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May 15, 2007

Meet the Flockers: Rick Neece

Here’s the path by which I come to this gathering:

Born: 1955, Rockford, IL of Arkansan parents, the oldest of three, one brother, Robbin, one sister. Rhonda. I (as does Deron) possess the same initials as my siblings. RCN.

Moved: 1973, Pocahontas, AR. Here I married (twice, one after the other with some time between, I was raised Freewill Baptist, not Mormon.), and at the ripe age of 29 matriculated from (?) Arkansas State University (not the Razorbacks) with a BS in marketing, having given up Accounting when Intermediate Accounting drew the line of understanding for me.

Moved: 1984, Kansas City. A management trainee in Visual Merchandising for the Jones Store, now defunct, sold out to May Company, then Macy’s in the past year or so. Here, also, I divorced for the second time. Painfully. Thankfully, I moved on to work for Saks Fifth Avenue on the Plaza, where in a foray into Bennett’s Books (also, now defunct), I happened onto an issue of The Quarterly. Edited, as many of you may know, by Gordon Lish. From the Quarterly I learned a name: Cooper Estaban. (More on that later.) Here, too, I met my person, Dan Jensen, who has been my rock, now, for the past almost 20 years (to be celebrated in August).

Moved: 1989, Tulsa, OK. With Saks, my first Visual Merchandising Managership. Stayed nine months. Didn’t like it. Not urban enough. Though something of a garden spot. Nice restaurants. But, I don’t know. Just wasn’t us.

Moved: 1989, Minneapolis, MN. Also with Saks. Here’s where I took Lish up on his offer to come to Bloomington, IN, and sit at his feet (literally) to learn writing. (I had submitted a thing or two to him, with favorable response, yet unpublishable–he always wrote sweet notes. “Not this time, still good to see.” And such. I attended another week with him two years later, while I was still in Mpls. Sat next to Gary Lutz and Barton (my memory fails his last name, hope he’ll forgive me) both Quarterlians. Nary a word passed between us. (I’m shy.) I still carry Lish’s words inside me, so strong they were.

Moved: 1993, Troy, MI. Suburb of Detroit, again with Saks, this the fifth largest (volume) store in the country. My boss, in NYC, said to me: If you want to move up now you have four choices: San Francisco, Bal Harbour, FL, Chicago, and NYC. I didn’t much like Troy, so Danny and I talked it over and decided we should just go home. NYC was tempting, but I didn’t want to live there poor. (I liked, on trips for the company, staying at the Paramount, handing dollars, on the company dime, to the handsome boys at the door, who would wave down a taxi for me.) So…

Moved: 1995, Back to KC, where we were more/less equidistant from our folks, and where they couldn’t ‘drop in,’ anytime they wanted. But where we could get to them by car, in something like a short time.

Not sure exactly when I started reading ‘elimae,’ but I’d googled Gordon Lish, and the link came up, I’ve been reading ever since. So sweet!

Now, by way of other work and such, I’m the Director of Operations for a Landscape Design firm, The Greensman, Inc. It’s good work, with great people. I’m happy.

Back to Cooper Estaban. Since I’d been following elimae, I, last August, submitted a story, to Cooper Renner. (I’m don’t exactly remember where I pieced the two names together.) And in exchanges about my latest submission, and his trip to Europe, found out he was a member of clusterflock. (The more risque moments of his trip are to be posted here–who could resist looking?)

There you are. I can only hope I can bring something of worth to y’all once in a while. In the mean time, be well and happy.

I’m blessed beyond all recognition.
XOR

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