Every wall in both Threadgill’s and my home is a Narum piece of work. Even rooms hung with paintings by Franklin, Juke, and Whitehead were designed and hung by Bill. And they wouldn’t have wanted anyone else to do it. Every drawer and every shelf in my life is filled and almost every surface touched by his genius. The country store museum behind old number one is his creation and the many hours of video from the Armadillo, the only source of my most treasured memories, were brought to life, not just once in the ‘70s, but reborn again in this millennium because of Bill. (Taylor Vision and its garden: what a piece of proof it was that the human potential movement was alive and well, even in remote Texas because, occasionally, there were displays of vision and leadership like his.)
My lucky star brought Bill to me when I was not quite thirty and I had him till I just now started pushing 70. He made me seem much smarter than I am and look much better than I would have, for almost forty years. How lucky can you get? Well, I’m no luckier than I have been spoiled. And now, I’m on my own, with no direction known, feeling so alone, sitting, staring, stoned, into a future without my pal who made me so much more by giving, giving, giving, quietly kind and gently, covering up so many ways my colossal dumb-ass, with his overflowing talent and a love so huge and understated that I’ll be content to sit here speechless with a smile and tears mixed thoroughly and lean on Narum’s memory for years, until…
I never asked Bill for anything he didn’t jump right on and I’m afraid I did abuse the privilege. He helped so many friends of mine who couldn’t pay and made most of them his friends and left them with the feeling that they’d done him a favor by allowing him to make them over with a better image.
Wednesday: Sitting, Singing, and Supper at Old Number One. The night before Thanksgiving at Old Number One, where I like to say, “Every day’s Thanksgiving and every Sunday’s Mother’s Day.” Earl Pool Ball and friends present the beginning of the end of 2009.
The annual Karen Ave Open House will be NOT be held on Thanksgiving but instead will convene on Saturday, 28, when we’ll gather in the Upstairs Store behind Threadgill’s on Lamar, at 6 P. M., to toast Bill in the room that he created and move by 7:09 to the front dinning room (which he also created) for a tribute to his influence on our lives.
Proceeds will establish a Bill Narum Memorial Fund, chaired, floored, and gaveled by Eddie Wilson and Gary Fortin, and Lawyered by Mike Tolleson.
Soon after Bill’s Tribute on Saturday, I’ll be taking down this Facebook site and returning to full time efforts to finish my book about Austin and the Armadillo World Hqs. Thank you all for your friendship, patience, and patronage all these years.
Tia Maria, EO
