Bus Stop Stories: Rod the Observer

Ronovan Fiction , ,

Bus Stop

Rod took his place on the bench as the bus pulled away. “What was that all about?”

I shook my head with a half-smile in reply.

“I don’t know how he lives through that day after day, man.” He looked at me for agreement. I raised an eyebrow.

“What? That was crazy. She’d drive me off my rock, man.” Rod was a college student wanting to be a journalist. He liked to bounce his observations off me. I could see his wheels turning as he tried to look outside his world box.

“I guess he didn’t seem upset or anything, the patience of a saint. I would have blown.”

I nodded to acknowledge I was listening.

“Rod!” We looked up as Rod’s friend Emerile jogged across the street.

“Real Erile,” They did the handshake thing began that I never could master.

“How is it my friend?”

“Fantastic, just talking ‘bout two oldies going back and forth.”

“You were necking it again? Need to stop all that, going to get that elastic head joint of yours chopped listening where it don’t belong.” Emerile smiled.

“Man, I’m good.”

“What you doing?”

“Nothing.”

“Good, we’re heading to Tippy’s.”

“Why?” Rod was tight with his money.

“Man, Tippy’s only sells one thing.”

“I know, but I’m good as is.”

“Serious? Man, their stuff makes everything else like 2001.” Emerile gets excited about things, talking with his entire body. Never stand next to him when he gets started.

“You get it then.”

“Go with me anyway. You ain’t got nothin’ else to do.”

“Man, I am the busiest man in town.” The bus pulled up. The doors closed behind them. Two lifelong friends going on about nothing. Didn’t matter what the age. Rod would never realize he was a back-and-forth guy himself.

 

© 2014-2020 Ronovan Hester Copyright reserved. The author asserts his moral and legal rights over this work.

 

 

Helene Rother: Simply put…Designer

Ronovan Odds and Ends , , , ,

I doubt Helene Rother knew as she and her young daughter escaped to a refugee camp in northern Africa from Nazi occupied France that before long she would be illustrating for Marvel Comics, apparently Jupiter Jimmy, and designing automobile interiors in the United States.

This is a gem I found as I was researching for a car that might have been used in the American Zone of Berlin by an American officer in the late 1940s. I don’t traditionally like to utilize the cliché vehicles we read about in every other book. Instead I want something interesting that I can learn from. When I found the 1948 Nash 600 and Helene Rother I knew I had found my car.

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(Interior shot courtesy of autoweek.com)

Helene is credited as being the first woman to work as an automotive designer back in 1943. It’s really no wonder that she was so successful. She knew what women liked and thus what men would like. She brought class to the middle class. And she changed the way the auto industry treated not only the less wealthy auto buyer but the creative woman as well.

Helene went on to design interiors for ambulances and hearses and have her own design company. She even designed the Skylark silverware pattern for Samuel Kirk & Son.

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Later in life she began designing stained glass for churches. (Stained glass images courtesy of michiganstainedglass.org)

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Taking That First Step

Ronovan Life

Many people like to think about the great things that will come there way once their ideas come to fruition. The problem is that just thinking about them doesn’t get you anywhere. You actually have to move, take action, do something!

Fear gets in the way for all of us achieving our goals and dreams. Today I overcame one of those fears. Here I am with my very own blog and preparing to expose my thoughts to the world. I am going to go places I’ve never been and by continuing to move forward I never have to back down from the fears that came before. Wherever I go I’ll always be moving a step forward.