Why does HumCo Attorney Ed Denson get to eat hamburgers, french fries, and a milk shake and I don’t? Why does Ed get to live for now, eat anything he wants, and I have to worry about the future? Unlike the rest of us nobodies Ed is a Somebody. When people were posting birthday greetings on his page recently I wanted to say, “Happy birthday, Ed! Most likely local to get a New York Times obituary!” Ed probably would have chuckled but as he had a pretty bad cold at the time I restrained myself. Last local to get a New York Times obit was Ed’s neighbor Frank Cieciorka, the artist famous for his rebel fist. What is it about Alderpoint? (Ed, pushing eighty, seems to be a junk food junkie, as well as appreciator of all things culinary, from highbrow to low.)
Like most of us I admire and respect Ed Denson. He became a lawyer at freaking sixty, after many other colorful careers including manager of Country Joe and the Fish, and has been a tireless advocate for all of us out here in the outlaw regions. He lives life to the fullest and many depend on him as he tools thousands of miles to courthouses over mountains and vales in his old Volvos. He’s always there for us with a phone call or a moment on the street.
A few years ago I stopped him on the sidewalk outside the credit union with a question. “ED, if I’m over the plant limit and I hear the cops coming should I stay or should I go?”
“Well, you should get under the limit,” he said.
“No, that’s not going to happen,” I said.
“Then skedaddle,” he said. Sage advice: Skedaddle! I handed him twenty bucks.
Another time I called him from the border after I thought Customs had found my cash stash and confiscated it. He gave me some long-distance advice and a few months later when I saw the Volvo out front of his law office I popped in and handed him a fifty. “Thanks Ed.”
Today I sign up for Medicare. Tomorrow Ed may finally be cut off from BLTs, Mexican Cokes, hamburgers, french fries, milk shakes, and double chocolate cake.
We will survive…until we don’t.
(Written a few years ago…)
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