Thirty or Better!

     It was during the year that I got the new stereo, 1978, my brother, Eric, found out that Gary Lewis and the Playboys were going to play at the Hilton Hotel in downtown Buffalo! He asked if I wanted to see them. How could I pass up a chance like that? I took the Greatest Hits album with me on the off chance that Mr. Lewis would autograph it.

     The venue at the Hilton was a small lounge – the group sang all the old songs, and it was a wonderful evening.

     The story about that night that Eric likes to tell is that at some point during the Playboys' set, Gary asked the audience, “Is anyone here 30 or better?” Well, I raised my hand! Eric nudged me with concern and said, “you aren't thirty years old!” and I replied, “no, but I'm better!”

     Anyway, when the band announced that they were going to take a break, I approached the stage with my album and asked Gary Lewis if he would autograph it. The album cover is

the swirls on the left say Love Gary, really!

a dark green color – any signature is unlikely to show up, but I would know it was there, and that's all that mattered. Gary was very amused to see the album, and he showed it to the drummer – apparently the drummer was the only original Playboy left in the band. Gary Lewis gave me his autograph.

     And now, many many years past 30, (and still better!) I still have that album; and I still sing along with all the songs – yes, including the skip.

15 20150115 Thirty or Better

The Five Dollar Record Collection

     Gary Lewis and the Playboys was my favorite singing group when I was a young teen. People nowadays immediately think of the song, This Diamond Ring, if I mention Gary Lewis and the Playboys. But actually, it was the heartfelt rendition of, Everybody Loves a Clown, that caught my ear and endeared the group to me forever. Gary Lewis was the main singer of the group, and he is the son of Jerry Lewis, the famous comic of the 50's and beyond.

     In 8^th grade I got a record player for Christmas. Santa brought the record player (almost all gifts from Mom and Dad were signed Santa – they still are), and the first album I got was Gary Lewis and the Playboys Greatest Hits. The year was 1966.

     For the rest of junior high and high school, I did not collect a lot of albums, nor did I purchase more than a few 45s. On the rare occasion I had money to spend on an album, I had trouble deciding which one to buy. I recall getting the Monkees, of course, and Hermans Hermits, The Sonny Side of Cher and Dark Lady by Cher, and another Gary Lewis and the Playboys album called You Don't Have to Paint Me a Picture – I can't remember any others.

     Twelve years later I was living in my own apartment in Buffalo, and a few months after moving in, I was able to afford a stereo. My brothers helped set it up for me. It had a turn-table, receiver and speakers – a system my brother, Clark, referred to as a $500 stereo for a $5 record collection. At that time I still played the Cher albums, but I no longer had the Monkees or Hermans Hermits. Since college I had acquired some Moody Blues, Melanie, Harry Chapin, and some jazz. And of course I could never have parted with Gary Lewis and the Playboys Greatest Hits. I still have it. Everybody Loves a Clown skips in a certain spot – and that makes it just mine – if the song were to play on the radio today, it would not sound right, without the skip.

14 20150114 Five Dollar Record Collection

Common Sense 2 and 3

Mom and Dad 1963

    There are 2 other incidences I can now remember that might be examples of my alleged lack of common sense, and they both involve the grill my Dad used for cookouts. We were still living on Heinrich Road – I was probably 6 or 7 years old. In the summer, on the weekends, sometimes relatives would come over. Dad would grill hamburgers or hotdogs, once in a while steaks, but I don't think he ever did chicken – the Folks were leery of grilled chicken.

     Well, at that house – Dad almost always had the grill just outside the back door – near a little patio entrance by the garage. There were some hedges that afforded privacy – and guests were either on the patio with Dad or in the kitchen with Mom. One afternoon Dad had started the grill – this would have been charcoal and lighter fluid – not the fancy gas grills of today – and he asked me to run into the house for some newspaper. The paper would have gotten the fire going a little faster. I, however, did not know how the paper would help the fire. I ran into the house and grabbed the entire Sunday edition of the Courier Express. But then I set it down again. The thought that ran through my head was that the whole paper would be overkill, and I did not want Dad to call me a “Smart Aleck” in front of everyone for bringing so much newspaper. So I ripped off a corner of one page – with the thought that he had said “some newspaper” and the corner of a page was “some,” and that was probably all he really wanted.

     Yeah, when Dad saw what I was handing him, he and everyone around laughed at me! He was convinced I should have known better.

The second incident took place one day when Dad had the grill in the front yard by the front door. This was very unusual. Thinking about it now, all I can figure is that there might have been a football game on the tv that day, and the television was in the living room and the front door was in the living room. None of the guests were gathered around the grill – it just sat there all by itself.

     At one point, I looked out the picture window at the grill, and I saw that the steaks were on fire! I did not want to interrupt Dad from whatever he was doing – because if the steaks on fire did not constitute an emergency, then I would be verbally reprimanded for interfering with the adult conversation. But if steaks on fire was indeed an emergency, then Dad should really be told.

     “Dad!” I called out weakly, so as not to sound too demanding, “I think maybe the fire is doing something!”

     Dad actually heeded my words, went to the front door, looked at the grill, looked at me, everyone else looked, and then everybody laughed at me. Steaks on fire was an emergency. But why had I not known that for sure?

 

13 20150113 Common Sense 2 and 3

What are the Colors of January?

    The month of January always reminds me of the two stints I did working in day-care. One was in Texas for about 8 months and the second was in Georgia for a little over a year. Even though my class in both instances consisted of the 18 month to 24 month old children, I was expected to create and maintain an age/season/education appropriate bulletin board in my room just like all the other teachers. My imagination does not mesh well with bulletin boards – there is so much else that needs to be done on a daily, even hourly basis – how can there be any energy, let alone creativity, left to put together a bulletin board every couple of months or so?

     Getting an idea or theme was what took up the most time for me. I would feel like a Dr. Seuss character thinking until my brain got sore. Then once a theme was dreamed up, I would get a little excited until realizing that I did not have the artistic skills needed after all to do a good job on the bulletin board.

     But the first January that I worked day-care, I was rather proud of myself for what I came up with. I wondered what are the colors of January? After the greens and reds, even the golds and bolds of the Christmas holidays in December – what would be the colors of January to distinguish them from December and yet still be special? February would be bringing back the red because of Valentines Day, and March would be ushering in the green of spring and the pastels of blossoms and Easter. What colors are left? What are the colors of January?

     Well, there is white – the color of snow, the color of the bleakness of the winter season. But white all by itself is not a good scheme for a month or a bulletin board. There would have to be a contrast. So I decided on white and black – the white could be the season and the black the details that define the white – And the bulletin board was put together – the colors of January were black and white – the lettering on the board was in black on the snowy white paper; the animals of the month would be black and white like pandas and zebras and skunks and all-white like polar bears and all-black like other bears – lots of animals to fit the descriptions. Stories were easy to gather for the theme – yes, that took care of January quite nicely.

     The next time I found myself working in day-care during a January – the theme came immediately – of course January is black and white.

     And ever since then, at home, when making Christmas go away, as my Mom used to say (in an accusing voice that made one feel guilty!) I find myself wanting to put a January tablecloth on the tables where the reds and greens had just been displayed. But what would be good colors for January? And the answer jumps in immediately as black and white. Last January I decided that my daughters needed black and white schemed tablecloths for their homes – I would make sure Santa brought them some this past Christmas.

   

Amanda and Tony January 2015

    Last week Amanda and Tony had dinner guests, and they set a beautiful table – and Amanda sent a picture: So beautiful! Which then prompted me to complete the January look on my own tables: 

the sheep and penguin are a nice touch!

a dash of color for the hope of spring

      Glad there are not any bulletin boards in the house because this is all the creativity there is in me!

12  20150112  January Colors

Evergreens and Weeping Willow

    So our house was on the corner. The front of the house faced Heinrich Road, but the driveway was on Valley Circle Lane. For the little girl and her mother, Heinrich was the major highway to be stayed away from, and Valley Circle was the little road that I could practice looking both ways before crossing and the road for watching and waiting for Dad to come home from work at the end of each day. Valley Circle Lane was indeed a circle – I can still picture almost every house on both sides of the circle. I can see Kathy and Patty B and their high school sorority sisters walking in step down the street on Friday nights. And I can see Dean L crossing our backyard on a cold winter's afternoon and knocking over our carefully built snowman, and Mom shrugging it off as something that boys do.

    In the summer when Mom would insist we go out to play, we played on the bedroom side of the house in the morning where the shade was, and then we played on the kitchen or Valley Circle Lane side as the afternoon wore on and the shade from the house grew on that side. We played with other kids nearby who had also been told to go outside. I think we mostly played “family” pretending to be moms, dads, kids. There may have been some superheroes too. And witches. Wish I could remember more.

    Before I was born Dad had planted some evergreens along the road leading to the driveway on Valley Circle Lane – one of the trees died early on and when you looked out the kitchen window from the dinner table, there was a space between the evergreens where the dead tree had been. One year there was a bird nest and some babies, I think robins, in one of the trees – we watched the activity from the dinner table that summer, until Mr. Reitz's cat, Moochie, from next door got to the babies. Mom and Dad did not get upset. That's what cats do, and that's that.

    In the front yard, Dad planted a weeping willow. It grew bigger every year. But the front yard had enough room for playing Red Rover Red Rover, and Red Light Green Light, even hide and seek and tag with the neighborhood kids. And in the back yard, eventually there was a swingset – I would fantasize about being a gymnast or trapeze artist someday.

the evergreens on Valley Circle Lane 2009

    When I go back to Buffalo on the occasional visit, I drive by the old house and try to imagine the five of us there back in those days. The evergreens are so big! They stretch right up to the clouds! You can't even tell there was a dead tree space there once. And the weeping willow takes up the entire front yard! It is all shade. Gardens and hedges have come and gone over the years – but the house still has its draw for me, filled as it is with so many memories!

11 20150111 Evergreens and Weeping Willow

Yellow Jumpsuit - Common Sense 2

    Mention has been made of my reputation for unusual logic, more familiarly known as my lack of common sense. I actually do remember an example of this myself from my toddler years.

    It was a summer's day, and I was probably about two years old. Mom liked to watch two soap operas on tv on weekdays – Search for Tomorrow and Guiding Light – they were each on for 15 minutes back to back. I remember that the soaps were about to come on, and Mom saw the sun shining and told me to go out and play. Back in those days, it was okay to issue that command - “it's a nice day, go out and play!” I never wanted to go out and play – I especially did not want to on that day – I remember what I was feeling – I wanted to watch the shows with Mom, inside, out of the sun, with somebody.

go outside and play!

    But I had to be obedient. So I went outside. I stood in the driveway for a while, and I could kind of hear the tv inside. Instead of trying to entertain myself outside, I just felt sorry for myself. And then I realized that I had to go to the bathroom.

    I walked up to the screen door. I looked inside, and listened, and tried to muster the courage to tell Mom I had to use the bathroom. But I was afraid she would be mad. She had told me to stay out until the shows were over. Which would be worse – bugging her that I had to go to the bathroom and her being annoyed and maybe not believing me? Or staying outside and risk wetting my pants?

    I opted not to bother her. Next thing I remember, I was in the house and Mom was taking my yellow jumpsuit off of me – I always liked that yellow jumpsuit – and she was looking me in the eye, “Why didn't you tell me you had to use the bathroom? It's not like you to wet your pants!”

10 20150110 Yellow jumpsuit – common sense 2 

The Corner of Heinrich Road and Valley Circle Lane

     Before my parents got married, they decided they wanted not only to have children, but to raise their kids outside of the city. So they shopped around and found a subdivision that was being built in North Boston – a hamlet of the town of Boston, about 20 miles south of Buffalo. (If you climbed a tree high enough in North Boston, and looked in the right direction, you could see the steel mills of Lackawanna – which was just south of Buffalo.)

     The subdivision was called Valley Circle Lane – and it was a circle of about 30 houses which began and ended on Heinrich Road – (everyone pronounced it Henrich – and I was surprised at the unusual spelling when I learned how to read – after that I realized that there were some people who pronounced it Hinerick). On one corner of Heinrich Road and Valley Circle Lane there was a quarter acre lot with a tiny two bedroom house being built. I don't think there were any other houses with just two bedrooms, just this one. And it was the one that my parents could afford – they bought it!

Heinrich Road and Valley Circle Lane 1952

     Actually, there is a story that goes with that. Mom had been working since graduating high school at 17 at a patent attorney's office in downtown Buffalo. She lived at home with her parents and paid her mother $5 a week for room and board! Mom was able to put some money in the bank. She was 19 and Dad was 23 when they got married. Dad's job situation was not that steady, and his savings were non-existent. So when they went to the bank to take out a mortgage for this house of their dreams, Mom was going to provide the down-payment. Mom thought that since they were not yet married, and the money was hers, the mortgage would automatically be put in just her name, and so she asked if the bank could please put both their names on the mortgage?

     And the bank said no!

     The bank said they do not give mortgages to single women!– it was 1952, and unmarried women were considered to be too big a risk! The bank did say, however, that the mortgage could be taken out in just Dad's name! He was not considered as big a risk – even though he was not the one with the savings account or the steady job! Mom had a moment's hesitation – if she put her money down on a house in Dad's name, he could break off the engagement and have both a house and her money!

     Mom decided to trust him, and the mortgage was put in Dad's name......until they got married. Not too long after they got back from their honeymoon, Mom went back to the bank and had the mortgage changed to both of their names!

Same House 2009

    This whole scenario sounds so sketchy – yet look how it all turned out! Their three children grew up in a house in the country.  This story helps me to have more faith than facts when it comes to others' relationships. Thank goodness my parents had faith in the future that they saw with each other!

9 20150109 the Corner of Heinrich Road and Valley Circle Lane