Old people rock!- Page 3

[DG]

Posted: 8/15/07 at 3:00pm

Thanks Besty! And I was born in Kansas City in '62, so it looks like we were there about the same time at around the same age - and I would have fallen in love with you even back then you cutie!

[best12bars]

Posted: 8/15/07 at 3:21pm

Wow, DG! So close, even ages ago! I had no idea we were practically neighbors back then.

Thanks for the compliment (You too, SM2!). I went through several stages of "cute" and "ugly" growing up. (Hell I still go through those stages... try to catch me on a good "year.") But the '60s was my "Opie" era, and I did some catalogue modeling and print work out of KC back then. Montgomery Ward, Sears stuff.

Then right before puberty I was smacked with the Ugly Stick. I got asthma, glasses, braces, and gained some weight over the next few years. I was a fat Jan Brady, always hoping to be Marcia. It's all been a battle ever since!

We officially moved to Kansas from New York City in '66, but we visited my grandmother frequently before then. We even lived with her for the first year before buying our own house. It was supposed to be a temporary stay, while my dad got his masters degree from the university, but we ended up staying in Lawrence 18 years.

I love my old geeky Kansas pics. It kinda feels like a different life and universe now.

Updated On: 8/15/07 at 03:21 PM

[DG]

Posted: 8/15/07 at 3:26pm

Good grief - we moved to Moonachie, NJ (right across the river) in '68 - it's like I was stalking you!

And my maternal grandmother was also of the 'glamorous' variety. I LOVED meeting them at the airport, and waiting to see them apear at the top of the steps (remember those?!?) They always 'dressed' for travel - he in suit & tie with fedora, and she in Chanel suits with the sunglasses.

[best12bars]

Posted: 8/15/07 at 3:34pm

Exactly! People today think that was "only in the movies," but it was a social thing to dress for travel. I always insisted on riding into the airport with my Dad to greet them. It was very exciting.

Maybe we did grow up in a movie, after all. Come to think of it, I remember hearing Frank De Vol underscoring when we got to the airport.



Mom was usually at home then slaving away over a hot stove, doing her valiant goy attempt at "Chicken in the Pot" for her visiting upscale Jewish in-laws. It was right out of "Bridget Loves Bernie."

[Elphaba]

Posted: 8/15/07 at 4:43pm

are you two telling me that shorts and my pineapple Hawaiian shirt are not dressed for travel?????

Everytime I fly I wear that shirt.......doesn't matter if it's NYC, Zurich, or Fresno......

[DG]

Posted: 8/15/07 at 4:45pm

Well, Elph, Pineapple IS the sign of 'welcome'

At this point, I wear sweats and a t-shirt - it's just too much of a hassle through security otherwise.

[best12bars]

Posted: 8/15/07 at 4:49pm

It ain't the same no mo', Elph.

Me? I travel with my Louis Vuitton steamer trunk, my personal valet, and bowl of Japanese goldfish.

Updated On: 8/15/07 at 04:49 PM

[Elphaba]

Posted: 8/15/07 at 4:50pm

last flight I actually wore sandals, the old beach kind (thongs) and they still made me take them off.

I think DG it's almost a good luck thing for me now, the shirt. It seems I wear it when I fly to, and back.

I love the old movies where everyone is dressed to fly, but no way in Hell could I do that

[LizzieCurry]

Posted: 8/15/07 at 4:51pm

Were they Birkenstocks? I was told I had to take mine off because Birks have a metal shank in them that they have to check.

[Elphaba]

Posted: 8/15/07 at 4:56pm

no, those silly rubber things you get for like $1.99...I was surprised.

[best12bars]

Posted: 8/16/07 at 1:33pm

BUMP.

For Miss Penny.

Thinking of you and your family, and I hope you're doing well and getting through this difficult time together.

Thanks again for inspiring me yesterday to dig up my own past, in prose and in pics, and remember those "old people who rock" who influenced my life in so many ways.

It made me feel really good to think about them again.

Xooo
Besty

[DG]

Posted: 8/16/07 at 1:52pm

It made us feel good too, Besty.

I've been thinking about a woman who changed my life completely. She was a nun for almost 30 years, but had to finally leave the convent - in the fact, the Church itself - because she just couldn't go down that road anymore. At the age of 60, she met and fell in love with a 72 year old woman, and they've been together now about 10 years. They run a therapy clinic, and travel extensively during their free time (last trip was rafting through the Grand Canyon.)

She's brave, aware, kind and gentle - and to some extent, saved my life.

[best12bars]

Posted: 8/16/07 at 3:15pm

Wow, DG, what an incredible story!

That's living proof that we just don't know where life is going to take us.

We can try to sort things out, think things through, and follow our hearts... but the unexpected twists and turns along the way can lead us places we never imagined.

[DG]

Posted: 8/16/07 at 3:45pm

The key is to just keep DOING. I think too many people just sit back and become more and more calcified - in their heads and their hearts.

That's what sticks out to me about the 'old' people we celebrate here - they don't stop LIVING.

[Elphaba]

Posted: 8/16/07 at 4:39pm

and sometimes we don't even know the special things that people do for us until later in life....those are often the best memories.

[DottieD'Luscia]

Posted: 8/16/07 at 5:26pm

DG, I had no idea we were around the same age. But then again, we have never met in person either.

[NYadgal]

Posted: 8/17/07 at 12:24am

"Beautiful young people are accidents of nature, but beautiful old people are works of art."

-- Eleanor Roosevelt

[DG]

Posted: 8/17/07 at 12:27am

"beautiful old people are works of art."

So are beautiful friends

And Dottie, we come with some pretty good mutual recommendations - it doesn't surprise me that we have some similarities.

[best12bars]

Posted: 8/17/07 at 12:47am

Yay, Addy! That's a wonderful quote.

[miss pennywise]

Posted: 8/17/07 at 12:52am

Grandma Ida rode her bike everywhere until she was 65 and decided to get her driver's license.

If something had to be done, she would go to the library, get out a book that told you had to do it, and then she'd do it! She caned chairs, built furniture, and made tons of tortellini each Christmas time from scratch.

She told me when I married her grandson not to expect anything from him because the burden of carrying the world forward rests with women and it is men who will always need us more than we need them! Then she showed me a photo of one of Rodin's sculptures and said, "This says it all." It was a woman stretching up towards the heavens and a man clinging to her, with his arms wrapped around her knees. "Never forget this because this is how it really is." What a tough broad!

[miss pennywise]

Posted: 8/17/07 at 12:53am

Oh, and thank you, Besty. I love you too.

[DG]

Posted: 8/17/07 at 1:33am

Nice thread, MissP - and looking at who is posting here says something, doesn't it?

[DG]

Posted: 8/23/07 at 10:11pm

*bump*

Not ready to let this one go just yet . . .

[miss pennywise]

Posted: 8/23/07 at 10:19pm

My sister-in-law took a great photo of 103-year-old Grandma Ida drinking wine through a straw last Christmas! You can see why I love this woman!

[best12bars]

Posted: 8/24/07 at 9:33am

Where's the pic, Miss Penny? Can we see?

My friend Andrea's mother lived to be 101 years old. She drank scotch and smoked cigars (no sh*t!) until the day she died.

There's something to be said for doing whatever the hell you want to do... in moderation.