Batmama's Northpoint Notes #06
January 14, 2026
In 1995 I went from Louisville, where I'd lived a year to Nashville to learn about Digital Services for Kinko's (named for the founder's hair, we didn't retail pocket pussies), the company that would be purchased by FedEx and morphed into their Office chain. A wunderkind named Zack was there to show a cluster of us his savvy. This company was full of dynamic young people, a rare culture, and we worked like dogs and partied as hard. "Work, Life, Play" was the corporate mantra, emblazoned on triangles and on booze and drug-fueled dance frenzied weekends we lived the hell out of it, weekdays at breakneck speed outpacing paper-jammed equipment to deadlines delivering products like thick binders to legal firms, menus to restaurants, and scrapbooks to grannies with "110% Customer Satisfaction".
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This outing with fine dining expensed to Zack's branch (I had some tough duck), came along an Amazonian half-Korean named Priscilla who worked at the Bardstown Road store under flaming nutcase Stacey Tilney, who I'd run screaming to the U. of Louisville store-strip location from. This young woman was hard to get a fix on at first, a quiet storm you might say. The trip back, we caught fire learning our mutual fixations of all things Tiki and Polynesian, old school soul, funk, and rockabilly, and going disco dancing. PLUS she literally lived in the parking lot behind me (inside a building, to be clear). In no time she became a stable fixture of my life.
Through the three decades following, we've remained through marriages, divorces, cohabitation, major losses, victories, arguments, and been each other's parents, children, and siblings alternately situation depending. The greatest test?
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Incarceration. Not ONE family member standing after my radiant mother died. Priscilla Summers became my Power of Attorney. She drives to visit me, and attended my Associate's Graduation. Who stands with YOU? Does your spouse when it counts? Your preacher, community organizer, neighbor, the celebrity who tells you "Be Good"? This is my Co-Worker. Team Member for life.
In prison, there's a lot of talk about ride-or-die. This story is to the bone. Young people who fight for the right to stay home and not interface, take heed. Go out and meet, gather, talk, do lunch, and learn who's standing with you. It might be the kind of love a brother or sister God's grace can lay on you for making the effort to show up.
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Happy Birthday and Thank You, Priscilla.
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