Best Friends Since 1943

That's me on the right. Monkey is on the left. I was told that about 64 years ago I pulled Monkey's nose off. I have no idea what happened to it. I probably swallowed it. Simpler times, back then! The doctor probably told my frantic mother not to worry, the nose would pass through me, no harm done.

Once in awhile he likes to get up off his little rattan chair and check out what's going on in the world. Back when he was a young monkey women didn't chair municipal advisory boards. Toy monkeys didn't attend the meetings. Board members like myself would have short neatly combed hair, no beard, and wear a suit and tie, and certainly not let a soul know that they still had their childhood toy monkey, nor would they dare take the monkey to meetings with them! After all, what would people say?

All that changed a bit over a year ago, following Monkey's visit with Todd in California. He came back with Monkette. He was wearing an earing. His face wasn't wide enough to hold his smile. I'd never before seen such sparkle in a pair of glass eyes! But it must be more than just the good loving. He was proud as can be of her political involvment, being the brains behind the mayor's re-election campaign, but like I said, he's old. In "monkey years" he's well past the century mark. Mostly he stays at home these days watching TV or thatting about the good old days with his friends, the days when we still had lots of coconut trees to climb. Now he lets Monkette handle the politicking. This night there were a couple of items on the agenda that interested him. Monkette said "That's OK, Dear. You go keep Al company tonight. I don't mind staying home, and there's a TV special that I wanted to see anyway."

It really gets you to thinking when you realize that you and a toy monkey are the oldest people at a city advisory board meeting. Oh well, we give it our best shot.