennon , Bowie , and others had also referenced The Beat Generation . I loved the sense of adventure and coolness of the Beats . They were
www . ARTBORNEMAGAZINE . com