Forty Years Later "The Rescue"
	I had moved to my house in the swamps just outside of Tampa, and the long lost memories of The Barefoot Mailman, Poor Richard's Inn, and Mike Tholl, who had wanted the painting so badly, had all but faded away. One day I was at home in my studio and the phone rang. A man named Court Lewis had called. He said he lived in Melbourne Beach and asked if I was the Lynn Ash who had painted a painting called "The Barefoot Mailman." It was so out of the blue that I was a little floored. It had been 40 years since I had done that painting. "Yes, I am." "The painting was found in a dumpster and I just purchased it," he said. "Is there a history behind the painting that you could tell me about; and I'm dying to know why it's cracked." I told him the whole story about the painting and how it came to be in Melbourne Beach. I couldn't imagine Mike Tholl ever giving the painting up. In the weeks that followed we did a lot of investigating. Going back 40 years wasn't easy putting all the pieces together, but this is the conclusion we came to: Mike Tholl was gone now. He had either moved away or died. Nobody seemed to know. Poor Richard's Inn had been sold and was now a very popular restaurant called Djon's Steak And Lobster House. Nobody knew what had happened to the painting. All we knew was that 35 years after "The Barefoot Mailman" had won first place in a seriously stiff competition of nationally known artists held in Tampa, it was found sticking out of a dumpster in Melbourne Beach. After further sleuthing, we learned that Mike had been close friends with the official historian of Melbourne Beach who told us that he had obtained the painting from him. At the time he got the painting from Mike, he was launching an effort to build a replica of the original Melbourne Beach Post Office. It would be constructed across the street from Poor Richard's Inn on Ocean Avenue. The first post office was discovered in the rear of a large house called the Rossiter House, built in 1890. The city attempted to remove the old post office from the Rossiter House but it unfortunately fell apart. Because of the postal theme of The Barefoot Mailman painting, it was hung in the new replica post office and remained in that building for years. The replica post office was closed and the painting was moved to the actual Melbourne Beach Post Office. A new official there who was in charge, and everyone else for that matter, knew nothing about the painting and it was placed in the back of a closet where it stayed. Forgotten. During a spring cleaning, long after, the head of the post office ordered all "dead wood" be thrown out. "The Barefoot Mailman," having been gathering dust for years, and looking like a broken painting, went into the dumpster with all the rest of the refuse. A man named Mike Clark, a postman at that post office, happened along, saw "The Barefoot Mailman" sticking out of the dumpster and rescued it. He was also the sound engineer for Court Lewis's talk radio show on the weekends. Mike Clark kept it for a number of years hanging in his home in Palm Bay. One day he decided to take the painting to work with him to the radio station and show it to Court Lewis. Court, knowing the barefoot mailmen were officially recognized as part of the history of Florida, was taken with the painting, and for a handsome price, bought it from his sound engineer. Court's objective was to donate the painting to a south Florida museum so the public could enjoy the painting as well. There was a label on the back of the painting from one of the previous art shows, with my name, that helped Court locate me. Court donated "The Barefoot Mailman" to The Historical Museum of South Florida, which is a big museum in Miami, next to the Museum of Art. They considered the painting a mixture of fine art and also connected to the complex history of Miami. I was surprised that it was appraised at 30 times the amount Court had paid for it. There were other museums that were familiar with the history of the barefoot mailmen and were interested in the painting as well, Boca Raton, West Palm, Jupiter, and Hope Sound but the museum in Miami seemed appropriate. They were enthusiastic and very proud to obtain it for their collection. It would also travel to other museums in south Florida to be on display. Seeing the painting was an almost surreal reunion. It had been 40 years and we had experienced so much together during the earliest part of my career. The painting was in surprisingly good condition. The parchment, which was actually a piece of grocery paper, that I had written "The Legend of the Barefoot Mailman" on, was intact and still attached to the weathered panel, just below the frame. And you could still read most of what I had written, after all that time. Court Lewis and I drove to Miami to make the presentation of the painting to the museum staff. The day before, while in Melbourne Beach, Court invited me to be a guest on his radio show, The American Variety Radio Show, on the "Talk To Me Station on the Science and Treasure Coast." The show featured art, culture, writers, song writers, people in films, inventors, and the like. I guess the show went all right. I just told the story of a painting called "The Barefoot Mailman" and its circuitous journey, like that of the actual barefoot mailman, and their destination, Miami, where they both finally came to rest. Lash Out Loud