Besties!

Daily writing prompt

Describe an item you were incredibly attached to as a youth. What became of it?

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Well, here is a bit about what I said last year about my guitar Charlie, but after that, I’ll take you on a deeper dive:

Seeing that I was serious about learning guitar, my parents gave me my Harmony Classical guitar next Christmas. Charlie rests on a stand no more than one foot from me as I write this. We’ve been together for over sixty years, played in coffeehouses and bars, and hitched all over. In the old parlance – we’ve been to see the elephant.

That covers the basics, but there is a lot more to say.

The Jealous Girlfriend

Like the girlfriend who decided that I loved the guitar more than I loved her? After she tried to kick Charlie, she discovered the true depth of that sentiment when I kicked her out into the night. Hurt my “axe”? No way.

Sweetly Scented Smoke!

Then there was the “friend” at our apartment on Beacon Hill in Boston who decided to hide his stash of hash inside Charlie on a camping trip. He never informed me, but I noticed while tuning that the sound was muffled, pulled out the stash, and later in the evening added it to the campfire. Everyone noted there was a certain bloom and a redolent scent to the fire. They leaned in to sample. Yeay! It was mighty! Was he mad? You bet, there was a profanity-laced diatribe of impressive proportions. But everyone else was so snuckered by the hash that they rolled around laughing at him.

Road Food

Charlie on the road was a great companion. I’d pull into some little diner and order the cheapest thing on the menu. Someone at the counter would holler out, “Can you play that damn thing?” and I’d do a couple of songs. “Dolores! Set that boy up with the Blue Plate Special!” I’m honor-bound to state that that did not always happen, but my coffee and pie were frequently on the house!

There is a lot more, but suffice it to say that Charlie is a good-hearted companion and has shared his cases with sleeping kittens and babies on the road.