I think I'll post again.

[fflo]

I recently heard from a woman I used to know in Kansas, a troubled woman (an artist, a nutjob) whose bursting out in racism, shortly before H & I left town, was more than the necessary straw on the back of the camel bearing qualms about her: it was a huge bundle of heavy, stinky racism. The camel went down, and hard.

She's on facebook, but using a fake name:

Lisa it is Barb in Kansas

***** ***** got me to sign up on here but i am too paranoid to use my real name.
I see you have Suzy Bright as a friend! you are the chick!
well i am sure you do not care to write back after the black chick was so seriously wacked out at me and i am so glad to be rid of that psycho, she was so dangerous, killed my kitty Mozart before she was all done with me. if that sums it up for you.
I miss you and words can not say enough of how sorry all that stuff went down at the end. I will just say I hope you are well, i am and have been sick from the drugs the pysch industry gave me but i am free of that stuff now, but damaged body. I am stuck out it Hays, KS 67601 dropped out of a 2nd grad school here. and all alone. so that is my spirally downward life.
You are a Kind soul and left an impression on me, to last a life time. best wishes girl!
BARBIE

Her fake name's last name is "Black," oddly enough.

I wrote her back. Was not unfriendly. Did tell her it wasn't what "the black chick" had said about her but what she herself had said that had prompted me & H to stop trying to be in touch with her. That she hadn't seemed to think fondly of us there at the end, so it didn't feel like it'd disappoint her anyway. That I'm not real-world friends with Suzy Bright. And good for her about feeling good about the drugs, too bad about Hays (Fort-Hays-not-the-Bronx), and thanks for the good words.

She wrote again, with a lot more about "the total crazy black chick," and eventually "i am going to drop it because given the situation people still want to love on the minority chick...," but then

lisa, you made my life wonderful while you lived here, and remember that above all else; ......especially "the negro's" twisted vile efforts to cause riffs with folks.....

She closed with "so long," so I guess that's kind of a wrap, if I want it to be. Which I b'lieve I do.

- + - + -

Another Kansas friend reminded me today of having had croquet parties in the Little Apple. I've had a few croquet gatherings in Michigan, too, but it's been a while. This one woman in Maryland used to have extreme croquet, with her nutty back yard.

It's more fun when there are natural obstacles, you know. Forget that perfectly groomed lawn thing.

Do ya'll know about Poison? When you finish the croquet course and turn to "poison," henceforth with the capacity to knock out competitors? Last time up here we were playing not just Poison, but "Name Your Poison"---you turn to poison and get to name which one you are, so long as it hasn't been taken already. Like arsenic. Or slander. Or what-you-will.

Summer is almost here.

(Systems) Drew and I this morning celebrated that we are just about back to being able to wear white.

Comments

Chloe Black

[kohkae.livejournal.com]

We too got invitations from a certain nutjob, and a short message. I didn't reply and blocked her on Facebook. Better that way. My break had to do with her being a complete emotional drain. Friendship must be two-way, not necessarily even, but offer something in return. There was only me giving and nothing in return, and somehow being around her and talking to her sucked the life out of me. Weird weird.

We have a great piece of art she did though. A gift she gave me, so I guess I did get that. It hung above our mantle and will again.

Re: Chloe Black

[fflo.livejournal.com]

You guys probably wouldn't be surprised to hear that we had a pretty one-way relationship with her, too, while it lasted. She didn't seem equipped to give much back, though, if you know what I mean. Yet maybe to do so, even to a small extent, would have interfered with her sense of the imperative of her neediness. She sure could get demanding about that.

Not too long ago I tossed some postcards of her work. Some time back, I took the piece of art of hers I liked, an abacus-like thing with "GLOBAL NETWORK DOMINATION" on it on a labelmaker strip, in to the "free table" at the office. A coworker claimed it, and it sits in the arms of a stuffed gorilla at her desk. Seeing that sight I do sometimes think of Chloe Black.

If she'd just come out a little sooner with the racist stuff, and the ratching up of it in the face of our reaction, that break could have happened mercifully earlier.

Re: Chloe Black

[kohkae.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I do know what you mean.

The piece we have is something earlier than all the mini stuff with the labelmaker strips. It's a lithograph of a house in Riley (I think it's Riley, but it may be Keats? It's in storage right now). Blue, grey, and black. She said the plate got messed up after the first copy so it's the only one. Her parents had it framed, but gave it back to her at some point. When she was getting ready to move to Hays she had it laying around in her house. I admired it and she gave it to me.

I thought of Chloe Black often with it hanging above our mantel. I sometimes feel like thinking of her is my way of giving to her since I wasn't willing to do that any more in reality.

Re: Chloe Black

[fflo.livejournal.com]

Here's GLOBAL NETWORK DOMINATION:



Guess my coworker decided either to hide or to strip off the labelmaker label. :)