The fridge was the bulletin board of the American home. From invitations and appointments to the kids’ latest drawings and photos, we put everything there, held with magnets. Mind you, fridges were made of something magnetic then. And photos were actual hard copies. For me, fridge exhibit space and sticky notes came together serendipitously. Someone said something I loved, so I scribbled it onto a sticky and slapped it on the fridge. Eventually there were a dozen or more and people went to the kitchen to read them as soon as they arrived. Friends sometimes made pithy remarks and stared at me expectantly. Rules had to be established. You couldn’t be trying to get on the fridge.
Time passed. The fridge took on a dusty feathered look. I took the stickies down, typed them up. Then I started teaching and began collecting the student quotes that were published here in 2013. (Look them up.) Collecting “fridgeables” came to an end. Some of these are decades old. Some are by friends no longer living and preserving them is bittersweet. Some have multiple quotes, not because everything they say is dazzling, but because I see—or saw them often, or when paper and pen were handy. I submit these as proof that friends and family enrich our lives with laughter and insight.
There are so many interesting things in life, you can hardly get on with it. —Dixon Staples
Memories are not recordings but defenses. —Bob Topp
Speaking of cow words used to describe human behavior in French: The word “bovine” isn’t used nearly enough in English. —Marilyn Auer
On watching the splintering stick her two-year-old son was playing with: That’s the problem with natural matter: it breaks down. —Snow Ford
I’m tired of this Walmart mentality. —Phil Normand
There’s so much of my life that I wasn’t present for. —Sid Werntz
Speculating on why he’s two weeks behind schedule: Sometimes time isn’t as long as I think it’s going to be. —Mark Jameson
Snow Ford, talking about what she’s learned from her marriage: You can only control yourself.
Sable Rall, hearing the above quote: And sometimes, not even that.
I’m just another Mexican, crying in the wilderness. —Carlos Martinez
If this job gets to me, I’ll quit. My needs aren’t that elaborate. —Toni Potter
On being asked to try a new restaurant: I never go any place I haven’t already been. —Brad Mudge
Discussing his failure to cook while his wife was away: I used to get disgusted by guys like me. —Danny Salazar
I’d rather have a working man than a cooking man. —Cindi Threet
If you know how to make oatmeal cookies, I’ll follow you home. —John Jones
Hablo porque tengo boca. I talk because I have a mouth. —Carlos May-Gamboa
On being asked to meet for a movie on the spur of the moment: We’re too old to be spontaneous. —Jeffrey Ruben-Dorsky
On the rising cost of visiting Prague: I hate it when countries come out of the third world. —Donna Altieri
Anything that eats can be trained. —Rose Reasoner
You can’t raise birds unless you’re a bird yourself. —Minor Meany
On cats: You can have their reproductive capacity fixed, but not their attitudes. —Bob Jaeger
If you want to get the show done, rent the hall. —Angel Vigil
The world is full of people who go faster than I do. —Richard Slavich
Sincerity is not a measure of art. —Phil Normand
In reference to the average American work week: The hunter-gatherers had it better than us. —Len Surprenant
It’s clear we are all fools. —Dixon Staples
I like people who’ve had complex lives: you have to have a few bumps to be interesting. —Toni Potter
On being asked to define mensch: Mensch! Nobody’s a mensch; most people are schmucks. —Alice Rybak
The thing about cell phones is you never have to be where you are. —Marilyn Auer
On being told that his intelligence restored an adult’s faith in the younger generation: Alas, I’m not representative of my generation. —Shane Ford
I’m not much of a creator, but I’m a great continuer. —Bill Gibson
On spending an hour programming his ipad to operate the TV: It’s a good thing I don’t have anything else serious to do besides trying to keep up with the fucking twenty-first century. —Phil Normand
A genuine liberal arts education is not in the best interests of the republic. —Rick VanDeWeghe
The only youth-related issue Americans care about is abortion: we don’t like live children at all. —Toni Potter
I wouldn’t go to church either if I weren’t the minister of one. —Rev. Karl Kopp
I don’t have any particular need to deal with reality. —Carlos Martinez
We haven’t planned our lives because we’ve been innately suspicious of the idea that there’s anywhere to get to. —Phil Normand
On why she spends so much of her retirement in volunteer work: The worst thing I can do is nothing. —Cat Haskins
You have and have had so many great friends, Pat!
A great collection evoking laughter and memories of some wonderful folks.
Love it!
Love the quotes (especially Phil’s)
My own (magnetic) fridge is still a repository of “special” stuff and I have a little box filled with former-fridge notes. Somehow I just can’t throw them away.
Sincerity is not a measure of art. —Phil Normand
Hmmm. I pretty much agree…but irony has become the default mode of aesthetic criticism, and that is even worse, in a way. If an artist evinces purpose in her art, is that not sincerity?
Well, though someone puts pen to paper, paint to canvas, strums a guitar, or whatever mode of expression they choose, if they have not learned the skill and craft of their medium we can hardly dignify the result with the approbation of “art.” Art implies mastery of some kind, I believe, and so, no matter how sincere a person is in their purpose of expression, mimicry or entertainment, I don’t feel the need to consider it artful.