John William Tuohy

Imago summer, 1971. John William Tuohy

Imago: An idealized image of someone, formed in childhood and persisting in later life. From Latin imago (image). Ultimately from the Indo-European root aim- which also gave us emulate, imitate, image, imagine, and emulous. Even now I get lost in the thought of it despite the fact that in so many ways I am now far, far removed from that place and that time is gone forever and will never return. Although it lasted such a short time I can still see their faces, hear their voices and feel the warm air from the summer of 1971 when I was 16 years old. That summer when I learned to wash dishes, deliver hot goods to the Boston mob, fall in love and break a heart. It was also the summer that I lost and then found my father, my best friend over all those years and it was the summer that I stood in a corn field and watched an innocent man get shot to death and the summer that I saved my own life.