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24059. thoughtful - 5/7/2008 5:52:08 PM Yeah, there are a few magical people in the world who seem to always find a most interesting journey in life.
Don't know if I ever told you the story about a friend of mine. Much older than me, she was out and about during WWII traveling much of the world. She had many fascinating experiences and wonderful anecdotes to tell.
One was she was on a train somewhere and there was a soldier of some sort sitting across the aisle from her working a crossword puzzle. She never knew or paid any attention to uniforms and insignias and such. So when she saw he didn't complete it, she asked if he'd mind if she tried. She finished the puzzle and returned it to him, joshing him about how he couldn't complete it...apparently had a nice little interaction about it. After the soldier left the train her seat mate asked if she knew who she was teasing. She said no. He said, "That was General George Marshall!"
I could ride a train for 1,000 years and never would something like that happen to me. But for her, these kinds of things were common place. Go figure. 24060. wonkers2 - 5/7/2008 11:18:25 PM That's a good one! I don't recall ever sitting next to a celebrity on a plane or train. Once when there was a baggage handler "go slow" at Heathrow airport I waited an hour or so with Henry Ford II and others for our luggage. Ford was completely genial and showed no sign of impatience. He was quite an impressive guy in many ways (from what I read of him in the newspapers and my observation of him on that occasion). 24061. thoughtful - 5/8/2008 1:44:10 PM My favorite story of a brush with fame is about my husband.
His parents were very bipolar? or bi something. They had the apt in NYC and they had the place in the country where we're building our house. When they were in the country they were completely rural people. My MIL even wore jodhpurs early on as they were the only kind of slacks they made in those days for women. My FIL always dressed in his green big yanks and worked in the garden.
However, when they were in the city, they were completely opposite. My MIL never went out of the apt without her hat matching her purse matching her shoes and with 2 pairs of gloves...one to wear on the street and one to change into when you arrived at your destination. My FIL even had 2 different watches he used...one for the city, one for the country. He traded in his greens for suits, shirts, ties, wing tips, and even had garters on his socks!
Well anyway, in the country, there was an old man down the street who always smoked a corn cob pipe...really smelly old thing. When hubby was a baby, he gave him a corn cob pipe. My FIL fitted the end of the thing with rubber so it wouldn't get all messy and hubby used it as a pacifier when he was wee.
My hubby's grandmother was also a NYC person and ran her own furrier business. People outside the family have told me that her customer list read like the NY social register. She would custom make furs out of hand selected pelts. (My MIL used to complain that she never had a cloth coat until she was in her 20s!) In fact, she was the one who could afford the property where we're building. She bought it during the depression if you can imagine. Anyway, as hubby was her first grandchild, there was nothing she didn't want for him, so she bought him a most beautiful wicker perambulator...very fancy thing with curlicues and all. And of course, she made a mink throw for the carriage.
So there's my MIL dressed to the nines in her fancy hat matching her fancy purse matching her fancy shoes, strolling in central park pushing her fabulous perambulator with its elegant mink throw, and who should come along but Greta Garbo! She walks up to the carriage and looks at my MIL and says, "I vant to see the bebe." So my MIL graciously pulls back the mink throw and there's hubby, sucking on his corn cob pipe! Greta took one look, said Oh MY! and walked away. 24062. David Ehrenstein - 5/8/2008 1:54:12 PM A truly remarkable woman has passed. 24063. judithathome - 5/8/2008 3:41:16 PM My MIL even wore jodhpurs early on as they were the only kind of slacks they made in those days for women.
I shuddered when I read this line of your post...but how cool that he had a mink throw!...because when I was in kindergarten, we lived near enough to my school that my daddy walked me to school each day. One morning it was literally freezing out and my mother dressed me in red wool jodhpurs and matching coat and little tam hat. I screamed and yelled and cried and tried to dig my feet into the road all the way to school, with my dad laughing his head off...even at that young age, I knew those things would make a laughing stock with the other kids and sure enough, they did! 24064. thoughtful - 5/8/2008 4:13:29 PM Very good, J@h!
Reminds me so much of the xmas my mother made me this beautiful red velvet dress, fitted on top with a gathered skirt. In the back the red velvet was cut away in a curve up to the waistline to reveal tiers of white ruffles on the underskirt. Mother thought it was beautiful and I'm sure now as an adult I would appreciate it, but back then I was absolutely mortified that my mother would take me to church with what I considered to be my underwear showing!!! I kept my coat on the whole time! My memory of that is still so clear though I was probably only about 4 at the time. 24065. magoseph - 5/8/2008 6:56:18 PM Thank you, David, for Elaine Dundy's link. 24066. arkymalarky - 5/9/2008 2:18:20 AM Eddy Arnold died today. 24067. judithathome - 5/10/2008 7:31:45 PM An early HAppy Mother's Day to all the Motie moms and also, to the muthas.
Keoni got me a book on Maxfield Parrish...all the pictures and posters he's done with a brief history of each. It's a beautiful book. We have ONE Maxfield Parrish print...I think it's called "Dawn". Looking forward to tracing it down in the book! 24068. arkymalarky - 5/11/2008 1:35:34 AM Happy Mother's Day to all the Moms!
This has been the worst tornado season I remember in a long time. Mose is in Little Rock with friends, and they all got ushered to the basement of the mall. 24069. arkymalarky - 5/11/2008 2:01:51 AM Tornado on the ground just west of Stuttgart.More coming in from OK in line for us, but hopefully it will be weak by the time it gets here. One also near where Bro lives. There are three big cells in the state right now, all with tornadoes. 24070. magoseph - 5/11/2008 12:45:01 PM nytimes--Call Your Mother
Whenever I’ve had the honor of giving a college graduation speech, I always try to end it with this story about the legendary University of Alabama football coach, Bear Bryant. Late in his career, after his mother had died, South Central Bell Telephone Company asked Bear Bryant to do a TV commercial. As best I can piece together, the commercial was supposed to be very simple — just a little music and Coach Bryant saying in his tough voice: “Have you called your mama today?”
On the day of the filming, though, he decided to ad-lib something. He reportedly looked into the camera and said: “Have you called your mama today? I sure wish I could call mine.” That was how the commercial ran, and it got a huge response from audiences.
So on this Mother’s Day, if you take one thing away from this column, take this: Call your mother.
I sure wish I could call mine. 24071. thoughtful - 5/11/2008 3:39:24 PM Happy Mom's day to all the mothers out there.
J@h, I love parrish! They had a show of one of largest collections of his art at the brooklyn museum several years back and I was in 7th heaven. To see his stuff up close and personal is such a treat. And his stuff is all over the place. There's one I found in CT, another in FL and even one in a hotel I stayed at in DC. Always a treat. 24072. alistairconnor - 5/11/2008 5:51:06 PM I'm making pizzas for my daughter's first "boum", or teenage party. She's actually only turning 11 this week, but she's well ahead in school so most of her friends are 13 or so.
Her elder sister, 14, is MC and DJ. I'm just staying out of the way.
It was a great excuse to clear out the barn, which is a great party room, and has been accumulating junk for a couple of years. I took at least a dozen full trash bags of the kids' old clothes away to be recycled. And shed a few tears over them. 24073. arkymalarky - 5/11/2008 6:17:13 PM Awwww. I still haven't cleared Mose's stuff out from when she moved out, and she's 23. It's on my to-do list--I tried to put it on hers, but that hasn't worked too well. 24074. Ms. No - 5/11/2008 6:17:42 PM Happy Mother's Day, Moties! 24075. judithathome - 5/12/2008 7:06:46 AM Keoni bought me...well, US...a new monitor today and it's huge...which makes the Mote take up about half the screen, for some reason.
It was really weird. I turned on the computer and it made this strange crackling sound and the screen looked like it was being eaten by something inside. Then, this acrid smell and poof...no monitor.
Now we have a slick new flat-screen one. Everything looks so bright.
Leslie brought me a varigated tea rose bush this morning. Can't wait for the blooms! 24076. judithathome - 5/13/2008 1:20:04 PM Off to DAlals today to meet with the neurosurgeon for the 4 week follow-up on my kid's head. 24077. magoseph - 5/13/2008 1:53:30 PM Good luck and keep on posting at your return, please.
24078. judithathome - 5/13/2008 9:57:32 PM Gads, I mangled Dallas....
The neurosurgeon said today that it looks like the artery is closing up again in Leslie's brain (causing the TIA he had last week) and so, a week from tomorrow we go back to the hospital and do it again, only this time he will put in a stent.
So bummed about this news...
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