She was standing in the back of the vintage store, trying to step out of her closet into the real world. She had found her style, her look but she was still tentative about stepping into the limelight, about getting attention for who she was. But she was halfway out and you can’t get all the way out without first going half way. I knew she would make it eventually.
The Dress shop clerk, happy and without guile. We have gone in the store a number of times on
our visit to Del Mar, it is a resale shop with great clothes and great deals. We were looking for
hats for the first day of the Del Mar Racetrack season, which we were going to attend just for
fun! Didn’t find a hat there, but did find some great deals and a great Tommy Bahama shirt.
She had brilliant blue eyes and the bright San Diego sun was out in full force so I asked her to
pose for me right outside her shop, which she was happy to do. I am not sure she was hot on my
taking photos of her feet, probably worried I had a foot fetish or something (I don’t), but she
allowed me to nonetheless.
Del Mar, California, July 2008
We were staying the night at the Inn at Price Tower, Frank Lloyd Wright’s one and only
freestanding ‘skyscraper’ in the world (it’s 16 stories high so it isn’t crazy tall by
any means). It is about 50 miles north of Tulsa in a town called ‘Bartlesville’ which
was the founding home of Phillips Petroleum. It has an art center on the first 2
floors along with a gift shop. We always find unique and interesting things in the
shop when we go there and this time we found an engaging and happy store clerk along
with the usual stuff. She said one of the statements in the piece to us and I kept
hearing the rhythm of it in my head after, but with different content each time and
that was the basis for the other ‘truths’ in the piece.