Wednesday, November 30, 2016
About two years ago, I was reading a popular book when, one nice summer day, I walked past the Coffee Etc. location in the Lindsay-Flanagan building and saw Sylvester rocking a bright orange, skin tight t-shirt. He had several customers lined up and I just walked right up to him and said, "Orange is the new black." He looked at me and said, "O.K."
Probably a couple of weeks later, he was wearing the same t-shirt and I again approached him with the same words. It was following this second time that I learned that he had no idea what I was talking about. I explained that I was about a third of the way through the book of the same name. I happened to have the book in my purse and took it out to show him. He asked what I thought of it and gave a lukewarm review. I had, however, downloaded it to my Kindle and offered the paperback to him.
He read the book in a fairly short time and said that he liked it. I also had explained about the Netflix series, although I had not seen any of the series. For Christmas that year, Brandon gave him a Netflix subscription and, although Sylvester didn't watch much if any TV and did very little secular reading, he became an avid fan of OITNB.
I have still not finished reading the book. He asked if he could pass the book along to someone else, which was fine by me. He was one of the kindest, most caring people I have ever had the pleasure to know. We discussed all kinds of things including relationships, parenting, race, and current events. I am happy that I am on my way out of being at the courthouse as frequently because it will be an empty place without him.
