ARTHUR

 Arthur is about six  and looks like Groucho Marx.He is rail thin and wears a train conductor's hat.

Most days he sits on a stool at a small folding table  in front of the Chinese restaurant with a pot of tea. He has very long fingers and it's fun to watch him drink the tea from those small cups with his pinky sticking out. 

     

Arthur is running for mayor ag this week so I thought I'd stop and congatulate him again.On his little table in front of the teapot was an assortment of Xeroxed flyers and stickers.Go Farthur with Arthur  was spray painted on the back of his tattered jean jacket.The flyers were free and the stickers were one dollar.All of the money goes to the Arthur for Mayor campaign.

     After about an hour,Arthur,having finished his tea began gathering his flyers and stickers into a large worn black leather shoulder bag.I noticed that the buckle was missing but if I know Arthur, that buckle is broksomewhere on his person. I asked him once why he never fixed the buckle. As he opened his bag I  happened to notice how incredibly organized he is.The bag has little compartments in which Arthur neatly stores all of his campaign paraphanelia. He carries magic markers in various colors. a roll of cellophane tape; the heavy kind that's used to pack boxes, cardboard in different sizes arranged neatly according to size in the area where the bag meets his back, and a couple of cans of spray paint. I didn't see the buckle but I figured it was in some secret compartment. He never showed it to anyone but eveyone knew he has it.

     Sometimes I'd see Arthur pushing a baby carriage around town.The first time I saw him with the carriage,I wanted to make funny faces at the baby.But as I approached to see the baby,Arthur stopped me.He held his hand out like a traffic cop and he looked as if he was about eight feet away from me;his arms are so long.He didn't let me look inside,but  somehow I knew it wasn't a baby.I didn't pursue the issue.I thought it must be something very personal since he was so protective of the carriage.

     One Winter day I saw Arthur pulling a child's sled with a big box tied to it with telephone wire.I stopped to say hello and he told me he had some very important calls to make to some very important people in Washington.I asked him what he had in the box.I thought it was rather odd that he'd be pulling a sled with a box through the snow covered city streets at this hour of the night.It was 11:00 pm and the streets were deserted.His leather shoulder bag was covered with snow.There was snow on his conductor's cap,snow on the box,the snow on the sled was piled up about two feet thick.He hadn't even bothered to brush it off.That's alot of snow to carry around.It had to weigh at least 30 pounds.With the contents of his bag,you could probably add another 15 pounds.I wondered how much the box weighed.And then there was the table and chair.That was probably another 10 pounds.I thought about the buckle for a moment and wondered how

 Arthur is about 6'7" and looks like Groucho Marx.He's rail thin and wears a train conductor's hat.

He carries a small folding table and stool and he would sit in front of the chinese restaurant with a pot of tea.He has very long fingers and it's fun to watch him drink the tea from those small cups with his pinky sticking out. 

     Arthur is running for mayor this week so I thought I'd stop and congatulate him again.On his little table in front of the teapot was an assortment of Xeroxed flyers and stickers.Go Farthur with Arthur ! was spray painted on the back of his tattered jean jacket.The flyers were free and the stickers were one dollar.All of the money went to the Arthur for Mayor campaign.

     After about an hour,Arthur,having finished his tea began gathering his flyers and stickers into a large worn black leather shoulder bag.I noticed that the buckle was missing but if I know Arthur,that buckle had to be somewhere on his person.I asked him once why he never fixed the buckle.As he opened his bag,I just happened to notice how incredibly organized he was.The bag had little compartments in which Arthur would neatly store all of his campaign paraphanelia.He carried magic markers in various colors.a roll of cellaphane tape;the heavy kind that's used to pack boxes,cardboard in different sizes arranged neatly according to size in the area where the bag meets his back,and a couple of cans of spray paint.I didn't see the buckle but I figured it was in some secret compartment.He never showed it to anyone but eveyone knew he had it.

     Sometimes I'd see Arthur pushing a baby carriage around town.The first time I saw him with the carriage,I wanted to make funny faces at the baby.But as I approached to see the baby,Arthur stopped me.He held his hand out like a traffic cop and he looked as if he was about eight feet away from me;his arms are so long.He didn't let me look inside,but  somehow I knew it wasn't a baby.I didn't pursue the issue.I thought it must be something very personal since he was so protective of the carriage.

     One Winter day I saw Arthur pulling a child's sled with a big box tied to it with telephone wire.I stopped to say hello and he told me he had some very important calls to make to some very important people in Washington.I asked him what he had in the box.I thought it was rather odd that he'd be pulling a sled with a box through the snow covered city streets at this hour of the night.It was 11:00 pm and the streets were deserted.His leather shoulder bag was covered with snow.There was snow on his conductor's cap,snow on the box,the snow on the sled was piled up about two feet thick.He hadn't even bothered to brush it off.That's alot of snow to carry around.It had to weigh at least 30 pounds.With the contents of his bag,you could probably add another 15 pounds.I wondered how much the box weighed.And then there was the table and chair.That was probably another 10 pounds.I thought about the buckle for a moment and wondered how much it might weigh.Was it a flimsy little tin buckle that weighed a gram or so or was it a big brass gaudy buckle that weighed maybe 3 or 4 ounces?

     A policeman pulled his patrol car up next to Arthur and asked how he was doing.Arthur told him that he was running for Mayor again this week and asked the officer if he could count on his vote.The cop told him that not only did he have his vote, but he would tell the boys at the precinct to vote for him as well.The constable reached into the back seat and handed Arthur some leftover donuts,wished him luck with the campaign and drove off.Arthur offered me half of the donuts.The donuts weighed at least 5 pounds.I didn't feel like carrying them since I had to take 3 trains to get home."Give them away" he told me."You'll find someone to give them to on your way home." I thanked him and as I started to leave,a gust of wind tipped the box on his sled and all of the contents fell out onto the street.

     I'd never seen such a variety of telephones.I offered to help him re-pack the box but again he held out his hand as he had done with the baby carriage.He mumbled something about President Truman and began answering the phones as if they were actually ringing."Yeah,Harry,how's Hillary?...yes...I have the buckle...Right...yes...tell General Grant that I'll have his buckle to him by the morning...yes...I know it's been over a century...uh huh...the bag too...yeah...listen...tell him the bag has been very useful...yes...I took very good care of the buckle...don't worry...say hi to Nancy."

     The telephones must have weighed about 50 pounds.Maybe more.There were cell phones.Princess phones,pay phones,there were even play phones like the ones that are made by Fischer Price for children.Arthur picked up a nice yellow and red one that rattled when he picked up the receiver, and had a very nice conversation with The Shah of Iran who was offering half of his kingdom for the buckle.This must be a very special buckle,but I've yet to see it.

     I remembered the baby carriage.Maybe it was filled with old telephones.That many telephones would be hard to carry around without the aid of a carraige or a sled.And when you're running for Mayor, you don't want to be seen carrying all that stuff around without some kind of  wheeled assistance.People might think you're some kind of nut.