This guy that I am seriously attempting to embarrass is one of my best friends, Marvin Cole. If you haven't noticed, Marvin bears a marked resemblace to Mark Twain ... So much so that Marvin has been portraying Twain for a considerable part of his life. For many years, Marvin and I taught elderhostels together at the Mountain Retreat on Scaly Mountain near Highlands. We were frequently joined by Shelia Kay Adams and we developed a popular presentation that was a kind of mixed bag of storytelling and music called "A Season of Laughter." Recently, we were invited to the Mountain Retreat for a "Recognition Lunch" at which we were fed, praised and given tokens of appreciation (a paperweight, a Mountain Retreat cap, a coffee cup and a large photo of ourselves. Shelia Kay didn't show up so Marvin and I were left to recall the highlights of our elderhostel programs (I was there for 35 years). Regardless of what I may have felt about the Recognition Ceremony, I was pleased to see Marvin who is one of the most genial and kind people that I have ever met. He is still out there somewhere in an ice cream suit, smoking a big cigar and posing as Mark Twain to standing ovations. If you haven't seen him, you should Google him.
