Good Time Charlie
I first started working when I was ten (yes ten) babysitting. I believe that's illegal today. Then I worked at the snack food stand at the little league field. That was the summers I was 14 and 15. When I was 16, I started working in the local Public Library. And when I was 17, GapKids at the mall.
But, my first office job was the summer between 11th and 12th grade. I interned for Congressman Charlie Wilson. That summer I did not get paid. I interned another summer while I was in college, and I did get paid. I believe for the princely sum of $1200/month. Which, to a nineteen year old in the early nineties, was living large.
Charlie Wilson was all the outrageous things said about him, and none of them. He had a crass sense of humor, and notorious love of beautiful women, a party hard lifestyle. He was also a shrewd politician. He was a public servant first, a politician second.
Yes, much of his staff in the Rayburn House Office Building was made up of young, beautiful woman. But, unlike how they were portrayed in the movie, it wasn't about cleavage and a party at the playboy mansion type atmosphere. Everyone on his staff was ridiculously intelligent and hard working. I was impressed and intimated by them as young adult.
Wilson was a large personality. He had a voice that deep and booming. He stood 6 foot four with a toupe that was usually just a bit crooked. There was a letter taped up in the office from a constituent saying that while she liked his politics, when she saw him on CSPAN, she was embarrassed by the tilt of his toupee.
I hadn't seen Wilson in about twenty years when I heard about his death. But was sad to hear of his passing. I posted his obit on facebook and twitter and late Friday night an old high school friend asked if I would be interested in writing a haiku about Wilson for her column on Huffington Post. With my sleep deprived mind, I threw something together quick, emailing it to her saying, well, I hate it (like I do all my writing) and understand if you don't use it. But alas, she did. And I was the featured writing, which, was a shock to me.
So... Check out Susanna Speirer's column.
