Today in my dentist's office I picked up a copy of Robb's magazine, (wanting to see how rich folks live), and I was struck by a photo and story of a recent art auction at Christies in NYC. That triggered a memory of an event of many years past. I was sitting in Miss Varina Elliot's French class in Lexington High School. Wishing I were somewhere else, as was the young lad who sat in front of me. He was sketching, on a sheet of lined notebook paper, his rendition of the anatomy of a human hand, as far as I was concerned he had "done it right! I commented on it and he shrugged and tore it from the notebook and passed it back to me.

I tucked it in my notebook and ultimately it would end up on my bedroom wall and later, who knows? My mother, likely not having an appreciation of the anatomy of a hand, quite possibly pitched it, sorrowfully it is much too late to ask her.

That probably was my last contact with Cy Twombly as I later left for school in another state. Years later in another Dentists office the only reading material was Vanity Fair. I was astounded to find a multi-page article on Cy Twombly. In the years since I have tried to keep up with his career, even going so far as to buy, what was purportedly a Pastel with signature by Cy,. for what was a little too much money for me, especially after having it matted and framed. My wife informed my there was no good place in our house to hang it.

Oh, about the recent art auction at Christies mentioned earlier, the painting by Cy sold for 69 million dollars plus! At least I could tell my dentist I actually knew Cy once. I am sorry that he died before I could tell him I had one of his works. He likely would not have asked me what had happened to the one he gave me earlier!