Agnes Fishbeck

I used to live in an apartment building and the apartment across the hall from me was occupied by a woman named Agnes Fishbeck. I would have never known her name except for the fact that she was the only person in the building who found it necessary to place her name on the door. A neat little bronze plaque that simply read "Agnes Fishbeck".

My younger brother always got a kick out of her name for some reason. Whenever he stop in for a visit he would make some comment about Agnes Fishbeck. He thought it was an amusing name.

I was about 22 years old at the time and Agnes was probably around 72. I'd see her around the apartment building. She seemed pleasant enough and I would always give her an obligatory nod of the head as she shuffled towards me. She would smile a crooked smile, then continue on.

One day my brother shows up and as we're having a beer in my living room he abruptly says, "Hey, you haven't seen my new sweatshirt, have you?"

He stands up and removes his coat. He is wearing a black sweatshirt with the name Agnes Fishbeck in bright orange letters emblazoned across the front.

I started laughing and said, "Why in the hell would you do something like that?"

He said, "I told you.... I like the name."

He wore that sweatshirt quite a bit over the summer and into the fall. One night he was at a keg party and he just happened to have that particular sweatshirt on. He was standing around with a couple of his buddies and a few more buddies walked up and started talking. The one guy was quite a good friend of my brother, but they hadn't seen each other for a few months. He asked my brother what he was up to and as my brother started to answer the guy's mouth dropped open and he said, "Why the hell do you have my grandmother's name on your sweatshirt!?"

My brother, as witnesses tell me, started laughing so hard he dropped to one knee.