Tribute To Uncle Sonny

My great uncle Sonny, 74, passed away last week after a long battle with lung cancer or emphysema or some smoking related illness. He was the older brother of my crazy grandma - whom many of you have heard about. Although I didn't spend much time with him - he lived in California - I do have a few fond and entertaining memories. So in tribute to my great uncle, I would like to share one of the more vibrant memories with you....

It was the summer of '83 and my brother and I had been shipped to Baton Rouge, LA to stay with my crazy grandmother, Mimi, for 2 weeks. Obviously my parents were in desperate need of refuge from our constant sibling rivalry, otherwise they would never have allowed us to stay with Mimi for that long. Luckily our cousin, who is only 3 years older than me and 1 year older than my brother, lived with Mimi so we had someone to play with. The first week there was pretty normal for us. We played in their new neighborhood in the wet heat of the day and were enthralled with Mimi's alcohol infused stories and games at night. The second week was when we were fortunate enough to be bestowed with a visit from my great uncle Sonny.

He drove up to the house in a heavy duty, American made pick-up pulling his bright reflective house on wheels. He had driven for 3 days from California, with only 4 hours of sleep in his Airstream. I remember thinking how blindingly bright he was with his head of thick white hair in front of his gigantic mirror of a camper. It makes my eyes hurt just thinking about it.

In celebration of his arrival, Mimi had my cousin (MaryBeth) boil 2 pounds of shrimp. Since my brother doesn't eat any seafood and I had never seen any that wasn't battered and fried, we both imbibed on frozen french fries for dinner. We were in heaven.

The night was filled with wild stories of Mimi and Sonny's childhood. They loved to tell the story of how Sonny was pushed or fell out of a 2 story window of their home as a baby. He claims that their older sister Mildred threw him out, but no one really knows what happened. He sustained some bruises and a few scratches - but basically bounced safely, as noted in the local Memphis paper. After many stories, and too many drinks for Mimi and Sonny, we were all corralled into bed for the night.

When we awoke the next morning it was as if the house was empty. Mimi had gone to work - and as usual, she had left a long list of chores for Sonny to complete during his visit. No visit with Mimi is free. As we kids were making bowls of cereal for breakfast, in comes Uncle Sonny from the garage. He was sweating and swearing and heading straight for the fridge. Evidently he'd been up for hours. The storage room in the garage needed shelves and that was his first and most grueling chore of the day.

I remember the sweat dripping from his head as he opened the fridge. MaryBeth was sure to get scolded for this if she didn't clean it up before Mimi came home - she was the favorite scapegoat for all that went wrong. He reached his tan, tattooed, gray haired arm in the fridge and pulled out the largest beer that I had ever seen. This was to be my first introduction to the Tall Boy.

He popped the top on his first budweiser of the day at 8 am with a smile, as if it were such beautiful music that he wanted to savor every note. The demanding Louisiana humidity of the summer was already weighing a heavy burden on his task at hand and he needed our help. I guess he thought that he could wear out a 10, 12 and 13 yr. old - boy was he wrong.

My brother was to help him build the shelves, I was to clean and MaryBeth was to cook lunch and provide drinks. We had our jobs and went about them dutifully. My brother helped cut and nail shelves that were 4 feet and lower while Uncle Sonny handled the top half. I basically swept up sawdust and tossed scraps of wood in the trash can. We took frequent breaks because of the high heat and humidity.

Uncle Sonny was getting frustrated that we were losing so much time cooling off, so he asked MaryBeth how they get things done outdoors in the summer there. Well, she didn't really have much of an idea, but an idea popped in her head that seemed like the perfect solution. She proposed that we wet a wash cloth and put it in the freezer to keep cool. Then she would bring it out to each of us every 15 minutes to use to wipe our faces and cool off. Brilliant, or so we thought!

So for the rest of the afternoon we went on like worker bees. Uncle Sonny kept drinking tall boys until we finally got the shelves in the storage room complete. By this time, Mimi was coming home from her job - and to inspect our day's work. Thankfully it was to her liking. But when she found the wash cloth in the freezer she lost it. Evidently we had used a 'good' wash cloth and now it was ruined - which I highly doubt, but it didn't matter once Mimi got upset. And of course, MaryBeth was punished for choosing the wrong wash cloth. Why buy a wash cloth if you aren't going to use it? I mean, really!

That evening was spent much like the first, talking and watching Mimi and Uncle Sonny drink. We kids went into my cousins room and played games for a while. Around 10, Mimi bellowed for MaryBeth to come to the living room. So of course, we all went. Apparently the tall boys had finally caught up with our giant of an uncle and he was passed out on the couch. MaryBeth and I were put in charge of getting him to his bedroom and in the bed. I remember that we both got under an arm and led his staggering body to the guest room. He grunted and grumbled the whole way there - while we were talking loudly to him as if he were hard of hearing and not drunk. 'We're putting you to bed Uncle Sonny.'

After a bit of a struggle getting his shoes off, we finally had him laid out on the top of his bed. This is the time that he chose to gain partial consciousness. His grunts and grumbles turned into 'Where am I?' and 'Am I in Guatemala?'. When he finally recognized MaryBeth, he realized he was in Louisiana at his sister's house.

For reasons unknown to me - other than he was still butt wasted - he decided that he needed to do something nice for his sister. He started badgering MaryBeth about buying a v-ah-ze (yes, that's his drunk pronunciation of vase) of roses for Mimi for being so nice to him. Being the clever girl that she was, she immediately asked where his wallet was. I think that may have sobered him up a little more. He grabbed her arm with force and told her not to worry about that. She needed to make sure that he got Mimi a v-ah-ze of beautiful roses. Other attempts to get his wallet were thwarted as he continued belligerently talking of buying roses. We finally gave up and left him to sleep off his day of tall boys.

The next morning we woke up to find Uncle Sonny working on the rest of the list of chores - and a new supply of the tall boys that had mysteriously appeared in the fridge.

He may not have been around much, but when he was - you remembered it. He was the invincible uncle that had lived such an exciting life - going to war, working on the home phones of Richard Nixon, living as a gigolo on the beaches of California and more. His last days, however, were not glamorous. He was on continuous oxygen and had given up drinking. Cigarettes were the mistress that he never turned his back on - even while hooked to an oxygen tank.

Here's to you Uncle Sonny! May you rest in peace. Thanks for the memories and for giving my grandmother hell when she needed it!