Author: Tim Rumsey
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R.I.P. Carl Bentson 10-27-1974 to 12-18-2024
Sunday, August 3, 2025, 5:45 p.m. West 7th’s C.S.P.S. Hall was emptied out. Lights down, chairs and tables folded and put away. The band was packing instruments and coiling microphone cables. The beautiful 140 year-old wood floor was being swept, polished.
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The Big Yellow Dumpster
I just returned from outside Carl “Mr. Positive’s” St. Clair home. He is six months gone from the West 7th speck on the old earth ball. His house is empty. There is a huge boxcar-size dumpster alongside his curb. Bright, canary yellow. Industrial. 10 feet deep, clean, shiney. You would need sunglasses to hold any…
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Happy as a Clam
West seventh All-Star cab driver, William “Texan” Dubois is a happy man. Ever-wise, calm, alert and ready. Knows who he is and what he is doing. Tex is happy… I’m pretty sure. I asked Tex once if he was and he said, “You bet” and then he laughed hard. “I’m 64 years old, still standing,…
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Rest in Peace, Mr. Positive
I still grieve Mr. Positive, R.I.P. 12-18-25. Carl Lambert Bentson. Age 62. I’ve driven or walked by his house most every day for 30 years to the clinic or West 7th. Both ways. 20,000 times I figure. Really.
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Smile
I swallowed a camera two months ago. Dr. Ravi made me do it. OK, it was a medical test. To check for blood in my small intestine. Not a usual study, but for me part of a work up for a bout of “low blood” – anemia.
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The Last Time I Saw Mr. Positive
The last time I saw Carl Bentson, he was laying on his back on his front steps. Eyes closed, glassy, kitty–wampus. His head on the lowest step.
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A 1950s Gentleman-Type Doctor Exchange
I asked real estate sale guru-friend Steve Sprafka if he had any famous clients or notable sales recently. “Eric Clapton bought two 1969 Fender twin reverb amps last year. He calls me sometimes.”
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Lunch with the one and only Mr. Positive
The fall weather is extra-ordinary today. 80°. Blue sky. Patches of atmosphere with the correct water content and altitude have been tricked into Cumulo-Nimbus white fluffs. Even the street folks look happy for this moment. I’m walking to the Day By Day Café. “Sit with me,” Carl says from a round metal outdoor table at…
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Mr. Positive is Ill, Part Three
It is verified factual that Carl Benston – Mr. Positive – has had seven months of stage four esophagus cancer and six months of “no more cancer chemo.” So, it was awfully good to see him this lovely fall Sunday out in front of his St. Clair house at his umbrella table. “How are you?”…