Here’s a transcription of a conversation between Patrick and JP on 16 Nov 2011 at a restaurant. Originally the audio file was too large to post here, but now [19 Sep 2021] it’s available below.

JD: Well Donna was seventeen, right? I think, she went to school …

PM: When was she born? I don’t know.

JP: I think she was born in ’38 which would make her 16. Now, she must have been born in ’36 because you’re 34, right?

PM: I was born in ’34 yeah.

JP: So I think she must have been born in ’36 aunt Sue or aunt Phil was ’38.

JP: Maybe aunt Phil was ’37 and Chuck was ’38, ’56 is 20. I think she was born in ’38. I think I remember that it was, the math was a little vague …

JP: but it struck me that …

PM: Because, I know she was in the university very young.

JP: Yeah, she entered the university at 16.

PM: 16

PM: So, that would have been 1953. She was 16.

PM: So when was she born?

JP: ’53, 16, would have been ’37 or ’36. Yeah.

PM: She was born in December …

JP: 20th

PM: 20th

JP: I remember John saying that’s how, you know, she went to the uni… , you know, she … went to the university so young and was so excited because here is a great place there are all these boys.

PM: Ja, right! She made a beeline let me tell you, bang, wow.

JP: Well, the first time you met was going to a concert?

PM: Umm

JP: She leaned forward into the back seat…

PM: Well, not on our first date. Blind date. Yeah. It was very quick.

JP: You wanted to be where the pearl was.

PM: Yeah, right. We went dancing in the Student Center and it was like she was pasted…. Didn’t move at all, just stood right.

PM: At least, before all of this stuff.

JP: Yeah, yeah, just stand and a hug.

PM: Yeah it’s funny I hadn’t ever seen them sitting down. She had a good friend. And I was I saw them a lot but I never spoke to them. Her friend had a really beautiful face and that’s the one I was aiming for. But then she stood up to go dancing and she did this [bent over, I think, showing her cleavage] and … so I ended up dancing with Donna.

PM: And that worked out fine.

PM: Good. We went blackberry picking one time and Mom said “Is that what they call it now?”

JP: So when was I staying with little grandmother? [Patrick’s mom] I know she sent me some pictures from when I was two or three.

PM: Your mom and I lived two or three blocks from her on Julian Street.

JP: I remember Julian Street, I remember the name Julian Street.

PM: We walked to Fairbanks Avenue and one block that way and down Stanley Street and there we were.

[Waiter serving “comida” and John saying “gracias”]

PM: [About the food:] This is normally for one person. So, we can always get something else if that’s not enough.

PM: Let see, I can’t remember the sequence but when I left we were living on Julian Street and I think Donna had to leave you with mom and pop while she figured out what to do.

PM: When I saw you next, you were living in the garage apartment in Indiatlantic above the real estate agency. I can’t remember the sequence because my father apparently was crying when you were taken away.

JP: I thought they had already split up by then.

PM: No

JP: It wasn’t until … when did Little Grandmother and your dad split?

PM: Sue would know. I don’t know She was living there. I was already away, in college, then married.

PM: She kept living there and was still living there when we moved to Winter Park.

JP: Sue still living at home when he moved out?

PM: Yes, because Larry was in the Air Force.

PM: Mmm it tastes good. It reminds me of curry hot dog, Oak Hill, WV.

JP: It reminds me of meatloaf on a bun.

PM: That’s one of the things I like to make. I haven’t made one of them in a couple of years.

PM: Everybody is going down a shoe string potatoes. A year ago nobody made shoe string potatoes, they were French fries.

PM: When did they do that?

JP: I don’t know. I like them crunchy, but …

JP: For a while one of the most popular restaurants in California, basically taking mashed potatoes and extruding and then giving like one last shot deep fried. Terrible!

JP: People …. raved about their burgers. I couldn’t stand them.

PM: The thing that gets me in England right now that one of the big things for kids is the buddy sandwich. French fries on a bun.

PM: Can you imagine?!

JP: French fries on a bun? No, but I used to dip my French fries in milk shakes.

PM: They were loose and floating about or ground up?

JP: No, I just did it sort of like dipping into a fondue, you know.

PM: But the sandwich with the potatoes it it?

JP: Hm. That’s what it is a potato sandwich.