Lots of people are responding to this prompt about who were your major influences with epic recitations about Mom, Dad, Uncle Jim, and such. Too easy. Let’s dig into the smaller, maybe even infamous ones that say: altered your life course, or taught you a big lesson.
Born To Be Wild
I’d have to start with my grey cat, Clancy. He lived for seventeen hell-raising years. When I met him on an Ottawa street, I had no parenting skills. I was a Pius Itinerant and was only responsible for myself – barely. I had to learn parenting skills fast with that hellion because he was literally “born to be wild.” What was so terrible about him? Well, let’s see, there was the guy who broke into my place. Clancy attacked him, chased him into a bathroom, and kept him cornered until the police arrived. The would-be thief amused the cops by whining, “Please don’t let the cats get me!” He was also a famous womanizer. His activities with female cats actually seemed to increase, rather than dwindle, after I had him fixed. ” Come on, honey, I had a vasectomy. We can have fun and no kids!” What more can I say about a cat who loved Warren Zevon music? Excitable Boy?
Evil Incarnate
The following person is pretty much at the top of my hit list: Joltin’ Joe, my boss at my first job, where I worked as a practicing anthropologist. Joe always was fuming, either because of the Camel aigrettes he chain-smoked, or because he was mad at someone or something. What positive thing did I carry away from my years working for him? Never do as he did. Do the exact opposite. Need I say more?
The Cap’n
The Cap’n was my first father-in-law. He was, in fact, a Master Mariner, a great seaman, and an absolute martinet. He ran his family like he ran his ship, and everyone snapped their heels and jumped to quarters. My first wife expected me to help “Daddy” in all respects. The Cap’n mostly used me as a sorry excuse for a boun’s mate on board his 34-foot ketch. If the boat was in absolute Bristol condition, it was due to my efforts. From him, I learned to “hand, reef, and steer,” the traditional abilities of an able-bodied seaman. When my wife insisted that we move back to her home island in Maine, I resisted. The marriage went onto a reef and went down in the subsequent storm.
Grist for The Mill
Interesting characters have always been grist for the writer’s mill. My cat Clancy, AKA the Grey Menace, is featured in many of my stories. He lived an interesting life and was enough of an egotist that if he were alive, he would insist it was just his fair recompense to be a sort of literary lion.
Joltin’ Joe and the Cap’n? They are another sort of situation. Make an enemy of a writer and be placed into the middle of a sordid affair, be made an absolute villain, a disreputable jerk, or a comic figure. And that’s just what I have done with them.
Wanna see? The Cap’n is featured in many of my Adventures in Coastal Living stories (Here is one:https://loucarrerascarver.com/2021/04/12/sufficient/ aand then another my personal favorite! https://loucarrerascarver.com/2025/09/29/adventures-in-coastal-living-soddom-and-gomorrah-on-the-atlantic/
My hated boss shows up too in stories, being that it’s Christmas time, I am writing this here is a little present I wrote for him to put under his Christmas Tree: https://loucarrerascarver.com/2020/11/09/evil-santa/
So be nice to me…or else!
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This is hilarious and so relatable, Lou! I’m glad that your past enemies have made a reappearance in a story befitting their personalities. I have done that multiple times myself, and have no regrets.
Crystal! They got their just desserts, literally in literature…so to speak.
I had a Siamese cat named Naggy. One evening, the Juvenile X appeared in my apartment. He was studying in Laramie, WY. I was living in Denver, studying at DU. I’d been out (but not on a date) with a classmate. I came in. The Juvenile X (who was abusive) was about to throw a phone book at my head. Naggy, who was asleep on the fridge — or appeared to be asleep — took a flying leap at the Juvenile X’s back and dug in with all four claws. It really doesn’t matter what happened after that. Naggy was a heroic cat and I loved her.
I’ve seen that stuff happen. Cats are small tigers and lions; provoke them at your risk!
Yep. And they love their people more than many people realize. Naggy went with me everywhere.