“Don’t throw your past away, you may need it some rainy day.” Hit it Peter Allen. Rewind upon request.

“I See Friends Shaking Hands- saying how do you do.”

When the leaves were orange and the living was easy. What does the tooth fairy do with all the teeth? Why do the people in the front of the picture appear so much larger than the people toward the back? “What did Grandma do with her real nose when she changed it to her fake one?”- shout out to Grandma Robo- Out of the mouths…

The days when Ozzie and Harriet made parenting look like a breeze and we were pretty certain Susan Lucci never used J-date or Match to help find yet another husband.

We re-dialed land lines after our friends phone was busy the first time and screeched with excitement Conrad Birdie style, over our anticipated girl/boy party that evening.

We left it up to Wally and Beaver to make sure there would be enough Fresca,TAB and Potato sticks. They were heavily endowed with the Cleaver organizational skills

The back ground sound on our transistor radio, as we primped for the evening, was set to 77 WABC Cousin Bruce’s Saturday Night Rock and Roll Party.
We crooned to Build Me Up Buttercup, in The Still of the Night-while we sat under a hot dryer with beer can sized rollers in our hair flpping through Cosmopolitan Magazine.

We were almost ready as we brushed away the fumes from our eyes left by Aqua Spray.

The decision to curl our hair rather than iron it straight was a good one, it came out just right.

Getting ready was the excitement. Our new madras blouse, alpaca sweater and matching “skort” (remember?) hung prominently in the front of our closet right above our shiny, new cordovan colored weejuns. Bright, Penny, dated 1969 heads up in place.

A touch of revlon blush and a glimmer of “coffee bean“ lipstick proceeded a spritz of Shalimar, Joy or Ambush and we were on our way.

With dejavu on our breath we can still euphorically recall how it felt as we clasped our yellow slicker coats.
We proudly walked in, en masse, as if we were auditioning for the Miss Pre-Teen of America contest. Can you say In-Crowd?

The boys gathered on one side of the room as the girls sifted through the 45’s on the other.

At this point there was no bottle to spin in sight. Would the Angels sing tonight as our Soldier Boys danced under the Blue Moon?
We snapped our fingers in unison to Brian Wilson’s tune-
“If you should ever leave me. Though life would still go on believe me. The world could show nothing to me. So what good would living do me? G-d only knows what I’d be without you.” This just could have been the theme to our impending heartbreaks along our path. He left for camp and only wrote once. “See you in September”- well maybe.
The evening was a success. We twisted and shouted and moved around as we were invited to the dance floor to do the Loco-Motion and The Peppermint Twist.

The specialty years of pre-teening had a wonderful life of its own. We made room for our daydreams filled with Johnny Mathis lyrics and wondered if we would ever sit starry eyed on a rainbow. We hold tightly to our memories of days where we would “climb way up to the top of the stairs and all our cares would just drift right into space.” All the while Jay and the Americans knew as the “lion slept tonight” those were our “Magic Moments.” Shout out to Herbie Frankel. Have a good Wednesday.