'SONNY' SALINGER

In the recent biography titled, J.D. SALINGER, A LIFE by Kenneth Slawenski, I read that from the time he was born and ever afterwards, his parents called him,'SONNY', one thing that I have in common with him as my parents and my grandparents and all my friends all called me 'SONNY'.......and like the late JD Salinger, I lived in Cornish and went to school there as well....... I also used to visit NAP'S SODA FOUNTAIN, especially after the movies there in Windsor,Vermont, but at that time JD Salinger had not moved into to town...bu;t when he did he moved to DINGLETON HILL not far from where my grandfather and his grandparents and some of his friends lived before JD Salinger was born....... Crossing the road from Windsor that cuts across the entrance to Dingleton Hill to the covered bridge near Mill Road is Comings Cemetary where some of my ancestors are buried and where I plan, if all goes well, to be buried...... JD Salinger trained at Fort Dix, where I also received my basic training, and then he was assigned to Fort Monmouth, New Jersey to the Signal Corps, and so was I but many years after WWII of course....... According to the biographer in this book mentioned, Salinger had a preoccupation with death for a multitude of reasons but he was apparently concerned the most with the 'arbitrary nature of death' which means that anyone can die anytime, anyplace, and without any warning or meaning or significance to their deaths...... In later years, Salinger apparentnly became interested in 'organic' farming, herbs, 'homegrown' veggies and fruits and other things now considered 'trendy' and 'new age' etc. and some hail him as a prophet or simply ahead of his time, despite his 'sophisticated' manner and lifestyle and craft.....which seems,when examined, a 'facade'.....an image he presented to the world, which others have written books about..... So why the back woods of Cornish and solitude of rural life? Like Salinger, I long for silent hills and quiet woods with only babbling brooks for conversations and the song
cries of birds, the cawing of crows, the mooing of cows,etc. butting in for their 'say' about things.....and I sort of think he felt perhaps a bit the same way..........but more intensely than I do......

JD SALINGER'S LAST SUPPER

The late JD Salinger has been in the news lately and interest in him continues and will continue for many, many years, undoubtedly... Contrary to popular belief and legend about 'JD" or "JERRY' as some called him in attempts to seem familiar with him, he was not the complete hermit-recluse-anchorite-ascetic many want to make him out to have been but a man who,in some respects, followed the WAY OF THE HOUSEHOLDER.... The subject of 'his Last Supper'(no relation to the more famous, LAST SUPPER of BIBLICAL PROPORTIONS) was his last supper consisting of foods he usually consumed at CHURCH SUPPERS in HARTLAND,VERMONT at the CONREGATIONAL CHURCH known better as 'the red brick church' and which enjoys, as do nearly all such affairs in both New Hampshire and in Vermont a devoted following of eaters of all ages and denominations....especially nowadays in hard economic times....where a good hearty, sometimes all you can eat portions are served up...so that everyone comes away fully satisfied...... Confined and unable to attend the supper before his demise, JD'S wife drove to Hartland and got a meal for him to eat at home.....which was his very last 'church supper' the fare and pie he liked to eat unquestionably........