Daily Dose Blogger Bios
Curly the Wallpaperer
When I was in fifth grade, I thought my mother was having an affair with our wallpaperer. Seriously. Here's what I think I remember: he had a mop of black curly hair (like the young Albert Einstein you see above); he sang opera while he worked; he cooked us dinner; and my mom laughed a lot when he was around.
You see your mother happy and somewhere in the back of your little eleven-year-old mind, you invent things. Apparently my mother was not having an affair with "Curly," and he didn't sing. But he did stir things up a bit around the house. He was a trained chef who had gone to culinary school at the Cordon Bleu in Paris. Then he gave it all up to wallpaper houses in suburban St. Louis so he could be at home with his wife and child. The man loved his job--he would come to the house early and ask my mother what she wanted for dinner. Then he would send her out to the store to get ingredients. He'd work until 3, and then cook up saucy dinners even my father liked.
The man was good at what he did. Much of the green-flocked, gold-foiled, tree mural wallpaper he hung almost thirty years ago is still hanging in my mom's house. And what doesn't is etched on my unconscious mind and making it's way into my own house in some form or other. Seriously.
Whoa. I thought for a moment you were going to regale us with a tale of how you had Einstein wallpaper growing up.
I LOVE the story of Curly! Talk about passion for life - to do hard work like wallpapering all day, and then to cook up an amazing dinner for your clients? If Curly was in business today he would be so incredibly in demand. And what an impact he had on you - dreaming up all these romantic scenarios like opera singing and secret trysts with your Mom. Maybe he was your first crush?
I would be so happy if the children of my clients remember me and are inspired by what I did ... you are a tribute to Curly and his work!
I am laughing hysterically! How proud Curly would be to learn that you mentioned him with Albert You forgot to reveal that after the Cordon Bleu he went to Israel and lived on a kibbutz where he met his future wife whose father was a pediatrician. He did love opera! And I did laugh a great deal then, didn't I? How observant you were! I still have the curry he sent me to buy for the lamb curry...the recipes, too. Interested? Over 30 years ago...what a liberated man he was and what a lucky family he had. Thanks for the memories, Curly.
Such a great story. Now, what is sexier than a true Renaissance Man? He'd love the Elektra as well, don't you think?