Sometimes you couldn’t tell when he was serious.

He once tried to convince me to write a story about the resurgent popularity of garter belts. He stood at my desk, towering over me through no fault of his own, and explained how these fashion accessories, so necessary in the days before pantyhose, were catching on again.

“They’re the new craze all over town,” he said, and he wanted me to do man-on-the-street interviews (only, you know, with women).

I thought he was joking, so I laughed, and then I thought he was pretending to be frustrated by my lack of enthusiasm. He wasn’t pretending. The next Monday, a story ran on the front page about garter belts (he was the weekend editor at the time, and we had a new general assignment writer who did as he was told).

Sometimes you couldn’t tell when he was joking, such as his adamant assertions that Elvis had merely “disappeared.”

One time, he stopped by my desk, visibly excited, and said he wanted me to drop what I was doing and drive a few blocks west on 11th Street, where I would see some kind of tree in full bloom. I couldn’t miss it, he said, and we needed to do a story about it.

“It’s got to be the talk of the town,” he said.

I think I grinned and shook my head and said something like, “Oh, Claude,” and he stomped away in a huff. A few days later, if I’m not recalling this wrong, we featured a photo by Tom Needham of that very tree.

Claude Duncan could write a moving treatise on the name “Myrtle” or the migration of butterflies. He could illuminate modern issues by quoting from 200-year-old essays or examining the root and evolution of words. He could wound or heal with his words, as the case required.

If he liked you, you knew it, and if he didn’t then he could clearly articulate why in a manner that you couldn’t really argue against and make you consider changing to become a more Claude-worthy person. He was passionate about many things, but particularly human beings, the quirks that make each one memorable, the things in our lives that drive us. He was insightful beyond my ability to describe.

Periodically after he retired, he sent me emails directing me to stories online about advances in robotics and artificial intelligence, the subject of my story in our “Millennium” newspaper project in 2000.

He once wrote a column about me, and I told him I thought it was a rule that a person had to die before friends could publish such nice things about them.

I was wrong, and oh, how I wish I had done this sooner.

Peace, Claude. Say hello to Elvis for me.

The Project Joy Boots auction did not go precisely according to plan. And that’s a good thing. Held Sept. 26 at the Gulf Coast Community College “black box” theater lab, where Marisa Joy Williams spent so many of her days and nights working on productions, the auction of painted rain boots was a labor of love by her friends and family to raise money for a memorial scholarship.
Marisa died in a single-car accident on Feb. 23. She was 18. We like to think of her as our angel.
With the auction, we had expected only a modest return on our efforts. We had hoped to sell at least half of the boots we’d gathered, and we hoped they would pull in a few hundred dollars.
But an angel of another kind sat in the black box audience, bidding on boots that otherwise might not have sold. Each time it became apparent a pair was getting no attention from bidders, this woman would bid $50 or $100 or $200.
She ended up with a total of nearly $900 in bids. But that’s not even the most fantastic part.
She paid with a wad of cash — $5,000 in cash. She would not give her name, and even though the donation was tax-deductible, she did not want a receipt. She also gave some of her newly acquired boots back to the artists or offered them to others at the auction.
She spoke to me briefly but would not tell me her name, and her words and demeanor moved me to tears. She said she had read about Marisa and the project in this paper, and she knew she wanted to participate. She hoped to set an example for her own child, she said. She came to the event planning to give a certain amount of money, and she wouldn’t bid on any boots in which other people showed interest.
“I pray that God blesses her in every area of her life,” Marisa’s mom, Donna, said of the mystery woman. “She truly is an angel to those of us who witnessed her generosity.”
As a result of her kindness, Project Joy Boots now has raised more than $8,000 toward endowing a perpetual scholarship in Marisa’s memory. (Tax-deductible donations still can be made to the Gulf Coast Community College Foundation; write “Marisa Joy Williams Scholarship Fund” on the “For” line of your checks.)
Each fall and spring term, a technical theater major will receive a check to help him or her pursue the dream that Marisa was denied. Think of it as us trying to help someone pull themselves up by their bootstraps.

Their Joy Boot straps.

Peace.

Learn more about the project and see some photos here.

And here.

We had a final get-together for a boot-painting party last Friday in advance of this Friday’s auction.

Kristina Hamilton, the weekend anchor of WJHG TV News Channel 7, stopped in and painted a pair of boots, and shot video and did an interview that ran on Sunday’s newscast. (Thanks, Kristina. It was nice to meet you, and I hope we weren’t too weird for you.) Here’s her report and accompanying video.

Here’s some video and photos I shot.

Hope to see you at the black box on Friday.

Peace.

The original ‘Joy Boots’

Friday will mark a milestone for a local charity group that I’m participating in. Project Joy Boots will have its long awaited auction to raise money for a technical theater scholarship at Gulf Coast Community College.

The auction will be in the GCCC Amelia Center Theatre Lab (the black box), where Marisa Joy Williams spent thousands of hours for countless performances and rehearsals — as an actress, a backstage tech or an audience member. Doors open at 7 p.m. for people to view the hand-painted boots, and the auction will begin at 7:30 p.m.

Marisa, New Year’s Eve, 2006

The daughter of Charles and Donna Williams of Lynn Haven, Marisa died in a car accident on Feb. 23. She was 18. She had recently moved to Orlando to pursue her bachelor’s degree in technical theater. She had finished her associate’s degree at GCCC ahead of schedule, just as she had graduated a year early from Bay High.
She was always a step of ahead of her time, and was taken before her time.

Katie and Jazma

Inspired by the painted rainboots that Marisa often wore, friends Katie Vickmark and Jazma Everett launched Project Joy Boots with the blessing of Marisa’s family. Their idea was to aid the healing process and raise money for a charitable donation. Donna Williams thought the funds should go to help a deserving student pursue the dream that was denied Marisa.
“We wish that we didn’t have to do this for the reasons that we do,” Katie said in an online post. “If we could trade all of this and more to have Marisa back, we would in a heartbeat, but we hope that she sees and smiles on this, and we also hope that this has helped even some of the people that loved her to heal a little — and helps the lucky student that will be awarded this scholarship.”

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Family and friends have gathered on several occasions to paint puddle-stompers. Others came from lone artists inspired by the project. The boots are wearable, or can be employed for various other uses around the house (doorstop, flower pot, pen holder, umbrella stand, etc.).
I encourage you to come out and see the boots, and bid on a pair if you like. Regardless, come view the fruits of this labor of love, meet the folks who made it happen, and help us honor the life of an exceptional young woman.
Peace.

Project Joy Boots has set a date for our big auction. We will be auctioning off some very artistic boots done by local artists and celebrities as well as our remaining stock of boots made by family and friends of Marisa Joy Williams.

All proceeds will go to fund a tech/design theatre scholarship in Marisa’s honor at Gulf Coast Community College. We are also giving to the Humane Society there are a couple of pair of boots set aside to raffle for that as well as we are asking that people attending the auction to please bring a donation of some kind to the auction ( dog/cat food,chew toys, blankets or money) will be accepted.

We are trying to have something good come out of the tradgedy that was Marisa’s death. Marisa loved animals and she was a motivated young woman who was trying to finish her B.F.A. degree by age 21. I know she would have done it!

The Date: Friday September 26,2009

The Place: Gulf Coast Community College Amelia J. Tapper Theater Lab ( the black box)

The Time: Doors open at 7:00 p.m. and the auction will begin at 7:30 p.m.

Auctioneer: Nathan Simmons

Everyone please come out and help us celebrate the beautiful life that was Marisa and let’s give back to our community just a fraction of the happiness she brought to all of us.

If you are unable to attend but want to bid on a pair of boots, some of them are on display at GCCC in the Visual/Performing Arts building go see them and then go to the office and ask Ms. Sherri for the Joy Boots bid book. Write down your bid and keep your fingers crossed that no one out bids you.

Also for those wishing to make a donation to the scholarship, make your checks payable to Gulf Coast Community College Foundation and in the memo section put, for Marisa Williams memorial scholarship. Your gift will be tax deductible!

Thank you in advance for your generosity!

… on the occasion of her 19th birthday:

The days are growing shorter again. For a while the humidity was down, and that gave the atmosphere a false feeling of autumn just around the corner. It’s back-to-school season, and you can smell it in the air. It makes me think of all those mornings you picked up Nathan for school, and I keep expecting you at the door any moment, calling out “Ola!”

You’d probably be at Good Will this week, picking out something stylish that no one else would have recognized until you put it together. There’s a new store on 23rd Street we’ve been meaning to visit. I’ll let you know what we find.

We went to the beach last Sunday and got a little red. I saw a woman gathering debris from the high tide line to decorate her sand castle. She picked up shells and twigs and a dead crab. Her project reminded me of the one we all built together out at Grayton, using June grass and algae to color the surrounding “grounds” and the mermaid’s hair.

We dropped in to spend time with Chuck and Carmen on the night before they left for D.C., sat on the carpet in their empty house while Chuck finished painting his Joy boots. You’d have been there with us, I know, and Chuck would have had no reason to paint, and we’d never even have known how lucky we were. I could have lived all my life having never painted a pair of galoshes.

Even so, Project Joy Boots is going well. We’ve raised about $1,200 towards a scholarship. Your mom and Katie and Jazma have been relentless promoters. I finally finished my pair of time travel boots, though Jazma thinks they’re more like Cyberman shoes. You decide. They’re on display now in the cases at the Amelia Center.

This time last year, we were at your house. Nathan sang “Business Time” and you guys sported matching Spider-Man T-shirts. I rewatched that video again recently, and it made me happy. The future seemed wide open then.

What a difference a year makes.

Well, I know none of this is news to you anyway, and we talk every day. You always were a good listener. We’ll be visiting today and releasing some birthday balloons, so keep an eye out. Try to catch them if they pass close enough.

Love.

—–

View Marisa’s high school graduation video slideshow.

See the musical tribute to Marisa that was part of Gulf Coast Community College’s spring musical.

Watch Marisa and my daughter sing a song to me.

View the video for Project Joy Boots.

Marisa sings ‘Happy Birthday’ to Nathan last summer, with the help of a helium balloon.

Starting out with what I’ve done to waste time lately:

Read a Birds of Prey and a JSA (Justice Society of America), both of them collections of comic series of the same name, and both borrowed from the Bay County Public Library. Birds of Prey: Dead of Winter is written by Gail Simone, and any girl who thinks superhero comics are just for guys is encouraged to give this a try; the humor reminds me of my daughter. JSA: Mixed Signals is by Geoff Johns, and it’s a fun look at generations of heroes. Both books have exceptional art rendered in a realistic style.

I put down the Heinlein I was reading and picked up Orson Scott Card’s “Speaker for the Dead,” an Ender novel. Really liking it so far. I’ll keep you updated. The Heinlein was just too preachy.

For my birthday, I got the recently released DVD box set of Birds of Prey, a short-lived WB series based on the comic. Haven’t started into it yet, but I have fond memories of the series. Apparently, it ran into music rights issues and had to have new theme music edited into each episode.

Also received a copy of the book Into the Wild, which I’ll get to soon, and Zombie Haiku – this latter is the poetry journal of a guy who has been bitten by a zombie and who continues writing haikus as he stumbles through the streets looking for brains. Again, I’ll let you know.

From Netflix: Watched “Starcrash,” one of the worst Italian sci-fi films ever made. It was meant to cash in on the Star Wars craze in 1978; they hired English speaking actors, then dubbed different voices over some of them. But it has the Hoff as the son of the Galactic Emporer, Christopher Plummer, who should have known better. Terrible in so many ways that it was a laugh a minute, especially when we did our own riff track.  Watch the trailer here.

This weekend is the open-air encore of Shakespeare by the Bay’s production of “The Tempest.” Shows are tonight, Saturday and Sunday at 7:30 p.m. at Oaks by the Bay Park in St. Andrews. Bring a chair or blanket. Admission is free.

Finally, some sad news: The author of “The Last Lecture” has died of pancreatic cancer.

I’m more than a little upset to hear that the 40th Annual Spring Festival of the Arts in downtown Panama City was also the last one. I was told this weekend that the Junior Woman’s Club, which has sponsored the event all these years, is calling it quits. I hope someone picks up the slack.

Meanwhile, I’m very glad I attended this year’s event. (I helped out at the “Project Joy Boots” booth most of the weekend. I got to meet lots of nice folks and say hi to friends I hadn’t seen in while, talked with some of my former Education Encore class members, made a new friend among the out-of-town artists, learned about “gecko whispering” (about which you can expect a post soon), watched some belly dancers, listened to some live music, and enjoyed art in so many forms I’d leave something out if I tried to describe it. (But here goes anyway: paint sculpture jewelry photo metalwork musical instruments clay flowers glass pottery plants signs furniture clothing and who-knows-what-all-else.)

Below is a shot from the weekend. (I have more, and I’ll post them soon. You can also look for a photo or two in this Thursday’s Entertainer, on the “Scene Around Town” page.) This is Donna Williams, left, accepting artist Barbara Mulligan’s beautiful set of Joy Boots for the charity program.

Peace.

Spring Word Fling is Saturday at the Gulf Coast Community College Language Arts Building, beginning at 9 a.m. Michael Lister and Lynn Wallace will lead the day’s “practical writing workshop,” which includes a proven way to publication. The cost is $25 ($20 for students). Info: 850-639-4848 or michaellister@mchsi.com

Speaking of GCCC, the college’s Web site has recently undergone a transformation. Chris Thomes, public information specialist for the college, said in an email: “Because the Web has become one of the most important marketing tools available to colleges, it was necessary to revisit all aspects of the site. In early November, students, faculty, staff and area high school students participated in separate focus groups where they discussed their thoughts and observations concerning Gulf Coast’s marketing and customer relations. The Web site was one subject which clearly needed attention - problems and frustrations with the site were continually voiced by all of the focus groups.”

The site incorporates a completely new navigation system as well as an updated design, and underwent a few weeks of internal testing before going live in April. It now has a completely searchable catalog, drop-down menus for easy access to degrees and programs, and a faculty and staff directory.

Marlene Womack will be signing copies of her new book “Anchor of The Bay: 100 years of St. Andrews, 1908-2008” at Books by the Sea, 571 Harrison Ave., on Friday, May 2, from 6-8 p.m. at Friday Fest.

Secret Book Garden & Cafe, 7714 Front Beach Road, offers “Sunshine and Thunder,” unplugged and in concert on Thursday, May 1, from 7 to 9 p.m. $3 cover at the door. Info: 249-5673.

Hodge-podge day ends with a video. This is the outtakes collection from the recent airport disaster drill. My daughter was among the Bay High students who participated. She’s the one with her sunglasses supposedly sticking out of her eye.

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Project Joy Boots continues to add product to the potential auction. The cast and crew of GCCC’s recent musical production, “The World Goes Round,” (joined by friends and family) painted boots during their cast party on Sunday, outside the Black Box theater lab at Gulf Coast. Here are some photos from the event:

Joy Boots will be on display during the Spring Festival of the Arts at McKenzie Park in downtown Panama City this weekend, May 2-4, starting with the preivew party for the event on Friday evening. Stop by for more information or to bid on pairs of the boots. Boots also will be displayed during May in the Strange Brew coffee cafe downtown. Money raised by the program will go to GCCC’s Foundation to benefit a deserving technical theatre student in the name of Marisa Joy Williams.

Peace.