The lady came back to the checkout counter and glanced at her companion, then looked me straight in the eye and said, “Tell her about William Wallace.”
Smack me. What?
Do I have a forehead tattoo? History Geek? Maybe inked in Old English Script?
Alas – the gauntlet was thrown down.
“Do you have a couple of hours?” I asked the companion, then gave the four-minute synopsis of the Scottish legend who gathered the always-feuding clan families together long enough to defeat the British in 1297.
I wasn’t around back then, but it is known as the Battle of Stirling Bridge. You’ve guessed by now that she had me pegged correctly. Truth is – I am a bit of a history nut.
But – what came over that woman to suddenly demand a medieval dissertation of me? We had not been talking about Scotland, bagpipes, broadswords, or even history. Well, I did mention the year 1847 when I was showing her the date on an antique copy of The Pickwick Papers.
Maybe I’ve the late afternoon scent of a kilted Highlander. I’ll hit the deodorant stick after I rub off that head-tattoo.
Not a historic day, here in the Rose District, but it has been somewhat history-oriented. Sold a copy of Beowulf. George Orwell. Fahrenheit 451.
The nice lady who pressed me for a lecture on the Old World had just purchased an illustrated edition of Oliver Twist. Of course, a good day is made even better when a copy of Dickens goes home with its new family. Honestly, that lady was after my heart: she asked about the book because of the George Cruikshank illustrations.
Dickens went through several artists during the course of his writing career, but his books were loaded with drawings, a fact that nearly shot me down in freshman English. We were reading a Tale of Two Cities. (In truth, the rest of the class was reading the assigned work.)
I wasn’t reading. Not a bit.
Mike Green – my aspiring artist friend – and I were too busy drawing freehand copies of the wonderful Hablot Knight Browne illustrations. It was a competitive thing. A sketcher’s version of a footrace. We’d both begin the hour with a blank piece of paper and a Parker brand ink pen, then before the hour was up, we’d pass the finished drawings around in secret for our fellow students to grade. (Click on the image for a better look at Browne’s skill. It’s an illustration from Tale of Two Cities of the sort we plagiarized during class.)
Some days Mike had the better drawing. Other times, I got the nod. Neither of us got the plot of the Tale, since we hadn’t read a thing beyond the captions accompanying the illustrations.
I’m ashamed to say it was years and years later when I finally sat down with Charles Dickens and he became my best friend. At least, he became my best dead literary friend. And Oliver Twist is a favorite acquaintance – especially the George Cruikshank illustrated version.
There’s a copy over there waiting for its new family.
Come visit!
McHuston
Booksellers & Irish Bistro
Rose District
122 South Main St. Broken Arrow OK!
