Best Friends- SP & CO (Smith Porter & Co., Hancock, West Virginia)

I found this pair of bricks in Newport along the bank of the Ohio between Hooter's and the I-471 bridge while walking with Cicero. They seem to fit together, the only ones I've found with this name. The last post of 2010, dedicated to my best friend, also from West Virginia.

Best Friends

On the left is my partner, Hobo with his best friend, Busby Berkeley. They were both strays over in O'Bryonville in Cincinnati ten years when they came into our family.

Best Friends

Olga Massey puts on lipstick under the watchful eye of Irina Hawkins. It was Irina's 49th birthday. They have been friends and hooligans since they met in grade school in Moscow.

Usually I have great trouble learning new Russian words, but a couple years ago when the beautiful Ira taught me how to say lipstick- 'gybnaya pomada' : well, that one stuck with me.

The legendary Johnny 'TV" Peluso

Former WWll P.O.W. Johnny 'TV" Peluso holding

a brick collected by another former WWll P.O.W., Adam Wood. One of 15 children Johnny moved to Newport when he was 3 months old. In the 1970's when I came to town he was the well-known mayor of Newport. He also ran a TV repair shop. In World War ll Johnny was at Normandy at D-Day. Later he was at the Battle of the Bulge where he was captured by the Germans.

Up Close

Johnny is almost 90 years old. He has been married for 69 years. His wife is in the hospital right now. Last month he ran for Newport City Comissioner. He got my vote. He is also in the landlord business. If that gal upstairs didn't pay her rent by Monday, he was evicting her and all her biker boyfriends. (Sadly, I just found out that Johnny's wife, Margaret, passed away yesterday.)

Me and Johnny

When I first came to Newport, I slept on the sofa of Vic Stadtmiller. We were deckhands together on the Delta Queen. Vic was a huge fan of the Big Red Machine, especially Pete Rose. He bought a giant TV from Johnny just to watch the Reds. One day I was laying on the sofa when there was a knock on the door. It was Johnny's henchmen there to reposess the TV. Vic hadn't been making the payments.

Jeff Nash of Newport, Kentucky

I met my good buddy Jeff one Thursday evening at Sis's Family restaurant when I was dining all alone. He is a life long resident of Newport, scoring high on the mugometer. He helped me nail down a roof this week. Too bad he didn't show up Wednesday , Thursday or Friday. Lots of good Jeff stories: one evening he just didn't feel like going to jail so when the cops started chasing him across the 12th street bridge he climbed underneath it and hid on a steel beam. They thought he had jumped into the Licking River and after the rescue boats couldn't find him, declared him dead. In the meantime he had snuck off to his sister's.

John Van Eaton

John would be my friend even if he didn't have the beautiful Natchez, Mississippi girlfriend Catherine. Every Saturday John is to be seen at Findlay Market where he produces sauerkraut and hot pepper relish.

Finzer Bros.

This brick came from the farm that John's grandfather had up near Xenia, Ohio. John picked it up for me when he went up there to get gallon jugs of water for sauerkraut.

John and Jim Van Eaton posing in front the brick from their Grandpappy's farm