Simple Tastes For Neighborhood Friend

Simple Tastes For Neighborhood Friend:

A Farewell I wrote to Franklin Headen in 2003, kindly reposted by

Lord Baltimore Gin was his balm and pork his passion.

Virtually every evening after work, Franklin Headen would hold court from a plastic chair on the front yard of his home in the Fairmont neighborhood of North Birmingham.

Friends would join him—just a couple some nights, and half dozen on others. He drank his Lord Baltimore straight, no water, no ice.

He’d share his cigarettes and gin, (though, if he’d bought a big bottle, he’d pour some in a smaller bottle and hide his big one, so his guests wouldn’t take it all).

He was quiet around strangers but friendly, humorous and passionate with friends and family. He was a mediator and a sentinel in the neighborhood with a sharp sense of justice.

Comments