Coy - Part Thirty-Two - "Ashtray"

Coy

Part Thirty-Two

"Ashtray"

            Did I mention that ‘everyone’; all the characters in this tale of the Captain Savage Estate... ‘distribution’... smoke

            Cigarettes?

            Sorry about that; ‘I forgot’.

            Everyone... starting with Helen and then inclusively onward including... her lawyer, her ‘the girls at the bank’, the “Sea Lavender” decorator-appraiser “Elaine Fisher”, Janet-of-the-Silver-Fork, “Chris”, the Historical Society women (only about 50% actually ‘do’.  ‘Did’ ramps that percentage up), the director of the historical society’s collections, Mr. (Dump), Crap Pile and... did I miss anyone?

            “EVERYONE”

            SMOKES

            CIGARETTES

            ALL THE TIME.

            Except Hiram.

            And me.

            “BANK IT.”

            And... bank on it.

            I did/do.

            Do that.

            So what?

            Well...:  The first thing is that the Savage Mansion is always ‘clouded’ with fresh cigarette smoke “every time” I’ve been in it.  And... there’s an ignited one (cigarette) ‘going’ “all the time” I’m around Helen.  The second thing is that the reader can figure the rest of the cigarette user usage out from there.  I mean... it NEVER QUITS... right down to Crap Pile ‘outside the (frozen February) barn... right up to ...ignited ‘cigs’ in ‘ASHTRAYS’ around the OUT of DOORS Strawberry Festival...  on to the EVER INCLUSIVE EVER of ALL ELSE... but with Helen’s constant inside the Savage Mansion smoke clouding  being the... ah...:

            Hiram does not and never has smoked.

            I am the exact same.

            We have never spoken of this... that... it... at all.  Our ...all of that... is solid fact.  The rest, in my opinion, is... smoky haze.

            What do I care?  This is stupid but it makes a point.  IN THE DINING ROOM... when I did actually eventually go in there... on the sideboard top... ALL of the “ASHTRAYS” had been “SAVED OUT” in a clutter cluster on top of the sideboard... IN ADDITION to having been selectively used (‘ground out’ cigarette butts in-the-bottoms) by the cleanout crew and Helen “when working”.  So... they put old English Victorian earthenware transferware ‘china’ in banana boxes to ‘clean out clutter’ as donations for bric-brac  tables... but ‘kept’ (“KEEPERS”) the “ashtrays”.  OK...

            And some of these were (are) actual ashtrays while some of them are... ‘other things’ being ...used as ashtrays.

            OK?

            So... from a comprehension-of-design perspective this ...ashtray clutter cluster ‘kept’ IS an ...expression... of design choice; a classic ‘choice of choices’.  This ‘choice of choices’ means... stupid choice from stupid choices... as here with the ‘ashtrays’... onward and upward toward... comprehension (cognitive comprehension?) of design perspective OPPORTUNITIES... of... a fine choice of... fine choices.  It’s a basic ‘taste’ thing; choice is made from choices ...and THAT ACTION (1) is controlled and (2) ‘shows what one knows’ (taste).  It also ‘shows’ when it is NOT a controlled action and ...shows what one does NOT know (bad taste) “any better” (WASP).  ASHTRAYS are... a design form that did not exist, then appeared, then flourished, then... and still actively now... ‘declined’ as a design form ‘in active usage’.

            Today

            The ash

            Tray

            Is fading

            Away.

            Because ... “people aren’t smoking as much right?”.  Meanwhile back at the sideboard top one... who... ‘knows’ quickly notices ‘some (actual) ashtrays’ and...

            An 1850’s pink lustre tea cup used to... grind out a butt... in it’s bottom... AFTER the cup’s saucer was “sent to Hell” by itself to be “SOLD” for fifty cents at... the bric-brac table.  SOME BODY MADE THAT CHOICE... comprehensively... or NOT.  So.. that’s why some CUPS are sold as bric-brac while their saucers remain behind ‘with butts ground out on them”.  TOO.

            THAT is... choice of choices.

            “By idiots”.

            Who, too... smoke.

            “IS THIS ALL A DAMN Beggar’s Opera (Part Thirty-One) OR WHAT?”

            Beyond the dining room sideboard clutter cluster of ‘kept’ ‘ashtrays’... the same ritual of gathering, choosing, keeping, using and ...well... THEY ARE DISPLAYED... too... for they are actually the most singular group of objects... ‘comprehensively’ TOUCHED by ANYONE (everyone) in the estate ...ever:  Not even old One John’s mirror shroud (Part Twenty-Three [A]) gets that much... choice of choices.  A... heavy-on-the-arty-color... photographic coffee table ... BOOK of the “collection of the objects used as ashtrays discovered in the Captain One John Savage Estate Mansion 1850 – 2014”?  HEY:  Why not... and “IT WOULD SELL”.  Bad taste about bad taste (choice of choices) “ALWAYS SELLS” “THEY’LL LOVE IT WHO WOULD EVER THINK!”

            “Yuck.” (I say).

            AND OVER the decades of the antiquarian I ...I have... encountered TOO MANY ‘good things’ “USED AS AN ASHTRAY”... by idiots... who have...  usually in the form of bombastic center target black ash BURN MARK ‘bullet hole’... ‘destroyed’ (marked forever) ‘something’ either ‘nice’ or ‘good’.  Throw alcohol into ...the choice of choices... ...they grind the butt just that much harder (women included).

            Building a perception of animosity ‘towards’... that releases the ...choice of choices... of grinding the butt out in ...the center of the forehead as the ‘caste marked’ OF the... ‘smoker’ with ‘bad taste’.  Oh:  So a few of them CAN manage their tobacco habit... that still does not change the ground rule of good taste that one... does owe it to oneself to ...at least consider... that the choice... of choices... OF KNOWING WHAT ... one’s great... great... greater-greats ...grandmother’s “OLD CHINA” ‘was’ (‘is’ should “IT” be a ‘still around’...:  And that ‘knowing’ is radically expanded into a UNIVERSE of ‘old china knowing’ ‘choices’ of ‘choices’ of ‘choices’ so that one may ‘know’ ‘self’ but ALSO carry this knowing of choice of choices’ outward into one’s ‘daily living’ and find... like the ‘such as I’... ALL of these iota of ‘constantly before’ one ... in ...the occasional euphoria of “they DO know!” (very rare I promise) merged most normally with ‘they don’t know’ and therefore have... ... ... it is actually worse than ‘bad taste’.  Punishing self for this now discerned negligence... by holding the ignited cigarette to one’s soft underside of forearm to BURN and SCAR to remind one of?  I will say what will actually happen:  One WILL encounter ...as one’s notice-of-design eye... TRAVELS outward from one’s inner epiphany of choice of choices... to discover... by wandering chance... a ‘ground out butt’ mark on a “THAT” “OHMYGOD” “GROSS” “I REMEMBER THAT GUY TALKING ABOUT”... and as one peers upward from that frayed moment one... there... then.. IS WHERE I am speaking of... about one’s choice of choices.

            So I get the gate.  If we are down to ASHTRAYS in the Savage Mansion... as a substantive and respected design form WITHIN the “IT’S A MUSEUM IN THERE”... and I AM (DID) MAKING OFF with the... gate to the mansion:  “HEY: YOU DIDN’T EVEN KNOW YOU COULD ‘find’ ‘old gates’ SO SHUT-UP”...:  I am telling you right here it is choice of choices; the making of them... by oneself... alone...:  FROM NOW ON one will notice ashtrays?  NOW ON?  So that the micro total-ness of ...I ...notice CIGARETTE usage carrying to choice of choices in ashtrays... carries to the back of a closed up old garage for an old car that is LONG GONE so the building is ‘mostly empty’ except for the recently added ‘yucky’ AND... ‘includes that old gate too’ WAY AT the BACK WALL...:  I’m twenty feet from it when ‘I spy’ and ...GET IT... without ever even TOUCHING IT until I ‘flip it’ into ...the back of my truck... with Hiram... watching.

            Hiram.

            “THANK GOD” Hiram appeared.  A BREEZE of SANITY?

            Before I go back to Hiram... one more Savage estate ashtray drubbing.

            They ‘all smoked’.  Except One John.  Of course.  It goes back to ‘tolerated”, et al (Part Twenty-Two).  Molly... One John’s wife... smoked... a pipe.  HER daughters... including Helen’s great-great-greater great did too; smoked pipes.  SHE... ‘they couldn’t get her to put it down’.  Aunt Winnie?  “Like a chimney”.  SNUFF and ‘chew’ was always around... too... affirmed by the old (and womanly design treated) spittoons ‘found in the estate contents’.  For the record, Victorian women used small (“miniature”) ‘piss pot’ shaped-like ‘hand spittoons’ when... seated in the front parlor and needing ...to spit.  SO... actually Helen’s tobacco habit IS historically... and ‘of family heritage’... correct.  She IS ‘that’ (the tobacco usage of the Savage Family and its estate) “TOO”.  I am just a ‘one’ who... drives the lawn tractor in there, pries up the... ashtrays... and pitches them?  Come on; I just suggested they publish a BOOK about ‘them’.