Teaching the Queen of England to Drive

Last time I was promising stories from Louisville, but it was brought to my attention that there is still one story I didn't tell from Nashville.

It was late fall in Nashville, a pretty time of year, with about a million different colors on the trees and the town packed with tourists. Fall was usually the last big boom in business before winter put her steely hand on your neck. It was around this time that I met Stanley, he was a slight man with broad shoulders, or they would have been had he been younger. Stanley came in one day and introduced himself, he said he was looking for an apprenticeship to be a piercer. When I inquired about his age he proudly said 98.
Now usually piercers are a bit younger, did I say a bit , because I meant a ton younger. I asked him what would draw him to a business like piercing, he said that he followed it for years but his wife would not have approved, but now she's gone and he wanted to pursue this field. Do you have any experience on this, and he replied that he did, in fact, that he had pierced his own penis and grabbing for his zipper wanted to know if I wanted to see it. No, i said, I don't think I need to, just the thought of this made me think that there are some things in like that you can not unsee.
I told him that he was a bit long in the tooth for an apprentice, " What do you think I'm going to die on you!", he shouted and I replied to him " I guess not".
This is how it started, from that point on he would come in every Thursday afternoon, which I started keeping open because of the great stories he would tell, about the great depression and things he had done and seen. His wife,for instance had taught the Queen of england how to drive a car.

It was 1943, America had been in the war for two long years and the USO was sending young women to england to nurse the sick and help there with the war effort. Milly, Stanley's wife, was sent to London and was working in the palace, as a secretary. One day a young girl came into her office and stuck up a conversation, not knowing who the girl was she talked freely and was quite taken with the girl. She would see her, most days, running around the palace and asked her supervisor who she was. The supervisor was shocked when she told her that the young girl was the Princess of England Elisabeth the second! You haven't said anything to her have you, the supervisor asked. Well, Milly replied, she and I talk almost daily she's the best friend that I have here at the palace. The supervisor was an English woman who respected, and probably feared, the crown and put Milly in for a transfer that very day.

Milly was heartbroken when she heard the news, she was sitting on a bench in a hallway of the palace when her friend came by, whats wrong Milly? Milly explained to her about her supervisor and that the transfer was happening today,I am sad to be going because your my only friend,your majesty. Elisabeth said" You can drop that your majesty stuff, and come with me." They went down to the office and got Milly that transfer, but now her job was to instruct the princess on how to drive, by order of the King.

Milly was thrilled and went right to work. Milly and Elisabeth where out driving one morning when the princess took a wrong turn down a one way street. Spotted by a local bobby they where stopped, he approached the car with a nightstick in his hand which he used to wrap on the hood of the car, "Oi you stupid bird can't you read the sign!" he yelled at Elisabeth. She turned very red in the face and started to apologize when Milly stuck her head out of the window and told him who he was yelling at. The bobby fell immediately to his knees and started to beg for forgiveness,but the princess made him get up and told him all was forgiven,and thy drove away.

It was stories like this one that made me keep my Thursdays open just for Stanley. We went on like this all through the winter season and into spring. As spring turned to summer he started missing our Thursday meeting for time to time and then one Thursday the visits stopped. I was starting to get busy with the summer crowds again and figured that he had found another way to spend his Thursdays.

One busy Friday a vaguely familiar looking man came in and asked for me by name. I'm Airick how can I help you, he said his name was Stanley Jr. and that his father told him to come and see me. It seems that Stanley Sr. had gone to join Milly after all these years and the last thing he said, on this earth, was that someone had to come tell me to start scheduling tattoos on Thursdays again because he wouldn't be there anymore. Stanley Jr. and I sat and talked about his father for an hour or so, exchanging stories and reminiscing, he thanked me for treating his father so well toward the end and left.
This story is dedicated to his , and Milly's, memory.