Discovery (Original)
title: Discovery
author: tsuki_no_bara
fandom: Original
rating: PG-13
summary: Evie makes a discovery about her great-uncle while going thru a box of her grandma's stuff.
notes: SOCLOSE to being posted on time. More notes and prompt pic at the end.
Ah, I was hoping you could answer your phone. Mom came by today and dropped off some of Grandma's stuff and I kind of wanted you to get all excited with me. I think I found a box of reel-to-reel tapes, how weird is that? They might be film, I'm not sure. I didn't look that closely. Anyway, call me when you get a chance. Love you, bye.
to: romabee@gmail.com
from: evie@candkbakery.com
re: It's René!
It's quicker to take a picture of a picture than to scan it. This is Mom's Uncle Nathaniel. He looks like René, doesn't he? If René liked horses and was alive in 1924.
Mom brought two boxes! I'm still going through them.
Tell your dad I said hi.
XO Evie
to evie@candkbakery.com
from: romabee@gmail.com
re: no it isn't
rené likes horses, they don't like him. uncle nathaniel was kinda cute. showed this to dad, he says hi & get back to work. :) he wants to know what you find.
Roma you better not be on your dad's boat and out of range because I found a fucking eight-millimeter movie in Grandma's stuff! Holy shit! The box of reel-to-reel tapes is a bunch of interviews Mom recorded with her aunts and uncles when she was in high school. There's one labeled "Natalie Godwin", yes THAT Natalie Godwin, Jesus, she must've been ancient. I gotta find a reel-to-reel tape player and a film projector. How fucking cool is this? Bye!
Well, shit, Evie, you leave that message on my phone, you better answer yours. You're buying a projector, aren't you. Call me back and tell me about the movie.
to: romabee@gmail.com
from: evie@candkbakery.com
re: History!
You must be busy because you're still not answering your phone. I'm going to lay this out in an email because I found some INTERESTING shit.
I always kinda knew that Grandpa and Mom's Uncle Con were both in with gangsters in the 20s. The thing that I didn't know was that Uncle Con was really IN with a gangster.
As in, fucking some mobster's nephew.
Yes, you read that right. Mom's Uncle Con was queer. And here we thought Uncle James was the only one.
(I think Uncle Con was bi, to be honest, because he was married twice and by all accounts was kind of a ladies' man. But if it's hard for people to understand bisexuality now, imagine what it was like in the 20s.)
I know this because Mom transcribed some of her interviews. I don't know if she did all of them, because I only found two. Sadly neither of them is with Natalie. But one is the interview she did with her Aunt Julia, and in it Aunt Julia mentions someone named Joey Pollini, who was "very close" to Uncle Con when he was in his 20s. They even opened a restaurant together. Aunt Julia said the relationship ended badly because they were both idiots.
That's a direct quote, by the way, as is "Con was always stupid about the people he fell in love with."
Grandpa kept a menu from the restaurant. You'll laugh when you see what a nice dinner cost back then. Folded inside the menu was a little newspaper clipping about the restaurant opening that mentions Grandpa and Uncle Con, although I don't know what Grandpa had to do with it. There was also an old photo of Uncle Con and Joey sitting at the end of a long table with their heads together. There are a couple of glasses and a bottle sitting on the table (remember this was during Prohibition), and Uncle Con is cupping the back of Joey's head. It looks like they're kissing.
I tried to scan it but your scanner hates me. Trust me when I tell you that it's a very suggestive picture.
It's just a snapshot like you’d take with any camera. On the back it says "Con and Joey, Oct. 23, '27." I have no idea who took the picture. Maybe Grandpa, I don't know.
I'm pretty sure homosexuality was illegal in the 20s, and I'm also pretty sure that none of the Godwins cared. I have no idea how Con and Joey got away with it, except that I think the Godwins got away with a lot of things.
Aunt Julia said Joey was a gangster's nephew, so I took a break to Google him out of curiosity. His uncle was Alberto "the Eggman" Consalvi, and he was scary. Grandpa wasn't afraid of Alberto, but Grandpa wasn't afraid of anyone. But a lot of people were. He was a mobster! I'd be afraid of him too.
Mom didn't transcribe Uncle Con's interview, so I don't have his side of the story. I have to find a reel-to-reel tape player, because I need to know what he had to say for himself.
I also found a letter that Mom's Aunt Aimee wrote Grandpa from Paris in 1939, thanking him for putting some of her husband's money in an American bank. All I ever knew about Aunt Aimee was that she married a wealthy Frenchman and lived in France for most of Mom's childhood. I haven't found a reel-to-reel with her name on it, which means I might never know her story either.
I wish I'd though to ask Mom about these things when I was a teenager and at least Uncle James was still alive. Mom drew a Godwin family tree when she recorded all the interviews, but that doesn't help me now.
Oh, I found Grandma's Wyoming driver's license. It was issued in 1933! She was 16!
And I found another couple of pictures with Uncle Nathaniel so now I can tell you what René's going to look like when he's 60.
There's still more to read. I just had to tell you about Uncle Con. Interesting, the things that people knew but never really talked about. What do you think our grandkids will have to discover about us?
XO Evie
Note: For reasons that made sense at the time, I did actual research into portable tape recorders and 1933 driver's licenses. And mostly irrelevant to the story but a detail I like: Evie's grandfather was one of ten.
author: tsuki_no_bara
fandom: Original
rating: PG-13
summary: Evie makes a discovery about her great-uncle while going thru a box of her grandma's stuff.
notes: SOCLOSE to being posted on time. More notes and prompt pic at the end.
Ah, I was hoping you could answer your phone. Mom came by today and dropped off some of Grandma's stuff and I kind of wanted you to get all excited with me. I think I found a box of reel-to-reel tapes, how weird is that? They might be film, I'm not sure. I didn't look that closely. Anyway, call me when you get a chance. Love you, bye.
to: romabee@gmail.com
from: evie@candkbakery.com
re: It's René!
It's quicker to take a picture of a picture than to scan it. This is Mom's Uncle Nathaniel. He looks like René, doesn't he? If René liked horses and was alive in 1924.
Mom brought two boxes! I'm still going through them.
Tell your dad I said hi.
XO Evie
to evie@candkbakery.com
from: romabee@gmail.com
re: no it isn't
rené likes horses, they don't like him. uncle nathaniel was kinda cute. showed this to dad, he says hi & get back to work. :) he wants to know what you find.
Roma you better not be on your dad's boat and out of range because I found a fucking eight-millimeter movie in Grandma's stuff! Holy shit! The box of reel-to-reel tapes is a bunch of interviews Mom recorded with her aunts and uncles when she was in high school. There's one labeled "Natalie Godwin", yes THAT Natalie Godwin, Jesus, she must've been ancient. I gotta find a reel-to-reel tape player and a film projector. How fucking cool is this? Bye!
Well, shit, Evie, you leave that message on my phone, you better answer yours. You're buying a projector, aren't you. Call me back and tell me about the movie.
to: romabee@gmail.com
from: evie@candkbakery.com
re: History!
You must be busy because you're still not answering your phone. I'm going to lay this out in an email because I found some INTERESTING shit.
I always kinda knew that Grandpa and Mom's Uncle Con were both in with gangsters in the 20s. The thing that I didn't know was that Uncle Con was really IN with a gangster.
As in, fucking some mobster's nephew.
Yes, you read that right. Mom's Uncle Con was queer. And here we thought Uncle James was the only one.
(I think Uncle Con was bi, to be honest, because he was married twice and by all accounts was kind of a ladies' man. But if it's hard for people to understand bisexuality now, imagine what it was like in the 20s.)
I know this because Mom transcribed some of her interviews. I don't know if she did all of them, because I only found two. Sadly neither of them is with Natalie. But one is the interview she did with her Aunt Julia, and in it Aunt Julia mentions someone named Joey Pollini, who was "very close" to Uncle Con when he was in his 20s. They even opened a restaurant together. Aunt Julia said the relationship ended badly because they were both idiots.
That's a direct quote, by the way, as is "Con was always stupid about the people he fell in love with."
Grandpa kept a menu from the restaurant. You'll laugh when you see what a nice dinner cost back then. Folded inside the menu was a little newspaper clipping about the restaurant opening that mentions Grandpa and Uncle Con, although I don't know what Grandpa had to do with it. There was also an old photo of Uncle Con and Joey sitting at the end of a long table with their heads together. There are a couple of glasses and a bottle sitting on the table (remember this was during Prohibition), and Uncle Con is cupping the back of Joey's head. It looks like they're kissing.
I tried to scan it but your scanner hates me. Trust me when I tell you that it's a very suggestive picture.
It's just a snapshot like you’d take with any camera. On the back it says "Con and Joey, Oct. 23, '27." I have no idea who took the picture. Maybe Grandpa, I don't know.
I'm pretty sure homosexuality was illegal in the 20s, and I'm also pretty sure that none of the Godwins cared. I have no idea how Con and Joey got away with it, except that I think the Godwins got away with a lot of things.
Aunt Julia said Joey was a gangster's nephew, so I took a break to Google him out of curiosity. His uncle was Alberto "the Eggman" Consalvi, and he was scary. Grandpa wasn't afraid of Alberto, but Grandpa wasn't afraid of anyone. But a lot of people were. He was a mobster! I'd be afraid of him too.
Mom didn't transcribe Uncle Con's interview, so I don't have his side of the story. I have to find a reel-to-reel tape player, because I need to know what he had to say for himself.
I also found a letter that Mom's Aunt Aimee wrote Grandpa from Paris in 1939, thanking him for putting some of her husband's money in an American bank. All I ever knew about Aunt Aimee was that she married a wealthy Frenchman and lived in France for most of Mom's childhood. I haven't found a reel-to-reel with her name on it, which means I might never know her story either.
I wish I'd though to ask Mom about these things when I was a teenager and at least Uncle James was still alive. Mom drew a Godwin family tree when she recorded all the interviews, but that doesn't help me now.
Oh, I found Grandma's Wyoming driver's license. It was issued in 1933! She was 16!
And I found another couple of pictures with Uncle Nathaniel so now I can tell you what René's going to look like when he's 60.
There's still more to read. I just had to tell you about Uncle Con. Interesting, the things that people knew but never really talked about. What do you think our grandkids will have to discover about us?
XO Evie
Note: For reasons that made sense at the time, I did actual research into portable tape recorders and 1933 driver's licenses. And mostly irrelevant to the story but a detail I like: Evie's grandfather was one of ten.