When Alyn Shipton was writing Harrys biography he asked if I had any stories about Harry. The book was pretty much done so he didnt include them, but I figured Id share them here. These are stories youve never heard, because Ive never told them to anybody other than Alyn. ------------------ When I was probably 12 or 13 years old and living in Willits, in northern California, my mother Diane informed me one day that Harry would be coming for a visit. I was ecstatic. Hes coming here? Really? I couldnt believe it. Why would he come all the way up to this tiny town in No. California? My mother was clearly not impressed, as she was not one to forgive easily, and I dont think she wanted to see him at all. But she had already agreed to it, and she told me he would be taking me on a trip up to Washington. Why? I didnt know, and I didnt care. All I knew was that I was going to see my dad again, and it reinforced the notion I had that he did care about me and wanted to spend time with me. When Harry arrived I was so happy to see him. He came in and sat down on the couch, my mother offered him something to drink and it was all very awkward. I didnt care. After some light chit chat guaranteed not to break the surface tension and then long moments of even more awkward silence, Harry said we should get going because we had a plane to catch. I grabbed my bags and we left, somebody drove us to the tiny airport in Willits and we boarded a tiny plane and flew a tiny distance to another airport where we boarded a larger plane and flew a larger distance to somewhere in Washington State. I still had no idea what we were doing or why we were there. The pilot had let me fly the plane for a little bit which was exciting, and then we landed, got out and promptly rented a car. Harry drove us for a number of hours, and I dont remember much of it. I do remember three significant things that happened on this trip, but I still have no idea why we were there; and I suspect Harry brought me along only because northern California was basically on the way to Washington. But at least he thought of me and wanted to have me along, and I will always be grateful for that. The first significant thing I remember is our first night there. On our drive we stopped somewhere to buy a ridiculous amount of junk food (I was 13), and then we arrived at our hotel. It was a very large, very posh hotel, and after we got all our bags and junk food into the room, I had nothing to do. Harry gave me a few rolls of quarters so I could entertain myself at the Asteroids machine in the lobby while he went off to do other things. I still dont know what he did, but I assumed he was there to meet somebody for some reason. After a while Harry was nowhere to be found, so I went up to our room, ate junk food, and eventually fell asleep. I was awoken many hours later by some yelling outside the window, in the hotels outdoor back yard. I cleared my head and went to the window, and it was Harry yelling at me to let him in please, because he had lost his key and he was locked out of the hotel somehow. He was also very drunk. I dont remember exactly how, but I did get him inside and into the room, where he promptly fell asleep. The next significant thing I remember took place shortly after that, maybe the next day or the day after. We were driving through the wooded highways of Washington, and for some reason we stopped to pick up a hitchhiker. These days that seems like an almost unthinkable risk, but it was the early 80s which was not too far from the 70s, and Harry, as we know, had a very generous nature. I was secretly disappointed, because I barely got to spend any time with my dad at all, and now I had to share him with some stranger. We all ended up driving into the night and then getting a room at a motel somewhere. Harry and our new friend had gone out for drinks, and I had stayed in the room and gone to sleep. Before Harry left though, he made a point of telling me that his money was our money, and that if I needed anything I could use it. The next morning I woke up before Harry and our hitchhiker friend did, it was 8 or 9 in the morning and I was hungry. I quietly took some of the money Harry had next to his bed, and he woke as I did so. He sleepily asked what was up, and I told him I was using some of our money to go buy some breakfast. He seemed happy with that explanation and immediately went back to sleep. I went outside to the diner attached to the motel and had breakfast by myself. I thought about what a long, strange trip it had been. I still didnt care that I had no idea what was going on, why we were there, who that hitchhiker was or what we were doing. I was with my dad, and that was enough. The last significant thing I remember from that trip is near the end, as we were taking the rental car back to the airport so we could board our plane. As we were driving through an intersection, another car came through the intersection from our right. I dont know who had the right of way, but we were in the same place at the same time, both going probably 40 or 50 MPH. Harry yanked the wheel to the left to try to avoid the other car, which he did successfully, but in the process rammed us into a telephone pole. The first thing he did was ask if I was okay, and I was. We were both wearing our seat belts, and even the car didnt seem too much worse for wear other than the obvious damage to the front end. I remember an argument at the rental return, something about whether there was insurance covering the car or not, and an urgency because our plane was going to be leaving. We made our plane, and thats all I remember.
Posted on: Tue, 05 Aug 2014 04:42:19 +0000
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