The Adventures Of Bette Porter And Sissee Gardner After Yale (Part 4, Chapter 11)

PART FOUR: NEWPORT BEACH, CALIFORNIA

Chapter 11

Bette was right about Maxine liking the Blue Beet. It had survived so many years it was one of Newport Beach’s historical treasures, occasionally updated but forever maintaining it’s atmosphere of bohemian charm and rustic ambiance.

It took a while to get used to its subdued lighting, that concentrated mainly on the framed newspaper articles on the walls but we sat next to the fireplace again which was throwing off a warm and friendly glow.

We settled back and had a great time over dinner and a few bottles of wine. We laughed a lot, mostly at Maxine and how tough she was on Melvin, calling him all kinds of names and telling tall tales about him. And yet, I got the impression that she had been very much in love with the man and probably still admired him and his accomplishments.

She said that Bette learned to be stubborn, selfish and arrogant from her father. What is more, in those earlier days he would warn Maxine not to ram art down her throat. He wanted Bette to be a lawyer and preached higher education and career to her, ever since she was five years old.

But Maxine did influence Bette into the art world. She said she tried to teach her daughter how to paint but with a brush Bette was like a dancer with two left feet. However, when Maxine had her artist friends over at that time in the early ‘70’s, Bette would sit off to the side and listen to them talk about their world with such enthusiasm and love, she would be mesmerized.

I sat back and listened as Bette told her mother what she remembered. She said there was one particularly scary man, scary to her at her age, who seemed more intellectual than the rest. His hair was long down his back and he only let his facial hair grow on his chin. She remembered all the beads he wore around his neck, as well as his clothes being smeared with oil paint. There was different colored paints under his finger nails, his hands were always stained and he smelled like turpentine..