I Remember
by Joe Brainard
I remember the first time I got a letter that said ‘After Five Days Return To’ on the envelope, and I thought that after I had kept the letter for five days I was supposed to return it to the sender.
I remember the kick I used to get going through my parents’ drawers looking for rubbers. (Peacock.)
I remember when polio was the worst thing in the world.
I remember pink dress shirts. And bola ties.
I remember when a kid told me that those sour clover-like leaves we used to eat (with little yellow flowers) tasted so sour because dogs peed on them. I remember that didn’t stop me from eating them.
I remember the first drawing I remember doing.
It was of a bride with a very long train.
I remember my first cigarette. It was a Kent. Up on a hill. In Tulsa, Oklahoma. With Ron Padgett.
I remember my first erections. I thought I had some terrible disease or something.
I remember the only time I ever saw my mother cry. I was eating apricot pie.
I remember how much I cried seeing South Pacific (the movie) three times.
I remember how good a glass of water can taste after a dish of ice cream.
I remember when I got a five-year pin for not missing a single morning of Sunday School for five years. (Methodist.)
I remember when I went to a ‘come as your favorite person’ party as Marilyn Monroe.
I remember one of the first things I remember.
An icebox. (As opposed to a refrigerator.)
I remember white margarine in a plastic bag. And a little package of orange powder. You put the orange powder in the bag with the margarine and you squeezed it all around until the margarine became yellow.
I remember how much I used to stutter.
I remember how much, in high school, I wanted to be handsome and popular.
I remember when, in high school, if you wore green and yellow on Thursday it meant that you were queer.
I remember when, in high school, I used to stuff a sock in my underwear.
I remember when I decided to be a minister. I don’t remember when I decided not to be.
I remember the first time I saw television. Lucille Ball was taking ballet lessons.
I remember the day John Kennedy was shot.
I remember that for my fifth birthday all I wanted was an off-one-shoulder black satin evening gown. I got it. And I wore it to my birthday party.
I remember a dream I had recently where John Ashbery said that my Mondrian period paintings were even better than Mondrian.
I remember a dream I have had often of being able to fly. (Without an airplane.)
I remember many dreams of finding gold and jewels.
I remember a little boy I used to take care of after school while his mother worked. I remember how much fun it was to punish him for being bad.
I remember a dream I used to have of a lot of a beautiful red and yellow and black snakes in bright green grass.
I remember St. Louis when I was very young. I remember the tattoo shop next to the bus station and the two big lions in front of the Museum of Art.
I remember an American history teacher who was always threatening to jump out of the window if we didn’t quiet down. (Second floor.)
I remember my first sexual experience in a subway. Some guy (I was afraid to look at him) got a hard-on and was rubbing it back and forth against my arm. I got very excited and when my stop came I hurried out and home where I tried to do an oil painting using my dick as a brush.
I remember the first time I really got drunk. I painted my hands and face green with Easter egg dye and spent the night in Pat Padgett’s bathtub.
She was Pat Mitchell then.
I remember another early sexual experience. At the Museum of Modern Art. In the movie theater. I don’t remember the movie. First there was a knee pressed to mine. Then there was a hand on my knee. Then a hand on my crotch. Then a hand inside my pants. Inside my underwear. It was very exciting but I was afraid to look at him. He left before the movie was over and I thought he would be outside waiting for me by the print exhibition but I waited around and nobody showed any interest.
I remember when I lived in a storefront next door to a meat packing house on East Sixth Street. One very fat meat packer who always ate at the same diner on the corner that I ate at followed me home and asked if he could come in and see my paintings. Once inside he instantly unzipped his blood-stained white pants and pulled out an enormous dick. He asked me to touch it and I did. As repulsive as it all was, it was exciting too, and I didn’t want to hurt his feelings. But then I said I had to go out and he said, ‘Let’s get together,’ and I said, ‘No,’ but he was very insistent so I said, ‘Yes.’ He was very fat and ugly and really very disgusting, so when the time came for our date I went out for a walk. But who should I run into on the street but him, all dressed up and spanking clean. I felt bad that I had to tell him that I had changed my mind. He offered me money but I said no.
I remember my parents’ bridge teacher. She was very fat and very butch (cropped hair) and she was a chain smoker. She prided herself on the fact that she didn’t have to carry matches around. She lit each new cigarette from the old one. She lived in a little house behind a restaurant and lived to be very old.
I remember playing ‘doctor’ in the closet.
I remember painting ‘I HATE TED BERRIGAN’ in big black letters all over my white wall.
I remember throwing my eyeglasses into the ocean off the Staten Island ferry one black night in a fit of drama and depression.
I remember once when I made scratches on my face with my fingernails so people would ask me what happened, and I would say a cat did it, and, of course, they would know that a cat did not do it.
I remember the linoleum floors of my Dayton, Ohio, room. A white puffy floral design on dark red.
I remember sack dresses.
I remember when a fish-tail dress I designed was published in ‘Katy Keene’ comics.
I remember box suits.
I remember pillbox hats. I remember round cards.
I remember squaw dresses.
I remember big fat ties with fish on them.
I remember the first ballpoint pens. They skipped, and deposited little balls of ink that would accumulate on the point.
I remember rainbow pads.
I remember Aunt Cleora who lived in Hollywood. Every year for Christmas she sent my brother and me a joint present of one book.
I remember the day Frank O’Hara died. I tried to do a painting somehow especially for him. (Especially good.) And it turned out awful.
I remember canasta.
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