OK...This is the beginning...we need a middle and an end...try to stay away
from such things as PLOT and CHARACTER...but the form is DOCUMENTARY. Please
add/subtract and pass it on... charlie
Old Man: And here come Steckle runnin’ around the corner, and Joey yells,
"Hey Steckle! Steckle!" But he ain’t stoppin. He just keeps running. (Waves hand dismissively)
Stuff like that happened all the time. (fade out)
(fade in title)
STECKLE
Another Old Man: Herbie Steckle? Sure. Everybody in the old neighborhood knew Steckle. (fade out)
(fade in title)
A LIFE
Yet AOM: And then Steckle says to me, he says, "I’ll give you a quarter."
Now that was a lot of money in those days. So I says to him, I says, "Sure. But don’t tell my mother!"
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Old Woman: All the girls knew Herbie Steckle. Are you kidding? Our mothers
used to scare us into doin’ things around the house that we didn’t want to do by telling us,
"If you don’t do so and so, you’ll grow up to marry Herbie Steckle." That made you jump to
it, whatever it was, let me tell you.
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Old Man: You see, back then, we’d have to sit outside all day in the summer.
And there was Steckle! You couldn’t avoid him! You’d want to go inside, but you couldn’t! Jeez,
how we prayed to go inside to get away from ‘im. But you see, you can’t.
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Old Woman: One day, (oh, I remember this very clearly! Do you ever have
memories like that? I sure do! Like it was yesterday. (pause) Now, what were we talking about?)
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AOM: Bottom line? Steckle was a bastard.
Interviewer: Why was that?
AOM: Whadda ya mean why? He was a bastard! What kind of person are you doesn’t know what a bastard is.
Interviewer: I know what a bastard is; I thought you were speaking metaphorically.
AOM: Who has time to speak metaphorically?
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Old Woman: Who? Herbie? Well (shyly, then, thinking it won’t hurt to
tell), yeah. He was. But don’t ask me who it was wasn’t married. I never knew if it was his
mother or his father.
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YAOM: And then Steckle says to me, he says, "I’ll give you a quarter." Now
that was a lot of money in
those days. So I says to him, I says, "Sure. But don’t tell my
mother!" (laughs) "But don’t tell my mother!" (stops laughing) Have I told you that already?
(Chuck)
4th Grade Teacher: Folks called him a genius...and I guess he was, but for a genius he was pretty dumb...if you ask me.
Interviewer: Was he slow? Was he introverted, or what? What do you mean by dumb?
4th Grade Teacher: It was just that he couldn't do simple things: like reading, zipping his pants, or eating by himself. And DEATHLY afraid of clouds. (sighs in disgust)
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Minister: What struck me as odd, was how he always called me "daddy". At first I thought he just meant to say Father or Padre, but even when he was thirty-five, he still called me "daddy"
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Old Man #2: I remember this one day back in '39. Me and Sammy, Jeb and Hutch...we were fishin' down to the lake and Jeb snagged Sammy in the scrotum...with his spinner-bait. Sammy started coughin' up blood and what not, and me and Hutch was laughin' like hyenas......(interviewer interrupts).
Interviewer: What about Steckle?
Old Man #2: Who? Oh, he didn't do much fishin', claimed it was "too dangerous." (making quotation marks in air)
(Jeremy)
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Old Lady: When he was a kid, he would wear his cowboy outfit and hunt for jack rabbits with a pop-gun in my flower garden. I don't reckon he ever done no harm..leastways not to no jack rabbits.
Classmate: Now I'll tell ya...if you was lookin' for a tussle, Ol' Steckle was always able, ready, and willin' to accomodate. I remember when the neighborhood bully tried to charge all the kids a toll to go into the movie theater. Yessir, Ol' Steckle met him head on. All I seen was a blur of hair, eyes, teeth, and feet.
Interviewer: It was a tough fight, huh?
Classmate: I dunno. My eyesight ain't so good. All I could see was a blur of hair, eyes, teeth, and feet.
Barber: Yeah, he used to come in here all the time with these celebrity magazines wanting a new fangled haircut just like in the pictures.
Interviewer: Did you do it for him?
Barber: I just cut it the same old way every time.
Interviewer: And he kept coming back?
Barber (laughing): I'd show him himself in the mirror, and I reckon he always thought he looked like one of them celebrities. He'd just grin and spin around in the chair like a fly'n ginny...
(T-billy)
VERY OLD WOMAN: Steckle? Hell yeah I knew him.. But not like people sez, 'nywayz. G* D* nozy sumbitches. Oughta mind there own damn biddness. As if they ain't got 'nuff fleas crawlin' round their own crotch hair. They got to go lookin' through mine.
INTERVIEWER: So, Let's set the record straight. How did you know Herbie Steckle?
WOMAN: Hee Hee Hee Let's just say I'z older He'z younger but we both learned from each other. He wasn't queer like them others all thought.
INTERVIEWER: You mean some folks thought Herbie was gay... a homosexual?
WOMAN: HELL NAUGH! Not queer like that. His loafers was made from lead. That’s for damn sure! I mean he wurn't as queer...as odd as folks want to make him out to be. Scarrin' their children and such like. He had a kind of
soft side too. Not soft like a rabbit pelt but soft like the under belly of a wart hawg. One'st people got past the eye thing.... and got to know him...he'z all right.
INTERVIEWER: The "eye thing" what was that all about?
WOMAN: Do you plan to ask nozey questions all damn day?
INTERVIEWER: As long as you'll let me.
WOMAN: Oh I see. So you're one of them too.
INTERVIEWER: One of who ma'am?
WOMAN: One of 'dem G* D* nozy sumbitches. What? You want to go diggin' through my crotch hair too? Huh young feller....that what you want??
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INTERVIEWER: So, I'm trying to find out about Herbie Steckle. What do you fellas remember about Herbie?
OLD MAN #1: "Pert near evithing. Me n him 'uz best friends. What'chu wantin' to know?
OLD MAN #2: (Gawfaws) "Best friend" my ass! Herbie Steckle didn't have no friends, much lest best friend. (Spits tobacco juice) Heeh Heeh That’s a good un Earl. "Best friend." Heeh Heeh
#1: (Angry) Shut up ya old fart. You know damn well me n him uz close. So
just shut yer damn trap while Iz talking to this here fine young man. Now, what wuz you sayin?
INTERVIEWER: Oh, I don't know...I would like to hear any stories you want to share about Mr. Steckle. Can you tell me about his eye?
#1: His EYE! Damn! That’s the thing I'd like most to forget...not to go rememberin'
#2: That’s for damn sure. (Spits tobacco Juice again)
INTERVIEWER: What do you mean?
#1: You know exactly what I mean. You been nosin around these parts for days now. Askin all kinds of questions about Steckle. (Becomes very aggitated) YOU"VE SEE THE PICTURE.
INTERVIEWER: I've seen A picture of Mr. Steckle.
#2: Then you've seen the eye!!
INTERVIEWER: What I saw was a distant photograph of a man with a slightly.......(long pause) rummy eye.
#1: Rummy.rummy? You have no idea. You have NO idea. Starrin' always starrin and twitchin..movin like...
#2: That’s enuf Earl.
#1: Maybe it's time.
#2: It ain't every gonna be time. It's time for this here fella to mosey on. (Spits a stream of tobacco juice on the interviewer's shoes)
(Rog)
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