Ingolf's stepson was my close friend when we were kids (and is still a friend). Ingolf took us and some of our other friends camping and hiking many times during our teen age years.
At first I just regarded him as a friend's parent. He was perhaps a bit nicer than other parents and certainly more willing to share his love of the outdoors. He was certainly the only one who would entertain a bunch of kids with a complete account of the story of the Ring Cycle while hiking in the mountains.
Every once an a while as we grew up, something would penetrate my skull -- conversation about "Lennie" when I finally figured out they were talking about Leonard Bernstein, discovering Ingolf and his wife Etta were going out in formal dress because they were dining with Igor Stravinsky, learning that the furniture in their living room was inherited from Thomas Mann, discovering once that he was spending evenings at the Coconut Grove accompanying his old friend Gracie Fields during her nightclub show. It was only when I read his biography that I really learned about his career.
No comments:
Post a Comment