Those were the days

Thank you, Jimmy Kimmel and Norman Lear, for this wonderful trip down memory lane.

I can't stop thinking about my Grandmom Sarah, who knew I was a rabid teenage  fan of "All in the Family." 

 She gave me the last gift she'd ever live to present, a magazine she bought in the hospital gift shop that was  devoted to the show.  I read it cover to cover, and it inspired me, at age 16, to write an entire "All in the Family" script.

 It was about Archie being diagnosed with Type II diabetes--and it was recognized by Norman Lear's company. 

 Ultimately, they praised but did not buy my attempt at a teleplay, but it was staged as a HS production.  My English teacher Sara Joffe praised the writing and loved how I personified the perfect frumpy Edith.  I nailed he vocals too..I can no longer capture that shrill, but I could in 1972! I think some fellow  students actually thought I was Jean Stapleton's niece...

Jim and I both loved tonight's show, particularly the performances by Jamie Foxx and Marisa Tomei..and the short but terrific portrayal of baker Frank Lorenzo  by Sean Hayes. 

 Oh, Vincent Gardenia is laughing in his grave!

Woody Harrelson was a little hit or miss...he's a little too much in shape to play the Archie  of my dream script.

I wept as I saw the perfect sets..the perfect fashions.  I recalled all those hours, laughing with my Dad over Archie's sheer audacity.

It also bought back this memory from 1991:

 My cousins were all gathered in the social room of my Mom's condo building for a Chanukah party.  She left the room to retrieve something from her kitchen..and God only knows how this happened..she got a phone call, asking for me!  Using my maiden name!  Talk about timing!

 I was already married and long out of the house, living in NJ,  but the call came from a production company doing a twenty year salute to "All in the Family."

I had written a fan letter that they had saved since 1972--and they wanted to interview me for the show!

I remember the excitement weeks later when Jim and I boarded the train for NYC for my taping at a Manhattan deli.

  I was poised. 

 I wore pearls

. I talked about my Dad, and how all Dads had a little Archie in them.

  I was   quick and I was  confident.

And..

I was cut!!  

But Jim wasn't..he was seen drinking soup in the background.

Oh well..that's show biz!

Nice day for barn wedding

What a beautiful day!  When I first got an invitation to a wedding in a barn, my first thought was, "is it in Iowa?"

 My second thought was, "will the pitchforks ruin my formal dress?" 

My third thought was...

... that the Mother of the Groom is my dear friend Faith Brenner, who, whether she has lots of input or just a little, turns any ordinary  party into the Met Gala.

The day was gorgeous.  The drive was gorgeous. The verdant rolling meadows and the shimmering pool guests got to see  upon entering the events area were beautiful.

The parking lot was rural, and I was a little too klutzy to mount the high step on the golf cart, (hello, black and blue mark..you go nicely  with the dress!) but the barn was spectacular!  High rafters, ladders shooting upward to the lofts...

I felt like I was in a wooden castle surrounded by fragrant floral arrangements and twinkling lights.

The music was hauntingly beautiful, the speeches were bittersweet and moving, the apps were scrumptious, and dining under the stars was a real treat.

And, despite my aching ankle, it was fun to dance to recognizable Motown classics because, due to the cool breezes wafting in,  even we aging, chunky women could shimmy without schvitzing.  

We even liked our dinner companions who started off as complete strangers and wound up sharing stories like growing up and knowing    Barbra Streisand and her family, or serving in Viet Nam, or telling us about their kids and realizing our son had a personal connection to some of them.

See?  I always thought I was too uncomfortable for small talk..turns out, I kind of like it!

Mazel tov to the stunning couple and precious  Averi, ..and thanks to Faith Brenner and Harvey M. Brenner for allowing us to share in all the festivities...

Bye bye kale

after throwing myself a little pity party on this cold, dreary Mother's Day, missing my Mom and feeling sad that Jim is in Chicago on business, which means we couldn't do our traditional  Broadway day, the holiday was totally salvaged! 

 Evan took me to a chick flick.

."Poms" was filled with Moms and although the script was very predictable(we knew every line before it was uttered) I was so happy to spend the day with my son. 

 Best of all, there was this huge unapologetically fat guy in the popcorn line who was so hilarious that I was about to drop my bucket!

 He was saying things like"I don't care if my guts spill all over the coroner's table before I'm fifty, I'm not eating kale and brown rice and plastic chicken and.."

(He must have listed ten more items before he continued)

"And  if I die, which I may not because I am totally healthy according to my blood work, I'll know I lived happily like an American should "

By the time he continued with "so fuck kale and everyone who eats it" I could no longer hold in my laughter, and when he looked at me funny, I gave him a thumbs up and a sympathetic smile.

He says, "so you'd be OK also  about dying before 50 if it meant you never had to eat kale?"

This fat lovable zhlub was inferring that I look younger than fifty??

I told him I was in my sixties, and that he just made my day.

He offered "don't let bigoted doctors bully you and tell you you're unhealthy if you're not..make sure they treat the problem that you go to them for and not your clothing size" and I swear, if I wasn't carrying a refill bucket of something that wasn't kale,  I would have hugged him.