ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
Every year around Thanksgiving, radio stations play Arlo Guthrie's epic song, "Alice's Restaurant." For many people, the song is a Thanksgiving tradition.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "ALICE'S RESTAURANT MASSACREE")
ARLO GUTHRIE: (Singing) You can get anything you want at Alice's restaurant.
SHAPIRO: The song was inspired by 1960s artist Alice Brock, who died last week at the age of 83. Viki Merrick was a close friend and caretaker in the last years of Brock's life. A few years ago, when Alice Brock fell on hard times, Merrick, who works at CAI in Cape Cod, did what radio producers do. She got Brock on tape, and she offers this remembrance.
VIKI MERRICK: I went to see Alice to bring her something good to eat. She loved chopped liver the way kids love ice cream. And we were talking about the Thanksgiving broadcast "Alice's Restaurant" - the piece on NPR that inspired an avalanche of support and generosity.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
ALICE BROCK: I could never have imagined what happened in the period of a month, what happened in the period of a few days. Good old turkeys - I knew I loved turkey for a reason. It's just a - how could you expect something like that? I can't - I mean, you can expect triplets, but you can't expect that kind of money to just come pouring in.
MERRICK: There was something else in this outpouring that surprised Alice.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
BROCK: It's more than the money. It's the kind of support and acknowledgment and the power of love. So that really means something to me, that that many people, the fives and $10 ones - very heartwarming.
MERRICK: There were so many of us who worked for Alice at the restaurant, and we stayed close to her, which, in itself, says a lot about Alice. I mean, it was just a restaurant. And years later in Provincetown, we'd visit and worry, and maybe even roll our eyes a little at Alice's generosity.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
BROCK: I'm a person who jumps. I leap before I look. I never know what I'm getting myself into.
MERRICK: That was certainly true, especially around money. There were all kinds of people she'd be looking after. Lost, lonely, unstable, broke - I can't ever remember her turning anyone away.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
BROCK: Yeah. Well, money - sometimes I have to admit that giving money is kind of an easy way out of giving some other kind of support. But it's a good way to start, anyway, to let somebody know that you put that kind of trust in them. And everybody needs to know that they're respected and that life could be different for them. And that I won't - I don't think that what they do makes them a bad person. And I go from there.
MERRICK: And did she ever. Alice collected so many people over the years, making family along the way. She's come to embody the hippie philosophy of communal life and good karma.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
BROCK: Well, it's - obviously, it's all come back to me one way or another. So, you know, there's something to be said for en masse or a team working together to make something happen. That's the only reason I opened the restaurant, you know? I had all these friends. We were all just kind of milling around. I said, I want to make something happen.
MERRICK: Over the years, Alice faced death a few times during her illnesses, even thought about ending life on her own terms. And running out of money was certainly not helping that mindset.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
BROCK: I didn't really keep my checkbook balanced. I had some savings, but I didn't really know how much. And, one day, all the zeros came up (laughter). I said, well, there's another reason. But the main reason that somebody would want to give up the ghost is that they just get sick of being sick. That's the way I feel. My whole life is a regimen of pills, pills, pills. So you reach a point where you just say, what's the sense? I'm less twitchy about death. First of all, it's inevitable. So the best you can do is pick your time or place or, you know, stay as happy as you can in any way that you can, doing anything you want until you die.
MERRICK: Well, last week, Alice did finally pass on, peacefully and happily. And her army of friends are feeling both glad for her and just a little alone without her. But she did always get the last word.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
BROCK: Each one of us is a something. We're a something that's part of something bigger. And whether we're aware of it or not, we're not alone. We are not alone.
MERRICK: For CAI in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, I'm Viki Merrick.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARLO GUTHRIE SONG, "ALICE'S RESTAURANT MASSACREE") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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