Published: August 31, 2007 05:14 pm            

THE ISLE FILE: Young artist's final curtain

Isle File and Chris Wozniak did a play together two springs ago in Tonawanda. Doug had a role. Polly was his prompter. Chris designed the poster, the program and several other artistic aspects of the show.

Chris was as diligent as any artist we’ve ever known. For the billboard, he painstakingly photographed an actor pulling something over his shoulder, took a photo, then created a sketch of a man dragging a dollar sign as if it were a reluctant dog. The actor’s appearance was not vital to the image, but Chris had to get it just right.

One night Doug and another actor decided to do a little extra work on the pivotal scene, an intense debate about selling your soul to the office. They must have been fairly convincing because Chris came up on stage and joined in the argument. They tried to work around him but finally Doug had to say, “I’m sorry, Chris, we’re rehearsing a scene here.”

“That’s OK,” said Chris. “Don’t apologize. Go right ahead.”

Everything in that little exchange summed up Chris Wozniak. He wanted to be involved, to express himself and to grant others the same privilege of expression.

Chris, 27, bid us all farewell a week ago Friday. Many an Islander has one of his paintings or photos or frames as a legacy. We have two.

The title of the play was “You Can’t Take It with You.”

And he didn’t.

n HUMILI-TEE: Long-time golfers call it “the humbling game.” Last week the game humbled Doug in an unusual way.

Playing with his visiting nephew Frank Carvino, Doug realized every golfer’s dream by scoring a hole-in-one on the 90-yard second at Amherst Audubon Par 3. As the two strolled up the little fairway, Frank, who had never set foot on a golf course before, remarked casually “I think it rolled into the hole, Uncle Doug.”

Doug was feeling fairly puffed up until he went to register the achievement on-line. There he learned that the previous day, a blind woman had gotten a hole-in-one. Another ace was delivered by a woman six months pregnant, evidently in a hurry to finish. Somebody got two in one round but still didn’t break 100, the standard for golf mediocrity. A man of 102 got one, and a boy of five.

On a list of local holes-in-one he found a familiar name, a fellow Bison fan named Sharon, who also had gotten a 90-yard hole-in-one. She’d used a nine-iron. Doug had used a seven. This told Doug and anyone else who speaks golf that this little slip of a girl is out-driving Doug by 20 yards.

Our friend Kevin asked, “Now that you you’ve perfected the game, why do you keep playing?”

To which Doug replied, “I dunno. But we have two children.”

So don’t ask Doug about his hole-in-one.

Isle File idea? Write Box 1186, Grand Island, NY 14072 or e-mail pollyndoug@hotmail.com.

        

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