As Suzanne indicated, I was part of that crew
too at Black's Gaslight Village when
we were all students in the Iowa workshop back in the mid 60s.
I was in the fiction program.
Steve was in the poetry program.
And that was how I knew him, just because we all
lived there.
I have three short anecdotes to tell.
I remember Steve's best friend at the time,
a kid named Jon Anderson.
And I remember that they did a poetry reading together.
They printed flyers to announce it.
But to puncture the possible self-importance of that,
instead of saying that Steve Orlen and Jon Anderson would
be reading their poetry, the flyers
said they would be breeding their poultry
at such and such a tiny place.
It went on to say both these boys are
clean cut and under 40.
Like Suzanne, I have vivid memories of the pig roast.
And I also have a photo of Steve grinning and bare-chested,
kneeling in the front row with all the greasy celebrants
behind him in front of the pit where
the pig was being roasted.
And that is priceless.
And I'm happy to have that today.
And the last thing I want to talk about
is the tragic incident, particularly the suicide.
But I have something to add to what Suzanne told you.
After the young man killed himself,
a couple of guys who lived at Black's Gaslight Village,
nobody I knew well, formed the idea
that yet another resident, a goofy boy named Clyde,
was somehow involved in that apparent suicide.
Clyde was a strange and silent character,
with a manner that was definitely weird.
He wouldn't meet your eye.
He was the outsider of all outsiders.
And these two vigilante guys took it upon themselves
to hold Clyde responsible for the death by hanging.
But Steve Orlen wouldn't allow that.
He told them that if they didn't leave Clyde alone,
he was going to punch them out.
And I remember being terrifically impressed,
not only by Steve's physical courage,
because there were two of these guys.
And they were both bigger than he
was, but also by his sense of fair play
and his readiness to stand up for an underdog.
I knew that such an act of heroism
would have been miles behind me and would remain so
for my whole life.
But thanks, Steve for a moral education.
It's lesson is still with me.