The Perry Look
I was being ridiculed for my nose long before I was even a sentient human being. When my parents married a friend of theirs joked “Boy, I pity your children. When they go outside in the rain they’ll drown !” My parents both have rather unique noses.
1976 – I was enrolled in forestry for first year university in Thunder Bay. We had a big party out “in the bush”. It was a cleared area with a small cliff overlooking the huge bonfire going for the fete. A large group of us were up on the cliff when it gave way and we fell off it into a jumbled clump of drunken bodies. As I reoriented my body to a somewhat vertical position a cute girl said to me “ I have been attracted to your nose for weeks now, Willie. Can I touch it, please ?” To protect the innocent I refuse to inform you of anything else that happened that night.
2001 - I can’t show my face in Vaughan without someone asking me if John or June Perry are my parents. I was in the Woodbridge vehicle licensing office and as I’m going through the paperwork procedure with the attending girl I noticed an elderly gentlemen down the counter kept staring at me. As I finish up and turn to leave he approached me with “Would you happen to the son of John Perry ?” Well, it turns out he was my dad’s chauffeur whilst he was the reeve, back in the early 60’s. And , much to my chagrin, he proceeded to entertain the masses ( I now estimate to be about 20 people ) as to several exploits and parties he and my father got into. Sheesh !
2005 - I tried to attend Doctor Charlie McLean’s funeral in a low key manner, i.e. come in late and hopefully stand at the back of the church with a hasty “exit, stage left” ( remember Snaggletooth ?). But this was not to be. Just as the ceremony commenced I was dragged up to the front row. Doc Charlie’s oldest son, John, gave a humorous history of his father. Including mentioning that my father was instrumental in getting his parents together. Immediately I hear the whisperings and see the finger-pointing. “That’s John’s son over there. You can tell by the nose, can’t you.”
In connecting with an old friend I e-mailed him a picture of my daughter. He responded with “Cute like her mother, but she does have That Perry Look !”
I fired off a quick missive, “What the hell is the Perry look ???” He responded with, “Just look in the mirror, chum.”
Oh well, at least I’m in good company… Jimmy Durante, Bob Hope and me !
1976 – I was enrolled in forestry for first year university in Thunder Bay. We had a big party out “in the bush”. It was a cleared area with a small cliff overlooking the huge bonfire going for the fete. A large group of us were up on the cliff when it gave way and we fell off it into a jumbled clump of drunken bodies. As I reoriented my body to a somewhat vertical position a cute girl said to me “ I have been attracted to your nose for weeks now, Willie. Can I touch it, please ?” To protect the innocent I refuse to inform you of anything else that happened that night.
2001 - I can’t show my face in Vaughan without someone asking me if John or June Perry are my parents. I was in the Woodbridge vehicle licensing office and as I’m going through the paperwork procedure with the attending girl I noticed an elderly gentlemen down the counter kept staring at me. As I finish up and turn to leave he approached me with “Would you happen to the son of John Perry ?” Well, it turns out he was my dad’s chauffeur whilst he was the reeve, back in the early 60’s. And , much to my chagrin, he proceeded to entertain the masses ( I now estimate to be about 20 people ) as to several exploits and parties he and my father got into. Sheesh !
2005 - I tried to attend Doctor Charlie McLean’s funeral in a low key manner, i.e. come in late and hopefully stand at the back of the church with a hasty “exit, stage left” ( remember Snaggletooth ?). But this was not to be. Just as the ceremony commenced I was dragged up to the front row. Doc Charlie’s oldest son, John, gave a humorous history of his father. Including mentioning that my father was instrumental in getting his parents together. Immediately I hear the whisperings and see the finger-pointing. “That’s John’s son over there. You can tell by the nose, can’t you.”
In connecting with an old friend I e-mailed him a picture of my daughter. He responded with “Cute like her mother, but she does have That Perry Look !”
I fired off a quick missive, “What the hell is the Perry look ???” He responded with, “Just look in the mirror, chum.”
Oh well, at least I’m in good company… Jimmy Durante, Bob Hope and me !
posted by Musings from Idle Acres | 1:40 p.m.
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