Topical Guide 315
Mark Dorset
Fear: Fear of Being Ridiculous
Everyone at Babbington Studebaker thought of Herb as his friend, wisecracked with him, slapped him on the back, but Herb with a story to tell about Ella, Herb with that glow on his face, Herb with his proud-papa look, was someone to avoid. …
From somewhere in the grease pit, but not from Old Randolph, came snickering. Curious, suspicious, Herb tiptoed around the Big Six. He found Hal and Dick huddled together, bent over, trying to keep from laughing aloud. Herb trudged off, his heart hardened.
In later years, whenever Herb began an anecdote of the small and personal variety, the kind that might be taken as insignificant, he would say, first, “You might want to slip off to the grease pit before I start this story.”Herb ’n’ Lorna, Chapter 10
Nothing is more miserable in its origin and more awful in its effect than the fear of being ridiculous.
Friedrich Schlegel, Aphorisms from the Lyceum (1797, translated by Ernst Behler and Roman Struc)
Studebaker: Babbington Studebaker
This is not Babbington Studebaker in the 1920s. It’s Alton’s Garage, in Antwerp, New York, as it was circa 1928.
This is the site of Alton’s Garage, in Antwerp, New York, as it was in 2017:
This is not the service department at Babbington Studebaker in the 1920s. It is “a friendly neighborhood automobile repair garage in the mid 1920s.”
See also: Studebakers: Babbington Studebaker TG 3
[more to come on Friday, August 12, 2022]
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