My Sister and Martha Mitchell

Introduction

People are all unevenly developed. Take my oldest sister Barbara Jean, or B.J. as we called her. Now she was unevenly developed.

B.J. was gifted in so many ways. She was a genius with real estate and people, which is why she became a successful Real Estate Broker in Washington, D.C. during the time of the Watergate scandal in the early 1970's.

She was a card carrying member of MENSA and she was incredibly skillful in human interaction. She had a sly sense of humor that could diffuse any type of tense situation or bring sparkle to an intimate conversation. She was an accomplished painter and winning a prize as one of the the Best Upcoming Artists of the U.S.A. 1950.

Most of all, my sister had a genuine talent for listening and a huge heart for kindness. She understood the pain of the human condition and was so easy to talk to, which lead to her success in her career.

Most of her work conversations took place in her disreputable V.W. Bug.

This rolling wreck had no passenger seat. People would sit on the uncomfortable back bench and gab away as Barb careened around the city. They could see the pavement through the rust holes in the floor. In the winter she would tart up the car by affixing layers of glued newspapers over the holes where the seat had been. She always carried a pint bottle of brown liquor and an antique cut crystal sugar bowl with handles on each side so one could drink and drive without spilling.

Somehow her genius for Real Estate and her slovenly habits worked in harmony.

Like I said “Unevenly developed

She frequently drove around with the wives of Senators, Congressmen and the hoipolloi in her junker V.W. She was completely unconcerned with what people thought of her: and she saw all people as equals. Driving around a senator’s wife in her beat -up Volkswagen did not seem at all incongruous to her.

She lived in a two- story brownstone just six blocks from the White House. It was filled with her “ Collections”. She collected EVERYTHING. Multi-drawer-ed Antique dental cabinets with masses of buttons filled a room on the second floor. Magazines were stacked everywhere. Clean food jars. Chotskies. She managed to collect 11 full sets of antique china that were never used and dangerously teetered on the stairs that lead to her semi-barricaded dingy little bedroom on the second floor.

For a few years she made chunky beaded necklaces that required her to haunt thrift stores looking for antique beads. She had shoe boxes full of beads that lining the walls. Her stash filled a 200 Sq. Ft room with wall shelves that went almost to the ceiling.

She saved cat food tins, and there were plenty. She had five obese Manx cats that could be found lolling about in the vast untidiness of B.J.’s lair.

For a time she housed a praying mantis couple she named Sid and Nancy. They were honeymooning on the window sill of her dark, dirty kitchen.

Sadly, Sid and Nancy had a falling out and Nancy ate Sid. My sister walked into the kitchen one early AM to find Nancy calmly gnawing on the remains of Sid.

I’affaire de Sid” caused her to dial up the neighborhood Catholic Church and ask that a mass be said for Sid. She was not a Catholic but she felt it was the right thing to do since she had brought the couple together. I think she felt guilty about her part in poor old Sid’s demise.

Like I said “ Unevenly developed”.

This woman loved her clients though and she had a unique talent that allowed her to work with some of the most difficult denizens of that hoary town. She was famous for that. She got a lot of clients because of it. You know the ones: demanding, shrill, angry, confused even the occasional gabby drunk. B.J.’s success was due to her great good humor, persistence, eccentricities and her superlative listening skills. She used these skills to sell John and Martha Mitchell their home in D.C. in 1969.

The ill-fated John Mitchell was the Attorney General in the notoriously crooked Nixon White House and his wife Martha Mitchell provided the Greek Chorus to this drama as she witnessed the downfall of the President and all of his men which included her husband John.

Martha was a voluble, flamboyant, colorful girl of the South. She would sometimes get tipsy and and go on about growing up in the South, her feelings about D.C. Society, and boldly described her active sex life with the Attorney General of the United States of America.

Martha talked! She had stories to tell. For a brief time in the early 70’s she generously shared some of her stories with my sister.

More to follow…

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