Almost great

 


Almost great


     Any passing remark in this carnival we are visiting can be kept in the vaults for repetition into eternity. Such is this snippet that was just some part of a critique voiced from the crosswalk in Westwood Village in the mid-1970's. I had worked at the time with a rather self-obsessed and desperately attention seeking woman named Susan. She had been in the movies as child but nature had not blessed her as she grew older and now she was an office drudge like me at the Central Ticket Office at UCLA. She was highly intelligent but also highly neurotic. Susan was melodramatic about things she liked. Actually, everything she liked she loved. She had become somewhat "stout" in her middle age and was delighted if she could  tell her stories of brushes with greatness anytime and anywhere. Despite her insecurity I liked Susan and tried to be as nice as possible since she lived in the same building as I did at the time. Greg revelled in the emotive style of her declarations and often repeated her statements since they were always over the top. We were driving up Westwood boulevard one afternoon, heading for a movie probably when we were stopped for pedestrians crossing the street. There was Susan in the crowd and she spotted us and waived frantically. Greg rolled down the window and Susan said passionately "have you heard the new Susan Olivor album? It's almost great!" That is all there was to it but Greg took the moment in time and placed it in the amber of his memory. Susan Oliver was a kind of a poor man's Streisand but a good singer. I guess you could say she was "almost great." Susan is gone now but her words linger on.



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