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MZ
ALAN K BROWN
Alex
Andrew Herbert
Bennie Wells
Beth Kane
Bryan Flaig
craig schatten
Emily Sklar
JBill
JoAnne Palmateer
Joao Menezes
Kathleen Drohan
Lilit
marclar

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I ate more than Gingot

by MZ

(Gingot is pronounced Gin as-in tonic and jot as-in write down a message.)

Gingot was a big part of my life for a few years when I was a kid.  And he was even a bigger part of my brother Jay's.  I never quite knew what he looked like.  But I was intrigued.  I imagined at the time that he must look alot like Bo Duke and so I was delighted to have him around.

Gingot had a place set at dinner every night.  It was the only way Jay would eat.   My brother had asthma (which I got blamed for due to a baby powder accident) and was quite a skinny little thing so a missed meal was something my mother would go to great lengths to avoid.  Nevertheless, Gingot always ate exactly what my brother ate.... usually one chicken leg, some mashed potatoes and green beens.  My brother's plate and Gingot's plate had to look exactly the same. No tricky stuff like giving one more food than the other....  When Gingot's  food remained untouched, my brother would say, "Gingot wasn't hungry..." or "Gingot doesn't like chicken..." or on nights where he hardly touched his food.... "I ate more than Gingot."
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"HA!!! That's hilarious about Bo Duke :) Thanks for writing - I like this one a lot."

by Michael Kane 

"Wonderful story. When Michael was in Pre-K, he had an imaginary red monster friend who lived in our house. He had a green face and black teeth. Michael said his friend bit his nose once, but he was still a good friend."

by Beth Kane 

"Does Gingot still get a place setting at Thanksgiving?"

by Tom Kane 

"Wow, thanks for sharing that. It reminds me of the countless dinner conversations I have to share, including a few audio recordings I have of my father and sister applauding my mother's mashed potatoes :)"

by Russell Armand 

"Bethie had a couple of imaginary friends that lived in the basement of our house in Bethesda--Nelly Green and the "fish-wormy." Nelly used to stop in every once in a while, but seems to have been a pretty ordinary person, who went to work each day and just dropped by to say "hello." The "fish-wormy," however was not even to be discussed. We never knew what it did or where it came from, but it was definitely present a lot. My own imaginary friend was the subject of many more conversations. "Mr. Johnson," who lived in my closet, had a wife and children and worked in a store. He used to stop in to chew the fat almost every day, mainly to talk about work at the store, although he did mention one day that there had been a fire at his house and his wife and children had burned up. That didn't reduce his visits, though, but may have shortened the one on that particular day. I don't think Nelly Green or Mr. Johnson were particularly scary, but the fish-wormy may have been more like Michael's monster friend."

by Sandy Heiler 

"I just realized that as some of us "weigh in," it might be confusing since we have 3 Bethies and half a dozen Elizabeths in the family. Don't give up; you will soon sort us out."

by Beth Kane 

"The most important thing about Sandy's imaginary friend, Mr. Johnson, is that Sandy and my parents lived on the first floor of a 2-story/2-family house. Mr. Johnson apparently lived in my parent's bedroom closet on the first floor. Sandy could not have known that a fatal fire years earlier nearly destroyed our house and killed a man and his family (Mr. Johnson?). My mother thought the stories Sandy used to tell about Mr. Johnson were simply amusing. When I was born, we moved to the upper level of the house and a young family moved in below. One day, the woman who lived downstairs came up for a cup of coffee and happened to mention her 4-year-old son's imaginary friend, Mr. Johnson. She said that little Bobby told her that Mr. Johnson lived in her bedroom closet. Sandy and the little boy had no contact, whatsoever. She was not his babysitter, or anything like that. It makes you wonder..."

by Beth Kane 

"I'm so relieved to learn that other people had prosaic imaginary friends like Mr. Johnson - I've always been kind of embarassed that my imaginary friends were a middle-aged couple called Rose and Jerry, who lived in Pennsylvania (I lived on Long Island). I'd make plans to see them (ha ha) but rather pathetically was rarely successful because - as I explained to my parents - "we kept getting our wires crossed". So to recap, I had imaginary friends who I couldn't see. Was there a point?"

by Emily Sklar