Leslie Marenchin: Rest In Hilarity.
I came of age in the back of a VW Bug with Leslie and an assorted cast of misfits. We would chip in for gas and ride "up-country" listening to The Bonzo Dog Band on 8-track. I think our shared sense of humor was the glue that held us all together, but it might have also been the beer, the music, the drugs, the quest for girls, I'm not sure right now.
Leslie was the skinniest person I'd ever seen. He was also already a master of the incredibly wacky shoot-beer-thru-your-nose offhand remark. He was fast. We used to stop by his house to pick him up and chat with his parents Mitchell & Becky. His dad would completely disassemble the lawn mower and clean it in a bucket of gasoline after each weekly cutting. He once told us that "people who don't regularly do this shouldn't be allowed to own anything". His dad also suggested to us one idle summer day that a good way to spend the afternoon would be to wash the car and then walk down to McDonalds for some burgers.
Leslie laughed right in his face.
He was a founding member of the Annual Banal Picnic, held at Mahaney Park near the Dam, where nothing much ever happened. But it was fun. We played pick-up baseball every Sunday at Westinghouse Park. We rented a cabin on Lake Chataqua in New York for a drunken weekend. Hilarity ensued, Leslie out in front by a mile. We went to The Wave, a local dive bar, The Office, a local dive bar, Terchila's, a local dive bar, and Bello's, a local dive restaurant that made the best shaved-steak sandwich with hot pepper rings you have ever tasted. After filling our bellies we would head to a local dive bar.
In time, some of us drifted away to places like Philadelphia, Florida, Colorado, but Leslie would make his yearly migration back to Sharon around the holidays and we would go to a local dive bar. I last saw him 2 or 3 years ago, before his father died. He emailed me last Thanksgiving that he was coming back for what he called his final trip home. I didn't' get to see him then.
My loss.
David Wachter
12.5.2008
2 comments:
You described exactly the youth I always imagined Leslie having, with the constants I will also always remember: hilarity and alcohol-through-the-nose.
These are such great stories. Thank you so much for sharing. They made me laugh out loud this morning. I knew Leslie from a discussion group in Houston, and many of his stories were retold among us over and over. Leigh
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