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- [00:00]
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- [02:15]
Suzanne Rust
This is the Moth Radio Hour, and I'm Suzanne Rust, the Moth's curatorial producer. The theme for this hour is Pleasantly Surprised. Those moments that make you pause and say, well, I wasn't expecting this, but in the best possible way. We'll be hearing from a Harlem comedian who discovers a new passion, a man who got into some good trouble during the Civil Rights movement, and a love affair so special that it needed two mall stories to tell it. First up, Rudy Rush. He told this story at the Players Club in New York. Here's Rudy live at the Mall.
- [02:50]
Rudy Rush
Three years ago, Fourth of July weekend, I was performing at Caroline's Comedy Club, and I was opening up for Tracy Morgan from Saturday Night Live. And I had a great show. I mean, not, you know, it happens all the time. But just this particular time, everyone was, you know, after the show, everybody came up to me. They was telling me how much of a good job I did. But there was these two ladies, straight, leave it to Cleaver, you know, Leave it to Beaver mothers. They came up to me, tell you how much I watched that show. They came up to me and they were like, oh, my God, you did such a great job. Blah, blah, blah. This is our first time in New York. It's our first time here. It's our first stop. You did such a great job. And I was like, you know, thank you very much. And they were like, well, you know, you seem like, you know, what's going on in the city. Can you kind of like point us in the right direction as to what we can go do and hang out and see? And I'm saying to myself, I'm looking at both of them and I'm like, whatever direction I point them in, they're gonna be in the newspaper tomorrow morning. I said, I'm gonna take these two ladies out and show them a nice time. Now, most of us are New Yorkers in here. I didn't take them to too many crazy places. I took them to a couple of places where they had music and probably eight to 10 people, but they enjoyed it. They were from all the way in Portland, Oregon, and they were here for the first time. So reluctantly, I became the tour guide for the rest of the weekend. Two other sisters flew in. Actually, their daughters were performing at the un but they were really appreciative. We had a really great time. I showed them a nice time around the city. I was surprised. I knew so much about the city. And just out of nowhere, one of the ladies said, you know what? You have to come out. We do this rodeo every year in Pendleton, Oregon. You have to come. I said, okay. If you haven't noticed, I'm a brother from the hood. We don't do rodeos. But then I thought to myself, I said, okay, I'm a comedian. I've done a lot, you know, in terms of seeing things. I went from Miami to Tampa, saw the orange groves, flew over the Grand Canyon, saw the mountains in Montana. Just because I was a comedian, not cause I saved my money and went. So I said, you know what? This would be another adventure that I can say, at least I tried it. They fly me out there. Soon as I get out there, I have a New York City cap, got a sweatshirt on, everything. They were like, mmm, you can't really wear that out here. So we're gonna take you and get some clothes. Well, they take me to this store where, you know, you got the wrangler jeans and the shirts and the hats they give me. The store attendant, she gives me these wrangler jeans. I mean, these things were Patrick Swayze tight. All right. So I come out of the dressing room, I'm like, are these okay? Everybody's like, no, those are perfect. And I'm looking at myself in the mirror. I'm like, damn. So I got this whole get up on. I got this black Stetson. I mean, I'm looking like, you know, Will Rogers dipped in chocolate, right? So we go out to this bar and we all having drinks. You know, the ladies, husbands are there, we having a great time. So this guy comes up to me and he's like, come with me. I want to show you something. So my buddy Tom, he's with me. He's like, no, you know, I'll walk with you guys. So we walked two blocks. This is no lie. We walked two blocks to a small little pub just for him to show me a picture of a black dude who was there in 1915. Then I thought about it. I'm like, okay, you know, maybe this is his way of just trying to, you know, show me that, you know, I'm accepted. And, you know, he didn't know how to do it. And I'm just thinking in the back of my mind, like, 100 years from now, they're going to show some other black kid my picture. Like, so the following day, my buddy Tom, he's a photographer, so he gets all access to the fields, to the rodeo grounds, and everything like that. So I'm feeling kind of uncomfortable with Tom, but he's kind of protecting me. So I'm kind of like, all right, I'm cool. I'm a little comfortable. So he introduces me to the fence crew. Now, for you who don't know what the fence crew is, these are the guys who go out on the field and make sure the fences are up and make sure everything's right for the rodeo and blah, blah, blah. And one of the funnest things, working with the fence crew, they actually snuck me on the field during the festivities. I mean, you got thousands of people in the crowd, and if you guys don't know, they have, like, this thing, the bronco bunking. That's when the horses come out and they throw the guys every which away, and it's very dangerous. Just my luck, this wild horse is coming at me with two guys trying to corral the horse to get into the pit. So I'm like, okay, I play basketball. I got some moves. So I actually dodged and I got out of the way. My hat fell off and I got up. Everybody was cheering. I'm like, I never heard this applause at a comedy show ever. Anyway, I've been going back for the last three years and these are like my best friends now, you know, I cut off my schedule in September and I'm like, I'm going to the rodeo. You know what I'm saying? I'm like, fucking Batman. I put my little hat and my boots and my pants in my bag. Yo, where you going? Nowhere, bruh. Going to rodeo. But the thing that is so special about this experience for me is that I actually happened to be out there during 911 and you know, the three hour difference. I wake up at seven in the morning to watch SportsCenter and these buildings are collapsing. And I'm thinking, what movie is this? You know, until, you know, the reality strikes me that this is actually happening. And my mother works not too far from there, and my sister and I can't get in touch with anybody. They're okay. But at the same time, these people stopped everything that they were doing. There was no rodeo until, you know, because I'm the only guy from New York out there, and they knew I was from New York. So the cowboys are coming from the pits and everything like that just to make sure that I got in contact with my family. And I thought that was very, very, very special, which makes me want to go back for the next 50 years. But that's the type of people that they are. And even like the year after that, I came back again. They had a tribute to 9 11, which was funny because they flew in a firefighter from New York and this other guy from the police department. I'm like, hey, what's up y'all? I'm Rudy, I'm from New York. They were like, what the are you doing here? It's like, it's a long story, man, but they actually enjoyed themselves too. So it was cool. We got to, you know, hang out and stuff. But the thing that was so special this particular year, a friend of ours, Lucas, older gentleman, he has bad arthritis. He had like two fingers on one hand and like maybe three on the other. His wife passed away and he's an older gentleman. So everybody kind of like, you know, grouped around him, made sure he was okay. That was the focus of our trip this year. And it was so funny. During the opening festivities of the rodeo, they were singing the national anthem. And those of you who go to events, you know, you never. You know, sometimes you're walking around, you never know where you're standing. And I actually happened to be at the top of the beaches with Lucas, and they were singing the national anthem, and they had these F150 fighter jets or something come through. I mean, so close you could see the nuts and the bolts in the plane. It was really a touching experience. And, you know, he starts crying, and I'm quite sure he was thinking of his wife, that he wished that she could see something as beautiful as that. And I'm thinking of my friends that I lost in the towers. So he puts his two fingers on my shoulder, and I put my hand on his shoulder. And I love those people, and those are my friends. And that's my story. That's it.
- [10:38]
Suzanne Rust
That was Rudy Rush. Rudy is a comedian, radio host, and actor who hosted Showtime at the Apollo for almost a decade. He has also worked on projects with everyone from Dave Chappelle to Martin Lawrence. Rudy is currently based in Texas. What I love about Rudy's story is you don't expect it to lead where it does. And yet, if you look at this country's history, it really shouldn't come as such a surprise. On plantations, enslaved men often worked cattle, and they got very skilled at it. So when the Civil War ended and many migrated out west, this was one of the few jobs open to black men. So black cowboys are indeed a thing. Yes, Hollywood has certainly given us the default imagery of white cowboys lassoing cattle, sharpshooting, and bucking broncos. But what's missing in the narrative are their counterparts, the black cowboys, who made up roughly one fourth of the wranglers. Some of the most legendary cowboys, in fact, were black, like Nat Love, Bill Pickett, and Bass Reeves. I wanted to catch up with Rudy to hear about his latest adventures in the Wild west and beyond. Hey, Rudy. How you doing?
- [12:06]
Rudy Rush
I'm good, Suzanne. How are you?
- [12:07]
Suzanne Rust
I'm good. I would love to talk about your story. So you have a great line that says, I'm a brother from the hood. I don't do rodeos. Everyone laughs. But the truth is, we did do rodeos. You know, I grew up not knowing that out west in the 1800s that like a quarter of the cowboys were black.
- [12:27]
Rudy Rush
No, they weren't.
- [12:28]
Suzanne Rust
Of this history growing up.
- [12:30]
Rudy Rush
No, you know what? I was. And, you know, when I said it, you know, the whole background of the. Of the. Of the joke was really the fact that you Know, being from Harlem and being from New York City, it's almost like that movie City Slickers with Billy Crystal.
- [12:47]
Bob Zellner
Yes.
- [12:47]
Rudy Rush
It was more like an urban thing. It was like, yo, you know, I appreciate the offer, but truthfully, I don't know anything about rodeo the first. You know what I mean? So we, you know, it was like a running joke, which turned into me actually just saying, hey, you know, take a chance and do something different. Step out of the box. And it turned into a great situation.
- [13:10]
Suzanne Rust
What did you love most about attending these rodeos? What. What drew you to them?
- [13:15]
Rudy Rush
So the craziest thing. And now, you know, it's been some years since I've gone, but I've gone seven times like this. That's seven years. That's a long time. Yeah, absolutely. So, you know, I took some breaks here and there, so it wasn't consecutive. So the greatest thing I can say about it was it gave me a different perspective on people in general. Because, I mean, honestly, being an African American male from New York City and being in Pendleton, Oregon, you know, it's a little uncomfortable to be. Not even in, like, being somewhere where it's 98.8% white people.
- [13:52]
Suzanne Rust
Right.
- [13:53]
Rudy Rush
Because, you know, what you're told and what you see and what you understand about people across the globe, not only in America, is that, you know, you're not going to be welcomed with open arms. But I found going to Pendleton is like, you know, it was so different than what I expected and which made me continue to go back. Cause the friendships that I actually built outside of the people who even invited me, because it went from me just being with them the first couple of times I was there to going there and spending time with other people and going out to ranches where I've built these friendships and things of that nature. And being friends with these people's kids and going to different cities and having breakfast with a kid who used to be 11, now they're 25 and they're getting married. It's crazy. So that was the biggest takeaway, just being, you know, just knowing that people are different. And you can't just go by what you see and what you've kind of taught in your neighborhood or on TV and things like that. So it was a great experience for me in that respect.
- [14:51]
Suzanne Rust
No, and that's what I love about, you know, hearing your story. I was pleasantly surprised because everyone goes into situations with preconceived notions and certainly going to a place where, you know, you're like in the 2%. But I'm glad you were able to bridge that gap. It's the power of connecting our stories.
- [15:07]
Rudy Rush
Absolutely.
- [15:12]
Suzanne Rust
That was Rudy Rush. To see photos of Rudy and his rodeo buddies, go to themau.org Extras coming up, marching with Civil Rights giants. That's when the Moth Radio Hour continues.
- [15:29]
Cynthia Riggs
The Moth Radio Hour is produced by Atlantic Public Media in Woods Hole, Massachusetts.
- [15:34]
Suzanne Rust
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- [16:27]
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- [18:55]
Suzanne Rust
This is the Moth Radio Hour. I'm Suzanne Rust. In the aftermath of great upheavals, great stories are born. Our next one takes place during the Civil Rights movement and includes an interesting cast of characters with storyteller Bob Zellner front and center. He told this story at the Players Club in New York City. Here's Bob live at the Moth.
- [19:19]
Cynthia Riggs
I'm glad to be here in New York tonight. My daughter was here earlier. She's a New York psychoanalyst and you just about have to be one to be an analyst in New York. But I'm Bob Zellner. I'm actually from LA Lower Alabama. I grew up in South Alabama. My father was a Methodist minister. He was also a member of the Ku Klux Klan. My grandfather was a member of the Klan and most of my aunts and uncles. The aunts were of course in the Auxiliary clan. I was named after Bob Jones, who has a Bob Jones University. He also conducted the wedding ceremony for my mother and father. So I come from a very fundamentalist, even terroristic background and so to be known as a New Yorker is unusual. And it's also unusual that someone with my background would have wound up in the Civil Rights movement. But I went to Huntington College in Montgomery, Alabama in 1957 and if you'll remember what's happening in the south at that time, I wound up as my senior year meeting Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks and they got me started on a life of crime as a result of their Influence. When I graduated college in 1961, I joined the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, SNCC. Some of you older people might remember that SNCC was one of the civil rights organizations. We were young and brash, and we didn't believe that we couldn't go anywhere in the United States. And so we usually went to the roughest places there were. I was with SNCC from 1961 to 1967, and I was the first white southerner field secretary for SNCC and also one of the last whites in the organization when it became all black in about 1967. As a result of being in SNCC, I was arrested 25 times in five different states, shot at, beaten, and generally mistreated. I don't know why they did that to us in the south, but we did have a lot of supporters, and we had a lot of supporters here in New York. So I thank you belatedly for that. One of the events that I remember particularly about that time, and Muriel Tillinghast and her daughter are with us tonight also. They're SNCC veterans. But one of the things that I remember particularly was the summer of 1964. It was a particularly mythic period in the United States, because in that summer, we organized students from all around the country to come to Mississippi because people were getting killed because they were black and wanted to register to vote. Many of our organizers were shot. Some of them were killed. And we thought that if we brought students from around the country to Mississippi, then we would be able to break that wall of segregation and be able to get support from the United States. We thought that the federal government would come to our aid. And one of the myths was that the federal government was actually in favor of civil rights at that time. One of the movies that was made of the 1964 period, which I had something to do with, was Mississippi Burning. They participated in the mythic misrepresentation of American history when they made the FBI the heroes of the civil rights movement. In Greenwood, Mississippi, that summer, after the murder of three civil rights workers, Cheney, Goodman and Schwerner, two of whom were white New Yorkers, this country rose up to a person practically and said, we have to end segregation once and for all. And the federal government was not yet willing to go along with that. When we organized Those students in 1964 to come to Mississippi, do you know what the reaction of our government was? J. Edgar Hoover went on television and radio the day before 1,000 students were to come to Mississippi for the Summer and said, there will be no federal protection for civil rights workers in Mississippi this summer. The reaction of the Klan was to capture the first three civil rights workers who came down, crossed the state line. They were murdered and buried 18ft deep in an earthen dam. The reaction of the student nonviolent coordinating committee and other civil rights organizations was to mobilize massively to go into Mississippi. If they thought that that would keep people out, it helped bring people to Mississippi, brave people. And one of the groups that came were American stars, American actors. And I have a particular memory of Harry Belafonte, Sidney Poitier, and Marlon Brando coming to Greenwood, Mississippi that summer. Greenwood, Mississippi, was a cauldron of violence. Beckwith was from Mississippi. Beckwith had killed Medgar Evers and was a hero in Mississippi because he murdered a black civil rights worker. Greenwood, Mississippi, was as lawless as the west ever was, and it was open season on civil rights workers. And yet Harry Belafonte, Sidney Portier, and the mythic Marlon Brando came to us in Mississippi in the summer of 64. Now, my particular relationship with this was that I was a white southerner and a member of the staff, so I was to take care of Mr. Brando. Can you imagine? I'm 21 years old. I hardly ever been out of Alabama, and now I've got to go around with this guy who is a legend, of course, in his own mind and ours as well. I picked him up at the airport, and we talked about how to get from the airport to this tremendous rally that had been organized for these three people and also to show that the outside world was coming to Mississippi. And I picked Belafonte up because we had to segregate. We couldn't have black people and white people in the same car because we'd get shot at more often that way. And I remember Jim Foreman, the executive director of sncc, said, okay, Bob, you drive Marlon to the rally and pretend you're ordinary white people. So I said, well, I can pretend, but I don't know about Marlon. He's supposed to be a good actor, so hopefully we'll make out all right. So we're on the way to this rally, 14,000 people waiting at the gymnasium to meet these mythic people. And Brando says, before we get there, Zellner, I've got to go to the bathroom. And I said, at a time like this, you've got to go to the bathroom? He said, well, yeah, there's one here. I said, well, there's a truck stop up here. We'll stop at that bathroom. He said, what kind of bathroom they have? I said, why does it matter? He said, well, it has to be a particular kind of bathroom. Because he said, do they have stalls or is it like all urinals and everything? And I said, well, they have some urinals, maybe they have some stalls and everything. He says, I hope they have stalls. So I said to myself, I don't care if it is Marlon Brando. I'm gonna find out about this. So I said, why is that, Marlon? I'm driving along. He said, well, he said, it's terrible. He says, I'm standing there like a normal person, doing my business and everything. Somebody's right next to me. And all of a sudden they say, you're Marlon Brando. He was certainly a great actor to be able to do that in the front seat of a car on a dark night in Mississippi. But I think he was putting me at ease. But anyway, I remember thinking, boy, I'm here with Marlon Brando now. We're going to go to this huge rally. We swept into the rally and all the people there, 14,000 people inside and out, they just went crazy. Here's Harry Belafonte, good friend of our Secretary of State Powell and Marlon Brando. And so the chairman of our group stands up and he says, we have a man tonight who's one of the greatest singers in America. We want to have a song from him, right? To start with, he said, I give you Bob Zellner. And I said, do you mean Belafonte? And he said, no. He said, they gotta hear some freedom songs. You know, we gotta get this thing warmed up. So I happened to have been raised in the south, and I, you know, knew all the freedom songs, all the. The church songs and everything. So we sang some songs and that place rocked. I'm telling you, that place. And here was Belafonte and them back there. And they said, well, they've never seen anything like this. But it meant a tremendous amount in that summer of 64, because just prior to them coming, Silas McGee, who was the project director of the Greenwood SNCC office, had been shot in the side of the head with a.38 caliber slug. I caught him as he fell with the slug in the side of his head. Many other people were brutalized because they wanted to go and register to vote. I remember one time, a thousand people were standing at the courthouse in Greenwood, Mississippi, and here's what the white people did. They pulled up in a big pickup truck and they got out with the monkey and on the monkey's sign, there was a sign on the monkey that says, I want to vote too. Now, that was both the murderers and the humorists coming to the fore. But, you know, we had humor that would beat their humor because a huge debate broke out in the line of black people. And some people said, that's an insult. Why would they insult us like that? And other people said, no, that's no insult. That 85 year old white woman has a right to vote like anybody else. Anyway, that was the summer of 64. People were killed. We sang, we laughed. But you know, it was Harry Belafonte who actually summed up the immense experience of that summer by bringing people from outside, bringing the world press to Mississippi. And it was the beginning of the end of racial segregation at the voting booth in Mississippi and the rest of the south, because by 1965, the next year, the Voting Rights act passed. And it passed because people like Harry Belafonte and Sidney Poitier and my friend Marlon Brando came south and helped us. Harry summed it up at the end of that great Mass meeting when he said, no matter what they do, it is always true that brotherhood and sisterhood is not so wild a dream as those who profit by postponing it. Pretend. Thank you.
- [30:34]
Suzanne Rust
That was Bob Zellner. Bob is the author of the memoir the Wrong side of a White Southerner. In the freedom movement, Bob has moved back to Lower Alabama, where he continues the fight to defend Democracy, working with Dr. Reverend William Barber II, Bryan Stevenson's Equal Rights Initiative, and the NAACP. Bob and his wife Pamela also collaborate with youth leadership training platforms like saabill.org and they support the Black Lives Matter movement. Bob opens his story telling us about his relatives in the Klan. And I could just feel my body tense up as he described it. Where was he going with the story? But to hear him break that particular family tradition and go in just the opposite direction, that gives his story wings. I asked Bob what he thought of the recent protests, and he said that the summer of 2020 convinced him that he was right. Freedom is a constant struggle and democracy is fragile and must be supported and corrected periodically. To see photos of Bob during the time of the story, go to themoth.org extra. Coming up after the break, a love story for the ages. That's when the Moth Radio Hour continues.
- [31:54]
Cynthia Riggs
The Moth Radio Hour is produced by Atlantic Public Media in Woods Hole, Massachusetts.
- [32:01]
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- [33:19]
Suzanne Rust
Trash.
- [33:19]
Advertiser
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- [34:12]
Rudy Rush
Tell you about a great mystery. That mystery is you. As the host of a podcast called Hidden Brain, I explore big questions about what it means to be human. Questions like where do our emotions come from? Why do so many of us feel Overwhelmed by modern life. How can we better understand the people around us? Discovery, your hidden brain. Find us wherever you get your podcasts.
- [34:44]
Suzanne Rust
You're listening to the Moth Radio Hour. I'm Suzanne Rust. Our final teller is Cynthia Riggs. If you've been listening to the Moth for a while, you might remember her first story about a late in life romantic correspondence with a man she worked with as a young woman. That story ended with Cynthia telling us she was planning to travel to California to meet him again after 60 years. Well, this story is chapter two, but don't worry if you haven't heard the first story. Cynthia gives a little context at the top. For precisely that reason, Cynthia told the story at the Tabernacle on Martha's Vineyard where our promotional partners were WCAI and Atlantic Public Media. Here's Cynthia Riggs.
- [35:34]
Bob Zellner
I love being waited on like this. Well, in 1950, I was a clueless 18 year old student at Antioch College. They have a work study program and they found me a job at Scripps Oceanographic Institution sorting plankton. And I got to the laboratory and most of my fellow plankton sorters were men and they'd been sorting plankton too long. They were looking for a distraction and I was it. So they started playing all these practical jokes on me, like putting slimy things on my bicycle seat or nailing my lab drawer shut. And I didn't really know how to deal with this. But there was an elderly man there who'd been in the Second World War and he took pity on me. He was 28 and he somehow got my tormentors off my back without making things worse. Well, I started writing notes to him on the paper towels next to my microscope. They were just simple notes and I wrote them in code. Just A equals B, B, C. Well, my job lasted about four months and I came back here to the Vineyard and I forgot about him. In January 2012, his name suddenly popped into my mind. And I thought, well, I wonder whatever happened to that guy? So I googled his name and I didn't find it. So I didn't think about it anymore. Well, two weeks later, I got a package in the mail with his name on it. He must have been thinking about me the same time I was thinking about him. So I opened the package and in it were all those paper towels that he'd saved for 62 years. And in it was a new note in our old code. And when I decoded it, the note said, I have never stopped loving you. Well, I didn't know quite how to feel about this. And I belong to a group called the Wednesday Writers. So I showed them this package with the note and I said, what do you make of it? Well, Amy said, he's a stalker. Lisa said, 62 years later, this is every woman's fantasy. Kat said, you've got to get in touch with him. You've got to write to this guy. And I said, I can't because his return address was latitude and longitude. And it wasn't easy. But I did find him eventually and it led to a correspondence that went on every day we were writing and the time came after. This correspondence had been going on for a couple of months. Lisa said, you have to go see him now. And I said, no. Well, they prevailed and they essentially got me a ticket, put me on the airplane and sent me off. Well, you can probably imagine how I was feeling the last time this guy saw me. I was 18 and at this point I was 81 and I had severe cold feet and my stomach hurt. I couldn't eat anything, I was sweating and I was icy cold. He met me, he was carrying a long stemmed red rose and he had a sign. He was holding a sign, and on the front was our code for hugs and kisses. And he turned the sign over and on the back was our code for passion. Well, I'd only planned to stay with him for a day and a half because I figured, well, whatever happens, I can deal with it. So we decided we'd talk for decide what we were going to do with this short time. And we were sitting in his house. He had a house sort of perched on the edge of the canyon in San Diego. And I guess about 15 minutes into this planning session, he came out with a little white box about two by two by two. And I said, oh no, I was trying to think what I was going to say. I didn't want to hurt his feelings because we'd really gotten to know each other pretty well in the correspondence. Well, he opened the little white box and in it was a paper cigar band. He said, I know you don't like rings, I know you don't like jewelry, but I thought you might to try this on. And I laughed. The guy really knew me and I said, I do make an exception for rings. So that was his proposal and that was my acceptance. Well, he decided he was going to move to Martha's Vineyard. He'd never been east of Chicago. He got into his pickup truck and mind you, this guy was 91. He got into his pickup truck and with his son beside him, he Drove here to Martha's Vineyard. Well, we got married at the Congregational Church here in West Tisbury. Now, how? He was a Buddhist and I'm a lapsed Unitarian. We got married by the Methodist minister from the Chilmark Church, who's a defrocked Catholic nun. We covered about all the bases. Well, the wedding was just absolutely perfect. The ceremony went along and the time came when it was time for the kiss. So Howie reached out to me and I reached out to him and we went into this perfect clinch and the congregation cheered. Well, we launched into this magical marriage. We knew we didn't have very much time, so we figured we weren't going to waste our time on anything petty. We were just going to make the most of it. So we decided we'd start raising guinea hens. Guinea hens love ticks. And of course, ticks are a problem here in the vineyard. Then we got some hens, then we got some ducks. Now, Howie was feeding all these creatures and he attracted wild turkeys. And I have a photograph taken on the back step where the animals are feeding on Howie's seed. And there were three skunks and a rat. And how he loved them all. He loved the guineas, the hens, the ducks, the turkeys, the skunks and the rat. Well, he used to make my coffee for me every morning. And one morning I found beside the coffee pot a note that said, good morning, wife, you are being loved all day. And he'd leave notes for me all over the place. I'd open the utensil drawer and there'd be a note there. There was a note pinned to my nightie just everywhere. Also, I was in the or. We were both at Kroenig's at the deli counter. One time, I guess buying low sodium turkey or something, Howie suddenly turned to me, embraced me and kissed me right in front of the deli counter. And all the people around there just applauded. We went to Conroy's apothecary. How he kissed me. Mind you, this was a shy guy. At one time in the post office at the dump, I realized what he had decided was he was going to kiss me every place on the island so there'd be a memory of a kiss in every place on the island. Well, I knew right from the beginning that Howie had some serious health problems. He'd sent me early on a list of the books in his library. And one of them was dealing with heart disease. One of them had something to do with diabetes. There was a book of philosophy, a book of poetry. And there was a book that said living to 120. So I said, I'm holding you to that. Well, he started having these sort of incidents where he had a racing heart. And he said to me, you know, we don't have a lot of time together, that let's prepare for it. So we did. He said, I don't want to die alone. I don't want to die in the hospital. Well, there came a time when these incidents were coming closer together. And I called 911 and these three EMTs came, these gorgeous women. And Howie was really angry. He said, I do not want to go to the hospital. And the EMTs prevailed. And he jabbed his finger at me and he said, I'm divorcing you. Well, a week later, I heard him shout out, he called my name. I went to see him and I could see that was it, that was the end. So I sat with him. He has great hands. I held his hands in mine. I told him how much I cared for him, how much he'd meant to me. I told him I loved him. And I told him he'd given me the best five years of my life. He died five years to the day of the time I got that package from him on February 1st. Well, the next day was Groundhog Day. And we always have a big celebration in my house and invite everybody from the island to come. And this time it was a grand celebration of Howie's life, about everybody either knew him or they knew of him. And one of the things they told me is he was known as the rock star of the geriatric set of the island. Well, we had a service at the cemetery, and Kathleen Baker, the minister of the church, officiated at it. And they had the Martha's Vineyard honor guard played, they had these flags out, they had a three gun salute. An eagle flew overhead, and they played taps. And at that I cried. Well, the next day was a Sunday, so I went to church and a little boy was being baptized. He was about one and a half years old. And he escaped from his father. And he went running up and down the center aisle of the church laughing. And the whole congregation laughed. And the little Sunday school kids in the front were facing the congregation. They were giggling. And all I could think was, life goes on. Howie is still with me. I think of him all the time. When I think of all the things he gave to me, the best five years of my life. And he gave me something I would wish on every one of you, and that is just this Steady, passionate, constant love. And that's it.
- [50:41]
Suzanne Rust
That was the unstoppable Cynthia Riggs. Cynthia is the author of a mystery book series, and her writing still keeps her busy. She's also a master gardener who started growing some seeds in the planter that Howie gave her many years ago. Cynthia runs a bed and breakfast that caters to poets, writers, and other creative people in her ancestral home on Martha's Vineyard. When I listen to Cynthia's story, my face actually hurts from smiling so hard. Her heart is so open and her spirit so generous. It is no wonder that Howie had her on his mind for six decades. I asked her a little bit more about that love and what she was up to. You know, I was wondering, would you have been emotionally ready for each other earlier, or do you think that you reconnected just at the right time in your lives?
- [51:30]
Bob Zellner
Well, he was emotionally ready for me, but I wasn't emotionally ready for him then. I'd been married for 25 years to a abusive guy, and I swore never, never, never, never, never again. So I was a safe distance. You know, Howie was in San Diego, and you can't get further away than Martha's Vineyard comes, right?
- [51:52]
Suzanne Rust
Right. No, that's true.
- [51:53]
Bob Zellner
I fear I'm safe. Yeah, I guess I was vulnerable after all.
- [51:59]
Suzanne Rust
What did your love for him teach you about yourself?
- [52:03]
Bob Zellner
Well, it told me that I guess I don't have a hard shell that I built around me after all. I mean, because he really got through that.
- [52:16]
Suzanne Rust
Yeah.
- [52:17]
Bob Zellner
I swear I'd never have anything to do with a man ever again. Never, never, never.
- [52:21]
Suzanne Rust
And then there he comes. So, Cynthia, you're almost 90 now, correct?
- [52:25]
Bob Zellner
Yeah, I'm going to be 90 in June.
- [52:27]
Suzanne Rust
That's amazing. And I'd say you've lived well over nine lives. Let's see, you've been a geologist. You qualified for the U.S. olympic fencing team in the 1940s. You have a U.S. coast Guard license, crossed the Atlantic twice by sailboat. You earned your MFA in writing when you were in your late 60s and then started turning out mystery novels. And I'm sure I'm leaving something out, but I think all of us, at least I want to know, what's your motto, your philosophy? How can the rest of us unleash our inner Cynthia Riggs? Because that's. I think we want to know.
- [52:57]
Bob Zellner
You know, I got a really neat email just this morning, just from one of the Moth fans, saying she's 42 years old and she thought her life was over. And I just said, get going, girl. There's so much out there to explore. 42. That's the age of my grandkids.
- [53:22]
Suzanne Rust
Yeah. No, it's young.
- [53:25]
Bob Zellner
You know, my time with Howie, that was the best five years of my life. But I always add so far because what's around the bend exactly.
- [53:35]
Suzanne Rust
For you, it could be the sky's the limit, really. For you. What's next in your book of things that you'd like to do?
- [53:43]
Bob Zellner
Well, I'd really like to get into gardening in a big way. I've always been a gardener, but I've never known exactly what I'm doing. I looked into getting one of the master gardeners, but I think physically that's kind of beyond me. But I think I can do a lot of reading and digging in my own garden, so that's what I'd like to do.
- [54:07]
Suzanne Rust
That's great. And what do you do during the day? Like, what's a typical day for you?
- [54:11]
Bob Zellner
Well, pretty much. Pretty much writing. I do a lot of writing. I have two writers groups, you know, my Wednesday writers and then there's the Sunday writers. And they're an older group and quite serious and quite dedicated, so I have to keep up with them.
- [54:29]
Suzanne Rust
Yeah, I like that. It keeps you busy. It keeps your brain churning between the gardening and the writing and just your general joie de vivre. We really appreciate hearing from you today, Cynthia. Thank you so much for talking to us.
- [54:42]
Bob Zellner
I can't thank you guys at the Moth enough. You are just heroes, period.
- [54:47]
Suzanne Rust
Oh, we're like huge fans over here. So you're like a rock star for us. Cynthia. That was Cynthia Riggs. To see photos of Cynthia and Howie on the Vineyard and to purchase a copy of her book Howie and A Love story, go to themoth.org extras Cynthia's story first came to us through the pitch line. Do you have a story in you? If so, you can record it right on our website or call 877-799-MOTH. That's 877-799-6684. The best pictures are developed for Moth shows all around the world. Well, that's it for this episode of the Moth Radio Hour. We hope you'll join us next time. And that's the story from the Moth.
- [56:01]
Cynthia Riggs
This episode of the Moth Radio Hour was produced by me, Jay Allison, Kathryn Burns, and Suzanne Rust, who also hosted this Hour. Co producer is Vicki Merrick and associate producer Emily Couch. The stories were directed by Meg Bowles and Leah Tao. The rest of the Moth's leadership team includes Sarah Haberman, Sarah Austin Genest, Jennifer Hickson, Kate Tellers, Jennifer Birmingham, Marina Cluce, Brandon Grant, Inga Gladowski, Sarah Jane Johnson and Aldi Caza. Most stories are true, as remembered and affirmed by the Storytellers. Our theme music is by the Drift. Other music in this hour from Sonny Rollins, Chet Atkins, Bill Frizzell and Ben Webster. We received funding from the National Endeavor Endowment for the Arts. The Moth Radio Hour is produced by.
- [56:52]
Bob Zellner
Atlantic Public Media in Woods Hole, Massachusetts.
- [56:56]
Cynthia Riggs
Special thanks to our friends at Odyssey.
- [56:59]
Bob Zellner
Including executive producer Leah Rees Dennis.
- [57:02]
Rudy Rush
For more about our podcast, for information.
- [57:05]
Cynthia Riggs
On pitching us your own story and everything else, go to our website themoth.org.
- [57:33]
Rudy Rush
I've been counted out, dismissed, passed over.
- [57:37]
Bob Zellner
Told I'd never be a golf ball.
- [57:38]
Rudy Rush
With just one arm.
- [57:40]
Bob Zellner
But the only thing that feels better than proving people wrong is out driving them. I'm 14 year old golfer Tommy Morrissey.
- [57:47]
Suzanne Rust
And I want to be remembered for my ability as a champion partner of the Masters. Bank of America supports everyone determined to find out what's possible in golf and in life. What would you like the power to do? Bank of America bank of America NA Member FDIC Copyright 2025 bank of America Corporation. All rights reserved.