Don’t let the white gloves, dolls, party shoes, foofy dresses and hats fool you: I was a tree-climbing, somersault-turning, knee-scabbing, tar-peeling, bat-swinging, I-can-do-anything-better-than-you-can tomboy during those early years. But that’s all going to change very soon. When training bras and once-a-month visits from “my friend” start, it’s a whole new ballgame. It’s good to remember… Continue Reading
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Reading!
Yes, I started out on comic strips but soon hit the harder stuff. I remember the aha moment. Sitting in the back seat of our car as we zoomed along the highway, I looked out the window at a passing billboard and realized that I could no longer look at a string of letters without… Continue Reading
Six in the City
When we were five and eight years old, our parents told these two San Francisco-born California girls that we were packing up and moving to New York City. My father had entered the doctoral program at Teachers College,Columbia University, and we’d be living in Morningside Heights for a year, giving up our house and our… Continue Reading
Return With Us Now to the Thrilling Days of Yesteryear
Click and close your eyes. There’s nothing to see here. Now, that’s what I call a theme song! I remember wondering what “yesteryear” meant. It was a word I’d never heard anyone use. But how exciting to hear that music, even now. The Lone Ranger was one of my favorite cowboy shows.There were a lot… Continue Reading
Playing Games, Part 1: You Don’t Know Jacks
Well, maybe you do. But any little girl worth her salt could play jacks. You watched the older girls and one day you threw the jacks down, bounced the little red ball and tried to get through “onesies.” Here’s what we used to do when we played jacks:1. Onesies (picking up one jack at a… Continue Reading
Enter Laughing
Keep an eye on these eyebrows After several unsuccessful attempts going from Yiddish to English on the online Yiddish dictionary, I typed in “mischievous child” and there it was: Mazek! It’s what people called me as far back as I can remember. (While I was at it, I looked up one of my dad’s nicknames for… Continue Reading
Kindergarten
Can you find me? Hint: I’m the only girl with pigtails! School! So exciting. This is the class photo that some kind relative sent me after the fire. I can’t name all the kids anymore, but I do remember many of them. And of course, my teacher, Mrs. Wiley. I think she liked me. She… Continue Reading
More Little Me
My excellent penmanship Awwww. This is the thank you note I mentioned earlier — the one my sister and I sent to my dad. It was tucked inside the envelope with my mom’s letter to him. A pretty good signature for a not-quite-three year old! ( I may have had some help.) My sister Susie and I… Continue Reading
Cubby!
I was sad to read that Annette Funicello passed away. She was one of my favorites on the show. This was an early post in Zero to Sixty in One Year, but I’m dusting it off for any old-timers out there who loved the show the way I did. He was my first crush. Cubby… Continue Reading
These letters were written by my mom to my dad during the Summer of 1954. He was in New York, at Columbia, doing graduate work while my mother, my sister and I stayed with my grandparents and uncle in Detroit. Reading these letters (which we found hidden in a dresser drawer after my parents passed away) should… Continue Reading