This is my blog of Pele , of Brazil and soccer and youth and all that lies ahead and the possibilities of life that are there and that we sometimes channel and sometimes not?!? This is the story of Rio De Janeiro and of the Copacabana beach of my youth when I was between the ages of two and six I believe and living in Brazil with my parents and speaking fluently both Portuguese and English and now lamenting in part my memories that fail me of this time and also celebrating my mother that recently told me some stories to bring back some of the wonder and the awe and the special time and place of Brazil and Rio and the Copacabana beach and my befriending Pele the youth that was not yet famous then but that would soon become the most famous soccer player the world has ever known until this point at least in June, 2011. Thanks Mom for reminding me of all of this. I simply forgot and yet it is a wonderful memory to bring back at this wonderful stage in my life when I have never felt more artistically alive as well as alive in all manner and fashion! Cheers!
I met Pele when he would practice soccer on the Copacabana beach just their at the foot/base of the grand city of Rio De Janeiro. This is a story of Rio and the suburb that was then Gavia back in the mid to late fifties ( from 1950-1960 ) when Rio was still the capitol of Brazil and my father was a career officer at the American Embassy working with Phillip Raines and Ambassador Cabot ) and the marines there were kind enough to make me and some of the other children there as well a fort or club house in wood for us to have loads of fun.
This is a story of me reaching back here with my mother's recent revelations that I captured all on my Flip camera. I'm thrilled about that, too being able to now share these stories of my mother with my family and anyone interested. I will do more each and every time that I go and see her. How exciting : so many possibilities still to avail myself of.
This is also a blog about MIOLO and the wines that we have sold at Cleveland Park Wines & Spirits off-and-on now for the last five or six years - ever since I discovered them. It may have been Flavius that first brought them to my attention? Was it you Flavius? Anyway, once I discovered them we started to sell them and the dry still Pinot Noir and the Chardonnay sold well and the sparkling pictured here sold really very well. I will have to order more for July, 2011 as we are currently out of all three and I'd like to have them back once again. There will be some coming of the dry red blend reserve bottle that will be On Sale as they have made me a special price as I am taking all of what is left.
Stories for me are complex and convoluted and with so many tangents and other points of contact and starts and stops and sudden departures. Sorry, it's my artist's mind that just flies at the simple lifting of a breeze in so many directions. Hopefully it enhances and enlarges and brings more of a " whole picture " into focus ? That's the idea : layer upon layer upon layer, just like I paint and I draw with brush and pen and colors - weaving and covering and filling spaces with colors and ideas and words and whatever at my disposal at any given point in time?!?
SO : THIS IS MOSTLY ABOUT PELE AND ME as a five-six-year-old child befriending a young Brazilian there in Rio De Janeiro. He must have been there playing with his soccer ball and his other Brazilian friends? He was older than me at the time my mother tells me. He was not then famous. He taught me how to move the soccer ball on many occasions and it was because of me that my parents met him. It was also according to my mother that because of me that they invited him to our home in Gavia to meet other foreign diplomats stationed there at the time. They wanted him to meet with his friends the " two Swedes, the two French, the two Italians, the two Russians, etcetera. Husband and wife from the various embassies that were invited and that showed up to our house with a pool at the upper-most section at the border between Gavia and the forest above. We lived there on the edge where the Brazilians would come through the forest/jungle bearing cages filled with exotic birds of all colors and sizes. Many my mother and I would buy and hand there in their cages under our open garage that basically had a roof and otherwise was open to the elements on all sides. The birds kept each other company and sang their hearts out and delighted us with their songs, their colors and their forms and sizes.
Just below this is where our house was on a steep hill with the pool there at the edge of the wall and the house just feet away. This is where outside by the pool and on the grass Pele and his friends spoke an international language - that of soccer - and got all the diplomats to take their shoes off and roll up their pants and speak together merrily in the international language of soccer or football. I am sure that I played, too. Too bad I do not really remember all of of this now? I can picture it in my head though as I do remember the house and many things. It was a wonderfully-rich period of my life and I am eternally grateful for it.
I will be talking to my mother some more about this soon and will ask some questions that I still have about it and will add them later. This is, of course at least three minutes of my fifteen minutes of fame that I will enjoy in my lifetime. If Pele you remember this all and see/read this and respond then perhaps it will add another minute or two to my already three minutes that I enjoyed when I was only five and six years old. I hope that you do see this and respond to this as it would be great to hear your side of this story so very long ago when we were both youths - you a Brazilian and me an American there in Rio De Janeiro.
I will write more soon but want to post this now and get it onto the Pele fan Facebook page in the hopes that he will see it and that it will otherwise be passed onto him as I'd love to hear from him. I do hope that this will be a good memory for him, too as it is for me.
Pele, hello after all of these years! Do you remember me, do you remember any of this? I would love if you would respond and tell me what you do remember of any of this? I hope that it was a good memory for you and that perhaps thinking about it now at this stage in your life brings a smile to your face as it does to mine. Cheers, Anthony ( TONY ) Quinn.
P.S. My father's name is : Harry Alan Quinn and my mother's is : Nancy Proctor Quinn.
I hope that this finds you well and in good health and spirits. Cheers to our shared youth so long ago. Come and visit me here in northern Virginia anytime that you come this way. You are always welcome.
I never did become a soccer star. I swam instead and have followed my artistic talents and sensibilities and would welcome the chance to do some quick portrait inks sketches of you and give them to you as a gift in thanks for these great memories so long ago.
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