Appendix C

Postscript by the Editor

The time has come, the walrus said,

To talk of many things.

Of ships and shoes and sealing-wax

And cabbages and kings.

This Appendix is the catch-all, the repository of all the leftovers, the hall closet where things are thrown until someone can decide what to do with them.

A variety of clippings, photos, brief notes, scraps of paper, and what have you. They are presented in the order listed here.

First, the gentleman with the wrinkled coat, checkered vest, and impressive moustache. The back of the photo reads, Presented to Carrie Everson

Jno.

W. Everson

Cincinatti

Ohio

Dec. 11 (year missing)

so, who is he? Not one of Carrie Jane's tribe. Not one of Jack's brothers; they all died young. Not his father. Most likely his father's brother, and Jack's uncle.

Jack was a joiner, of sorts. In my youth, I knew that he was a member of the Fraternal Order of Eagles. Later, he became a Mason and was a member of the Sciots. With the advent of radio he was a member of two groups which staged a weekly talk show; first, the Lake Merritt Ducks, in which he held the office of Head Scratcher, and later, the Goat Island Goats. Both were amusing for a time but bogged down and disbanded, probably because its one helluva job to keep producing new, interesting, and funny material week after week. I have no documentation on the Ducks, but there is a clipping dated Sept. 15, 1926, which announces the Goats' initial broadcast. They lasted for at least a year.

Jack never gave up on his ability to write songs and music. Of a dozen or so, I have selected "Wonderful Dreams of You", copyrighted in 1942 as my choice for the best of the lot. It never went anywhere, but you might like to try it on your zither.

There are assorted pictures of Jack, taken at various times but unfortunately; lacking dates.

Then there is an intriguing document, handwritten on a piece of scratch paper, which says that Jack and Millie were married in the Methodist Episcopal Church in San Rafael, Calif. in January 9, 1915. I was born in 1908. Did Millie, that paragon of conventional respectability, get carried away and enter into an unsanctioned liaison? Was I an illegitimate child for my first six-plus years? I suspect that the truth of the matter is more prosaic. Quite likely, they were indeed married in May of 1906 (Jack, p. 81);the original marriage license was destroyed in the fire, and in order to have some sort of documentary evidence available they repeated the ceremony in 1915. Moreover, it was during World War I, Jack was in the Merchant Marine, and my brother John was to make his debut in a few months; these may have been contributing factors.

One last item, Jack's business card.

And now, if you have stuck with the narrative all the way, you know a good deal (maybe more than you wanted to know?) about my father and his life. I hope you found his autobiography interesting.

For those interested in the technical details, this opus was produced on an old (but souped-up) Macintosh SE. The type face used was Geneva 10-point, with other fonts used here and there for variety. The original text was printed out on a Hewlett-Packard Deskwriter and then reproduced on photocopy machines. The floppy, along with originals of clippings, photos, etc. will be turned over to whomever is willing to take custody of them.