My Friend, Bob Canaletto
by
Corey Mesler
I wanted to write a story about my friend, Bob
Canaletto, the plumber. I wanted to describe his rise to grandeur,
to the pinnacle of plumberness. How did he do it? Why him and
not a dozen other plumbers, equally talented, equally blessed?
I wanted to discuss the "right place at the right time"
theory, to debunk it, in a way. There is genius and there is
everyone else, and no one, least of all me, admittedly, understands
where that demarcation line lies. I wanted to say something
about that, and about Bob, as a person, as a friend, godfather
to my young daughter, Dido. So much has been written about him
as a star, as the brightest plumber of his generation.
He has been revered, delineated, deconstructed, and, for all
that, misunderstood. His rightfully famous "Burr Removal
Treatise" has been reprinted more times than "Desiderata,"
but few have taken the time to comprehend what he was really
saying. Ditto for his "Drain Snake Dialogue: A Lucubration."
But, what about the spiritual Bob Canaletto? What about the
philosophical side to this worker in sanitary ware? Was his
belief in metempirics consistent with his handling of flux and
solder? Did his "God" create his likeness with lampblack,
plumber's soil? As of now, this has not been plumbed, if you'll
forgive the play on words.
Now that he's gone, has anyone stood up to say, "I knew
Bob Canaletto, and he was more than a great pipe cleaner?"
I wanted to be that person. I wanted to add my voice to the
multitudes crying his name.
I wanted the real Bob to emerge from the sciamachy of myth.
Did I know Bob Canaletto better than anyone else knew Bob? This
does not interest me. I claim no personal glory.
I wanted to set Bob free.
But this cannot happen now. The zealots and the coven of family
members and "friends," the sycophants and arcanists,
have had their say. The papers are sealed, the gag order issued,
the libraries mute.
But I know. I have my memories, like freshly milled dreams.
I sit quietly now and replay them. My sweet memories of my friend,
Bob Canaletto.
....
COREY MESLER is the
owner of Burke’s Book Store, in Memphis, Tennessee, one
of the country’s oldest (1875) and best independent bookstores.
His first novel, Talk: A Novel in Dialogue appeared out of the
ether in 2002..
