Dennis Bezanowitz, parts 500 - 503

500. Everything was the same in my home town in 1962, except for one thing, somebody was planning to open a coffee shop downtown, it would be a first for our town. We all felt this was very important but we did not know exactly why. Everyone, back from college that New Year was anxious for it to open so we could go there and order our first espresso. It was necessary to have an old sweatshirt. One had to be reading certain sorts of books.

501. "The Catcher In The Rye", would not do in 1962, and we were not interested in "Lord Of The Flies"  either. What was necessary was Andre Gide, or Camus. When I went to the coffee shop the first time I was reading "The Stranger." The coffee shop was in a space I knew well, a big cellar room that formerly had been a barber shop, but the barber had died a year before. Everything was painted black and white, including the furniture.

502. The owner of the coffee shop was anxious to complete his interior decoration with some paintings, and sat down with my brother and I and asked if we knew any local artists who would like to do some commissions.

503. What the coffee shop owner wanted was some large abstract paintings that would look like the works of Franze Kline he had seen in a museum somewhere. He though this could be done very cheaply, as he had some black and white paint left over from painting the coffee shop, and there were also some large pieces of Masonite left over from replacing the floor. Thirty-five dollars a picture was what he had in mind.