So the other night on the Carbondale facebook site the topic of Winston the Bagel man came up, since Winston was an institution in Carbondale and he had a lot of people who loved him and who are severely bummed that he's gone. My main response to it, after I thought about it, was, "somebody ought to write a book about him," which struck a nerve; people agreed.
After more ruminating, I decided that that person was probably me. I can, after all, write books. I memorialized Stone Soup Restaurant in Iowa City and I could do the same for Winston.
The problem is, I didn't really know him all that well. I wasn't in the 2 am drinking crowd, although I think at one time I did buy a bagel and I liked it, but he wouldn't know me if I walked right up to him. I just wasn't around that neighborhood at 2 a m very often.
So, it would have to be a romanticized version, to some degree - fiction - and I'd have to change his name. I couldn't just make up stuff about him that I needed for my plot. Still, I find the whole scene - the bars, down by the woods where the homeless people slept, down on the southeast side, 2 a m, all the students coming out of the bars heading for Winston's little bagel stand.....it's the perfect venue for a novel.
Stay tuned. I need details about him even if I choose to avoid to use his name or I deny any similarity to real people. Of course he'll be a good guy anyway; I don't think any of his heirs will object. It's one of my goals, long term, for the moment.
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