Joan Anderson

Little Black Book

Chewing Gum. $.15 Bandaids $1.49 Toothpicks .45 The neat columns fill page after page in the black notebook. His handwriting was strong, even flamboyant, but disciplined and meticulous at the same time. Like him. A raconteur, a bon vivant who enjoyed a glass of beer, would throw back his head and laugh with friends, but also a competitive athlete, a man who methodically performed his physical exercises every morning and read every book twice through in case he had missed something the first time. There are dozens of notebooks in this cabinet, because my father wrote down every penny he spent. He gave my mother the same gift every birthday and Valentine's Day. He filled the three family cars with gas every Saturday.