Chalk Up Another One

Trout Fishing in America by Richard Brautigan

My second imagining of a section from Trout Fishing comes from a chapter where our narrator recalls the time he was a sixth grader. He and a posse of his classmates devised a plot (out of boredom) to write "Trout Fishing in America" on the backs of all of the first graders they could find at recess.

So, armed with pieces of chalk and a sixth-grader mindset, they set off on their tasks and swept the playground. Complaints started arising from the campus, as well as confusion. What did this phrase mean, and why was it on the backs of every first grader? Was it some sort of evil plot? Who did it?

Well, the principal eventually got around to grilling the sixth graders. I won't spoil the outcome for you, though. I will, however say that I loved the paragraph that you could tell which of the students' mothers didn't feel like washing clothes every day. The day after the mass-chalking, you could still see the faded remains of the graffiti on some first graders' backs!

Brautigan books are chock-full of fun imagery, so you can expect more booksketches from them!

The Kool-Aid Wino That I-Know

Ahhh, Trout Fishing In America, a wonderful gem by Richard Brautigan. It is packed with random, seemingly absurd moments. And yet some of them are subtly powerful, aren't they?

This sketch is from a chapter called "The Kool-Aid Wino," where our narrator recollects a time when he was a child and he was friendly with a German boy who lived nearby. The boy was "ruptured" (I'm still not really sure what that means) and spent all day loafing around his house and scraping up money for Kool-Aid. Granted, a package of the powder was only a nickel, but in this chapter the "Kool-Aid Wino," so aptly dubbed, bummed a nickel from our narrator and purchased his sweet almost-nectar.

The process of the Wino making the Kool Aid is so intriguing that it earned a booksketch. He retreats to the family chicken coop and lays out four pint-sized containers in a row. You're only supposed to make two quarts of liquid bliss (I imagined Cherry-flavored bliss, of course) from each packet, but his addiction was so great that he made a gallon! This meant that it was diluted. Ewwww.

Anyway, he would be careful not to spill a drop, as was his ritual. Then he would proceed to secure all of the containers in a nice spot until he needed to empty them into his gullet. Whoa, did I just used the word "gullet"? Awesome!!!

I decided to throw in some color, also. Mainly to point out what flavor of Kool-Aid I tasted in my head, and also just for fun.