Conversations between Josh Resnek, editor of the Leader Herald and the well known Blue Suit. The Blue Suit – just as a reminder – is a cloth, off the rack blue Suit who has given a great deal of public service hours to the city working for his boss.
Followers of the Blue Suit who love him are always in wonder about a blue suit talking and walking, eating and doing other things the way we human beings pass through our lives on a daily basis.
It is a long bridge to gap when you want to believe that a blue suit can talk and walk, sign autographs and make telephone calls, order up food and eat like a horse.
The Blue Suit is all of the above…and so much more. He is in all ways an amazing and extraordinary character quite capable of taking care of himself.
In the past, the Blue Suit claimed to be the holder of many secrets, and he told us so time and again in this column.
That was then. This is now. Today.
Tuesday afternoon during this dreary weather pattern that does not want to leave us, the Blue Suit thought out loud to me about getting away. He said he wished he could get away and awaken anywhere but in Everett.
It is not that he dislikes Everett. On the contrary. Like many people who call this place home he loves the place. He loves everything about it. He feels comfortable here. He is well know here. He has had his say here – and others have had their say about him.
Bottom line, he’s not your average blue cloth suit.
“I’ve been thinking about maybe heading down to the Cape,” he said to me as we tried to get a fix on where we wanted to eat lunch.
“I just read a Globe article about rentals being way off. No kidding. At $500 to $600 a night for small unit or several rooms, who the hell is going rush down to the Cape to pay that kind of money and to be caught up on the Sagamore Bridge in a traffic jam?” he asked.
The traffic wasn’t really what got him about the globe piece. What got him was this: the $45 dollar lobster roll! Can you imagine a $45 dollar lobster roll? I can’t. It’s bad enough the lobster rolls at Kelly’s are $26 bucks. I mean there was a time you could order up a full steak dinner at a decent restaurant for $26 bucks. A $45 dollar lobster roll doesn’t give parents trying to feed their families on vacation much wiggle room if they are buying three or four lobster rolls for the family on an average summer day on the Cape. Those figures just don’t work.
“You think the price for a lobster roll is bad. How about ordering up a clam plate on the Cape? You’re talkin’ a good $35 dollars. That’s just insane, absolutely insane. Or how about $12 dollar glasses of wine or $5 dollar Coca Cola’s or $10 dollar orders of onion rings or French Fries? What the hell is going on? I thought the Federal Reserve Board was taking care of inflation,” the Blue Suit joked.
Actually, he was upset.
“Hey, I do well for a cloth suit. I’ve got money. I’ve got friends. I’ve got relatives. What I don’t have a is a girlfriend, a companion to spend time with who will like me for who I am. I don’t want to say I am becoming frantic, but I am. I want a girlfriend. I want a girlfriend yesterday. Frankly, I don’t know where to start the process at my age…and you must never forget, I am off the rack not some tailored piece of fine wool clothing,. I’m kind of pedestrian even though I am well known. I’d trade all the auto graphs and notoriety in the world for a girlfriend – for someone who loves me. That’s what I want. I want to fall in love. I want to be in love. I want to be loved the way my mother loved me and watched over me,” the Blue Suit said to me.
“Love isn’t really the answer,” I told the Blue Suit.
“What do you mean?” he asked. He was being inquisitive and showing his naivete at the same time.
“Love should be about shared values. Love is more about existing comfortably with another person than it is about all the bells and whistles going off every hour every day,” I tried to persuade him.
Yeah, Josh. I want all the bells and whistles. I’m tired of serving others. I’m weary of my lifestyle. I want to change. I need a change real bad. I want a girlfriend,” he said to me.
“Any ideas?” Josh he asked.
“Not really,” I replied.
“I know we talked about this last week. You are on Tinder.
That’s probably a good place to start you journey. Lot’s of people hook up on tinder every day.”
“Not many cloth blue suits are getting it together with cloth dresses and pant suits. It just doesn’t happen that way,” the Blue Suit complained.
“I’m lonely, Josh. Don’t you get it? I need someone. I need a girlfriend. I don’t care if she’s rich or poor. I just want her to like me for who I am and to spend time with me. Do you understand, Josh?” he asked me.
“Yes I do,” I replied. “Of course I do. Everyone tries to escape their loneliness with relationships, love, and all that. But it’s more up to you than it is to anyone else to rid yourself of the loneliness you feel, to embrace your life and to smell the roses, as is so often said.
“Short of that, I don’t know what to tell you or where to start,” I answered.
You want to fall in love…well…that’s something only you can do, my friend,” I said to the Blue Suit.
He just grimaced and said to me: “Let’s get some lunch.”