They did not know or care much about sports or celebs, but local politics-- and national-- that I absorbed from them. Motivations, always useful to think about.
So: Buddy Cianci. He never made the national scene like Gerry Studds, or Michael Dukakis. (Or the Kennedy family,) but he was a local guy. (Rhode Island is local enough to Cape Cod.) He was very old school Rhode Island, He was not polished, he was practical as a shovel. But his voters loved him. And he loved Providence.
I had it in my head that he was actually elected from prison-- not true. That was James Michael Curley, felon and bamf. Curley was before my time of course. He was the origin of 'early and often.' (Refers to voting, get your brain out of the gutter.)
Cianci was a link with my past. And the hearing of his name today, when I have come away so far, was like catching your hand on a familiar nail, a strange little pain, because you forgot to remember.
And he is gone. How strange.
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2016/01/vincent-buddy-cianci-dead-at-74.html?mid=google&google_editors_picks=true
