Red State Hero

Chapter 79 RENAISSANCE MAN

The first time Glenn had seen one was on the bottom of Alicia Green's bathtub. Alicia Green, Dorothy 's first cousin, was a Dickens whose ancestors had fought in the Revolutionary War. Alicia had a replica of the Daughters of the American Revolution emblem right about where she would plant her derriere while taking a bath. Glenn thought that this was curious; actually the word was Dorothy 's but Glenn took it as his own when he recounted his sighting. So when he saw the same emblem framed and on the study wall of Dave Brooks' new house he asked about it and David explained that his forbearers had come to the new world from England in 1654. He even knew the name of the town in England they came from and astonished Glenn when he told him that he was going to pay to replace a statue of his ancestor that sat in front of the town's Anglican Church. It was difficult for Glenn to get his mind around this. His original impression of Dave was plebeian. Glenn wouldn't have said "plebeian". He would have said "common place" but now as David went on about his genealogy Glenn was just short of being astonished. To add to his astonishment, David said his forbearers had come to America during the reign of Oliver Cromwell and with a knowing glint in his eyes he added, "You know the guy that overthrew King Charles."

Glenn had no idea what he was talking about, it was some high faluten thing to be sure but he did not back away from David's invitation to hear him speak at a meeting of the Sons of the American Revolution.

The night of the speech the first thing Glenn noticed in the hall was the largest number of well-dressed men he had ever seen in West Virginia. They were not only well dressed but they were properly dressed and now he was glad that Dorothy had insisted upon him wearing his oxblood wingtips instead of his ostrich hide loafers. She made him remove the gold chain that he had lately worn around his neck and she selected his suit and a silk tie Daniel had bought in London. He had never worn the tie and had said when he learned how much Daniel paid for it, "Why you can buy a brand new suit for that in Metro City."

"You've never worn this tie before?" Dorothy asked as she tightened its knot.

"No," Glenn muttered.

"And you've never worn that black Hamburg hat that Derrick gave you either."

"I know that," Glenn muttered again.

"And you've never worn that black mohair overcoat that Jason bought you either."

"I know that," Glenn muttered again.

"He paid fourteen hundred dollars for that coat, Glenn."

"I know," said Glenn for the last time as he freed himself from Dorothy 's hands.

All these things flashed through Glenn's mind as he watched David on the dais. He suddenly realized Dave was wearing cowboy boots. And not only that, one leg of his Oscar de la Renta trousers was tucked into his right boot while the left leg hung down to ankle length. He had seen Dave wear his trousers and boots like that before but until now he had not thought it was on purpose. He guessed it was part of his image, his anti-cookie cutter image. Dave called conforming types, types that he disdained "cookie cutters". But somehow Glenn believed that he'd fix his trouser leg before he stood up to speak but he didn't.

Within minutes the distance, the intellectual distance, between him and Dave grew mightily-one might even say expedientially. David was quoting Machiavelli, quoting passages from The Prince. He referred to Napoleon, he quoted from Shakespeare, from Richard the Second and he wove all of this in and out of Blueridge homilies. He spoke knowingly of the Battle of Gettysburg and referred to Old Round Top easily as if he had been there. The speech was met with thunderous applause. Latter, over strawberry pie and coffee at Shoney's, Glenn commented on how amazed he was at David's performance.

In response David said in the most open faced and honest way, "You know, Glenn, when I was younger it was like I was in the dark ages but you know, in the history of Europe, long about the Fifteenth Century people began to educate themselves. They had a name for it, they called it the Renaissance. I think in the last twenty years I've had a Renaissance in my own life."

Glenn could only agree-whatever "Renaissance" meant or stood for it was clear that David had had one.

The experience was a lesson for Glenn and a chastisement. While he had been treading water, David had been growing by leaps and bounds; he could only feel admiration. At the same time in the back of his mind he felt that, through the years, Dave had been lining up with Daniel and Lewis.

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