Joan and Patty

At about the time that Patty Hearse was kidnapped by the Symbionese Liberation Front, I remember one day in 10th grade English class that Joan Calabrese was talking loudly to Miss Marken and maybe some other people about this event and I could not help but overhear this because my assigned chair was right there behind Joan's chair. Joan was talking about her vast social connections in the high society of San Francisco. Apparently she knows someone who is connected to the Hearse family or someone connected to someone connected to the Hearse family or something like that so Joan knows something more about these events through the grapevine and is not limited to what we have read in the newspapers and magazines of the day. So that was interesting to know that Joan and the Calabrese clan are connected to the upper echelons of the hoity-toity highfalutin snooty heights of San Francisco. I had visited the city as a child but only to visit as a tourist. As children my parents once took us there to see the Nutrcracker Suite and also we had driven around there sightseeing in the peculiar neighborhoods of the city, taking note of Chinatown, Telegraph Hill, Russian Hill, cable cars, etc. However, beyond the occasional tourist outing, I am personally not very interested in San Francisco and the sense of grinding and relentless despair that hovers upon that place. Joan Calabrese exudes an air that gives the impression that she holds the keys to some mystery about the city that she will not be sharing with me. She imagines that I am sitting there eagerly trying to overhear the details of her boring life. She does not seem to realize that we are not impressed because we know that Joan is just a pizza delivery girl. She does not really know anything that we need to know. It is just a wicked conceit of the Calabrese clan or the Italians or maybe just the rich people in general that makes them want us to be jealous of them when actually we are happy that Joan's problem is not our problem. Joan might be surprised to learn how NOT interested we are in her worthless secrets. I am content to read about Patty Hearse's horrible life in the newspapers without having to go there.