I REMEMBER WHEN
I recently got together with a group of friends that I have know for over fifty years. We don't have the opportunity to see each other very often but when we do - boy there is a lot of catching up and reminiscing going on, mostly reminiscing.

When we started talking about the time that we were newlyweds the conversation turned to the cars we owned.

I love to talk about that time in my life.

We were newlyweds with a lot of expenses and very little money so buying a car was out of the question.

Before my husband married he lived at home with his sister and mother. They had a family car and did many things as a family. Aaron used the car to get to work, and when he had a social engagement.

SO the arrangement was that we would SHARE the car with his sister and mother.

Aaron would have the car during the week so he could get to work and his sister would take a bus to get to her job.

We shared the car on the weekends.

I was not happy about that.

After a few years we were able to buy our own car!! Hallelujah!!



We bought a pink and white Chevy Bel Air off the lot, it was certainly not my choice of color but it was what we could afford.

Okay, now we had a car - that was a great step forward, but what about me.

When I wanted the car for the day I had to drive my husband to work, and that wasn't bad, but the thing was that he had to be at work at 7:30 a.m!

I wasn't happy about that and only took the car when I really needed it.

Well better days were coming!

My sister-in-law bought herself a new car and we bought the old car from her.

Happy Days! I finally had wheels of my own!!!!

Freedom at last!!

What was the first car you owned?

posted by Unknown @ 12:17 PM | Permalink | I LOVE COMMENTS >> 15 comments

 
"IT WAS A VERY GOOD YEAR"
I'm on a roll here!

My last two posts were about age. The first one was about a twenty two year old waitress, the second post was about me when I was in my twenties.

This post is a video of Frank Sinatra singing, "It was a Very Good Year."

In the song he takes us through being 17, 21, 35, and more.

I love listening to Frank sing. I was a bobbysoxer when I was seventeen.



Enjoy!!!

Lyrics composed by Ervin Drake in 1961:

When I was seventeen it was a very good year
It was a very good year for small town girls and soft summer nights
We'd hide from the lights on the village green
When I was seventeen

When I was twenty-one it was a very good year
It was a very good year for city girls who lived up the stair
With all that perfumed hair and it came undone
When I was twenty-one

When I was thirty-five it was a very good year

It was a very good year for blue-blooded girls of independent means
We'd ride in limousines their chauffeurs would drive
When I was thirty-five

But now the days are short, I'm in the autumn of the year
And now I think of my life as vintage wine from fine old kegs
From the brim to the dregs, and it poured sweet and clear
It was a very good year

It was a mess of good years

More:

Frank Sinatra on Wikipedia:

Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became a successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, being the idol of the "bobby soxers". His professional career had stalled by the 1950s, but it was reborn in 1954 after he won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor (for his performance in From Here to Eternity).

It Was A Very Good Year on Wikipedia:

"It Was a Very Good Year" is a song composed by Ervin Drake in 1961 for and originally recorded by Bob Shane of The Kingston Trio and subsequently made famous by Frank Sinatra's version in D-minor, which won the Grammy Award for Best Vocal Performance, Male in 1966. Gordon Jenkins was awarded Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist(s) for the Sinatra version. This single peaked at #28 on the U.S. pop chart and became Sinatra's first #1 single on the Easy Listening.[3] The song can be found on Sinatra's 1965 album September of My Years. A live, stripped-down performance is featured on his Sinatra at the Sands album.

The song recounts the type of girls the singer had relationships with at various years in his life: when he was 17, "small-town girls on the village green"; at 21, "city girls who lived up the stairs"; at 35, "blue-blooded girls of independent means." Each of these years he calls "very good." In the song's final verse, the singer reflects that he is older, and he thinks back on his entire life "as vintage wine." All of these romances were sweet to him, like a wine from a very good (i.e. vintage) year.

What's your favorite song that brings back memories about life and growing up?

posted by Unknown @ 10:03 AM | Permalink | I LOVE COMMENTS >> 5 comments

 
WHEN I WAS IN MY TWENTIES
In my last post I wrote about "The WAITRESS" who at twenty-two was happy at her job and just wanted to have fun. That got me thinking about what I was doing at her age.


Image: Millie Garfield High School Photo

When I graduated from high school a neighbor told me about a bookkeeping job in a nearby city. I got the job and stayed there until I was twenty-one.

In those days money was tight and "maybe" if the parents had a son - he was the one to go to college. If you were the daughter "forget it" - you got yourself a job and stayed with it until you got married and started a family. That was it, you became a stay-at- home housewife, just like Betty Draper on Mad Men.


Image: Betty Draper courtesy Mad Men AMC

Not me, at twenty-one I was very young and marriage was the last thing on my mind.

As I said earlier, after five years on my first job I decided to leave. There was no opportunity for advancement and I was not "having fun" on the job.

It was time for something different.


Image: Mille Garfield Photo Booth

I decided to take some time off that summer and figure out what I wanted to do next.

Well what do you know, My cousin worked for a restaurant that had a concession stand at the Suffolk Downs race track in a nearby city. They needed a clerk at the cigarette/cigar stand at the clubhouse.

Was I interested?

YES, that's just what I was looking for, certainly a change of pace, being in the great out of doors, meeting new people and being exposed to different lifestyles.

It proved to be a learning experience and "it was fun."

After that summer, it was back to the real world.

posted by Unknown @ 5:18 PM | Permalink | I LOVE COMMENTS >> 13 comments

 
THE WAITRESS
You and your friend go out to dinner at a restaurant on a Saturday night and if you are lucky there is not much of a wait. The hostess greets and seats you at a table you are not happy with but if you reject that table you know there could be a long wait for another table.

The hour is already way past your dinner hour so you say, "that will be fine"
and get seated.

Along comes the waitress and says, "My name is Cassandra and I will be your server this evening."



Ninety nine percent of the time I pay no attention to what the waitress or waiter says but this time it was different. I immediately listened to what she said and made note of her name.

I don't know if it was the way she said it, her voice, her appearance or the name itself but I immediately took a liking to her!

This very attractive looking young lady was very professional and yet there was a warmth about her as she took our orders. Her eyes sparkled, she had a well modulated voice and spoke at a reasonable pace. ( what is it with young people today, they talk as fast as a fright train moves!)

During our meal, we speculated about Cassandra - why would such a charming and bright young lady be a waitress? Was she going to college and needed the extra income? Was she an unemployed actress that was doing this until she got her big break in show business?

I always felt it was not proper to ask a staff member a personal question but at the same time I thought to myself, "if I don't ask her what her goal in life is I would kick myself. I don't remember just the words I used but I had to find out!

Well, she told me that she's twenty two, likes being a waitress and believes in HAVING FUN!! She stressed the fun part!

Boy, was I disappointed!!!

What I'm thinking now is, "maybe that was her way of saying, "mind your own business!" (in a nice way)

What do you think?

posted by Unknown @ 8:36 AM | Permalink | I LOVE COMMENTS >> 9 comments