My friend Vincent left and did not give me a chance to say "Good-Bye". I found out about his illness on Friday and Saturday he was gone. I have many fond memories of our peddling art in Charleston. We passed many hours in Washington park and on king street hawking our wares. And we talked a lot. We talked about everything like who was the greatest painter or who was the best local painter or who was the hottest Italian ice girl. Yes we did talk about women. Vincent had been amazed when the white girls hit on him in England. It was a new experience for a young man from Charleston. But Vincent was a family man also. He loved his wife and kids. Octavia particularly stole his heart. Girl children do that. He had a habit of disappearing on those hot afternoon and would reappear with customers in tow. He had met them at the bar in a local hotel and sold them on his art before they had even seen it. He was always ready to help at any task when needed.
Yes, I'll miss him, especially his telling folks that we were brothers since we had the same hair style.
(I don't think anyone ever believed him!)
Good-Bye Vincent
