a caterer from pilar

i only met jim wright, jr. once. it was in taos, new mexico in the summer  of 1983, at the adobe apartment of my long time mentor, doug o. pedersen, an artist-writer from new york, who founded the education department at the whitney museum of american art in new york city.  i had met doug and his eventual wife, the collage artist kelsey hauck, in berkeley, california, in the spring of 1970.  we traveled and wrote and studied together for six to eight months, including the summer of 1970; and then hooked up some years later when they had settled in santa fe, new mexico.  jim wright, jr. used to stop by in his van, in taos, new mexico, with a large jar of jalapena peppers, which was the case when we met.  jim, jr. was a caterer for rough water rafting trips on the rio grande as it flowed through northern new mexico.  he lived with his wife, sandra, in the small village of pilar, between santa fe and taos, where there was a small coffeehouse gallery as i recall.  i knew who he was because i was from fort worth, and jim wright, sr. had been our congressperson for a generation.  he had served for a while as speaker of the united states house of representatives, and was a friend of my mother, jinky george.

Jim Wright's sister was the poet Mary Connell, a Santa Fe businesswoman with rental properties and a small motel.  Doug and Kelsey had rented from her when they first came to Santa Fe.  I would eventually rent from Mary myself at her compound in Espanola, also between Santa Fe and Taos.  At that time I met Sandra Wright Page, Jim Wright's former daughter-in-law who edited a magazine out of Michigan.  She was a friend of Mary's.  We went dancing at an inn outside of Taos, and remain Facebook friends to this day.

Jim Wright, Sr. and Mary Connell have both passed away now.  Jim, Jr. comes to mind sometimes because he was a caterer out of Pilar, New Mexico; and my favorite contemporary poetry journal in the latter half of the last century was CATERPILLAR, edited by Clayton Eschelman whom i met in San Francisco when he lectured on DON JUAN: A YAQUI WAY OF KNOWLEDGE by Carlos Castaneda.  it is a small, coherent world.  I live in Fort Worth once again at a comfortable nursing home where I hope I will soon be eighty years old.  I have had an interesting life.