Page 10 - Contrast1962Decemberv1n1

A Iltynce WaS" Story

This is a "once was" story:

Once there was a deep cellar room with a red-veined heavy
door and warm glowing lights. There was a Limbo for those Hk3
of the in-between who wanted a Limbo; there was a party of
colors for those who saw the world in shades of gray; and a
gray-relaxation for those who wanted a rest from color. There
was a yellow light that flashed on and off at decent intervals
and a parakeet who lived in a typewriter case. Onca there was
a wild dance on antique streets in antique hours of an antique
nighto ••once there was a poetic jug of wine that tasted like
unpoetic salad dressing, and once there was a ball of cheese
that skittered down a cobble-stoned alley to find a cat. Once
there was all the world in a deep cellar room.

There were voyagers and gypsies: and children; dreamers,
romantics, whatever--they once were.

One by one they climbed from the cellar, they climbed to
the roof of the tall building that grew from the cellar. Each
saw alone the roof humpy with chimneys, the roof black with
utility and anxious with antennae. They shrieked to the big-
ness of it all--they twirled and whirled ecxtatic~lly into it ••

Suddenly and surprisedly (and rather quietly) they found
themselves in a most unsophisticated position as they hurrdedly
and awkwardly prepared to meet the cobble-stoned streets as
one can only meet cobble-stoned streetsQ

Once there wasea.oh, excuse me, there still is because
next week this today will be a "once was. It Have they whi te-
washed the door? Ob, rea11y? ••and have they put a picture of
the Good Shepherd and his She~p in place of our Schenectady
Public Library sign?

Today we would buy a coffee pot but we have no money.
Someone will go to the movies alone and not see the movie;
someone will walk alone past the Skip-Jacks and Bug-Eyes of
the oyster fleet by the docks; someone will sit in the old
church; and someone will drink a coke alone in Read's.

Once there was a Jack who planted a packet of many-
colored beans. That spring, a huge be anst aLk grew from the
seeds. Jack kissed his mother and stnrted to ascend this
beans talk. He climbed for eight days and in the.middle of
the ninth day stepped out on a cloud vJ'1crehe sc..wa sign
saying "This is the way to the Ginnt's House." Lifting his
head, he courageously took three steps forward when,
unfortunately, he fell through a low-pressure area and
caused snow-flurries in West Virginia~

Tomorrow today will be a "once was" and we can be nos-
talgic about it all.

Ellen Witherite

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