NANTUCKET’S: CLASS OF ‘71
Davis W. Morton / 1996 / oil on canvas / 30 X 40 inches

     Michael Stokes was an experienced downtown bartender who worked at Nantucket’s Landing in Bethesda, Maryland. In the early 1970’s, he had been a basketball superstar at George Washington University. By all accounts, Mike had been a “pure shooter,” and leaning against the bar behind him is a photograph of Mike making such a shot. But before Mike had his heyday, all of these old high school friends had graduated in the “Class of ’71.”
     Now, in the kind of quiet moment that only old friends can have, they are looking in the other direction out the window towards the future. They all still recognize each other, and themselves, as being the same people they have always been. But none of them back in ‘71 could have imagined that they would also turn into the people they have become. Back then, they did not really know that such a thing was possible. But now this knowledge makes the direction they are looking seem more mysterious because this pattern of remaining the same person, but becoming someone else, will undoubtedly be repeated.

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©2002
Comments and Original Art by Davis W. Morton (16-151)