By Kim Hilsenbeck
At first glance, Richard Salassi may seem like your typical older gentleman. Standing at about 5’ 6”, he does not have the slouching stoop of an older man, but his face, weathered with time, and his voice, deep with the crackle of a life time of smoking, are the tell-tale signs of aging.
But keep talking to him and, just like peeling an onion, he reveals many layers. And what he lacks in stature, he more than makes up for in verve and personality.
Salassi wandered into the Hays Free Press office some weeks ago, asking to speak to someone about his book, “Onion Creek.” On the cover of the hardback, a photo of a brown wooden gazebo surrounded by lush greenery reveals little of the book’s contents.
When he didn’t see anything written up about his book, he ventured back to the office, this time wearing a Panama Jack Hawaiian-style shirt and a green corduroy beret, more preppie than military. His persistence and charm wore down the reporter.
With the slow southern drawl of the people from the Mississippi Delta, Salassi explained what the book is about and how he came to write it.
“I wrote the book because I live in retirement up at Onion Creek Retirement Village in Buda,” he began. “It was a past-time, basically, a hobby.”
He continued, “I like to write poetry. And then I decided, well I’m going to write a short story or two. I wrote one and entered it into the Buda short story contest and came in second.”
There were four entries.
“And so, you know, puffed up with the title of,” he paused for dramatic effect, “prize-winning author, I decided to, uh, see if I could write a novel.”
His eyes twinkled with the knowing look of having just poked a little good fun at himself. If you get the sense he does that often, you would be correct.
“It’s not really a novel in the sense that it’s so short. Let’s call it a novella,” he said.
“I hate long movies and I hate long books and I hate long pieces of music and I’ve gotten to the point, you know I’m 70 years old, where I just don’t have time for all this stuff, and I’d like to squeeze in as much as possible.”
With his Mississippi lilt, he draws out the “i” in the word time a few extra beats, almost as if it’s a multi-syllable word.
“It’s a short book and it’s basically – I thought I would write about what I know and that’s living in retirement.”
He’s lived in the Onion Creek retirement village for five years, moving here from Wichita Falls to be near his sister who lives in Kyle. He grew up in Vicksburg, Mississippi, what he called, “the Gibraltar of the south.”
“I’m goin’ to tell you right now, living in retirement can kill ya,” he said.
So can poor health.
“I’ve had four heart attacks and she said, uh,” he changed direction, “and I have no family…,” meaning, no wife or children.
Wait, four heart attacks?
“Well, yes, I’ve been a naughty boy in my life,” he said, his face breaking into a smile.
“And I still am, for that matter. In fact, I might probably drop dead before I leave here today,” he said.
He checked his gold watch on his left wrist, as if to show his imminent demise was about to happen.
And so the conversation went, Salassi peppering his answers with a mixture of self-deprecating humor and good-natured irreverence.
“I think I’m in good health. The doctor says I’m in good health, considering…I’m overweight, I smoke, I don’t do any exercise.”
Does he still smoke?
“I’m trying to quit smoking,” he said.
Why, at age 70, is he trying to quit now?
“You know, that’s a very good question,” he answered. “Because I’d like to make it to 74.”
He then talked about his three-year-old grandnephew who, Salassi said, is “just the cutest thing.” He then explained how he would like to be around a little longer to watch him grow up.
“I think he’s a genius. I think he’s destined to be the great actor of the century, and I’d like to stick around long enough to see him win an award or two, or at least get a couple of divorces, you know,” Salassi said.
Is his effort to quit smoking working?
“No,” he said. “My doctor tells me that smoking is an addiction so strong that quitting heroin,” he said with an over-emphasis on the first syllable of that word, “is easier. And I said, ‘Are you recommending that I take up heroin?’ And he said, no, that’s not what I’m recommending at all.’”
The word all came out, aaawwlll.
“And I said, ‘then you’ll have to bear with me, doc.’”
Salassi had his first heart attack at age 42 – a disconcerting little fact for this reporter of the same age.
“I just put [the cigarettes] down and quit,” he said, thumping his hand on the table.
Somewhere along the line, he took up the habit again, this time, for good.
Salassi shared some insight into the book.
“I don’t really expect the book to be, you know, like be a best seller or anything like that,” he said. “I tried to model the construction after “To Kill a Mockingbird” [by Harper Lee]. She has two parts, the first…she introduces the characters, the setting, and then she gets to the meat of the story, the trial.”
Of his own book, Salassi says it’s written in what may be considered an unusual manner – the plot forwarded along by poems relevant to the topic at hand.
Salassi said the characters have some vague reminiscence of real people in his life, though for the most part, he called it a work of fiction. The main character is Adrian Lewis, an older gentleman living in a retirement community called Onion Creek in Buda, Texas, which seems fairly nonfiction at that point.
The first line reads, “This is the story of Adrian Lewis, a poet of dubious talent who loved to quote presidents, and his last days at Onion Creek.”
Is this a foreshadowing of things to come for Lewis? Best to read the rest of the novella for that answer.
Aside from being an award-winning writer, a la the Buda Library contest, Salassi said, “I have two great loves – teaching and acting. I wasn’t necessarily successful at either one,” he said.
Salassi is a former English teacher, a job which he held in several communities around the country over a 20-plus year career at public and private schools, and even once at a jail. He was a full-time and substitute teacher over the years.
He’s also an aspiring actor, perhaps even a role model for his young grandnephew.
In fact, for 11 years, mostly in the Wichita Falls area, Salassi performed a one-man show about Mark Twain’s life and writing.
Why did he quit?
“Because I got too fat,” he said, a hand on his abdomen.
Okay, how did he start?
Salassi spoke with a certain admiration for Hal Holbrook, whom he called “the quintessential Twain impersonator.”
“He has been doing it since 1950-something, or was it 1850 – anyway, he’s been doing it forever,” he said, that last word ending in an aaahhh, with no R in sight.
“The first piece of live theater I ever saw was Hal Holbrook doing Mark Twain and I was just captivated. I thought he was Mark Twain up on that stage,” Salassi said.
After seeing Holbrook four different times, in four different decades, in four different venues, Salassi said, “he won’t ever die.”
Rather than waiting for Holbrook’s demise, Salassi started his own impersonation of the American author and humorist, Samuel L. Clemens, a.k.a., Mark Twain.
Since living in Buda, he’s only donned the white suit and black bow tie once, when he performed at the Onion Creek Senior Citizens Center.
“I did Mark Twain up at the Buda senior center, just 15 minutes,” he said, giving little indication of the audience reaction.
He promised an exclusive viewing of his show once he lost some weight.
But perhaps with the Central Texas area in a boom for film and television, Salassi should consider getting an agent and exploring the local opportunities.
His favorite films are “Gone with the Wind,” more so because it was a milestone mega-picture.
“Something major happens every three minutes,” he said.
Salassi added, “I love ‘Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolfe’ – it’s acting.”
Another favorite is “Night of the Hunter,” starring Robert Mitchum and Lillian Gish.
But he would rather do stage acting than films.
In the meantime, before he breaks into his acting career, Salassi said he continues to rile up the residents of the Onion Creek Retirement Village with what he called irreverence.
If the book is any indication, Salassi is not lacking in that department.
