East Side – West Side all around the town! Stephen Sondheim-

“… Down in front of Casey’s

Old brown wooden stoop,

On a summer’s evening we formed a merry group.

Boys and girls together we

Would sing and waltz.

While Tony played the organ on

The sidewalks of New York.”

As an apprentice under Oscar Hammerstein,

Consummate wordsmith brought words to the point of a rhyme.

His work spanned theatrical lifetimes, his sense of rhythm, was simply sublime.

His content dictated the form as a sentence.

Turned a paragraph into a story through rhyme.

Sinatra sent in the clowns, and Bernadette Peters took a walk through the park with George.

Ambition only superceded by talent.

Like when “good things get bettter/bad things get worse/Wait—I think I meant that in reverse.”

He took us “Into the Woods” and in good “Company” were we.

Every theater lyric a short story, every line the weight of a paragraph you see.

“A funny thing happened on the way to the Forum with a “Little Night Music,”

And a “Gypsy” or three.

With “Passion” he composed the story,

From the “West Side” of the street was the call.

Dear Mr. Sondheim, in our memory, you will always, yes always Stand Tall.

You threw a lot of spaghetti and All of it stuck to the wall.

Have a Great day. 

In Sondheim-esque fashion-face the music, whistle a tune and sprinkle some passion as your day goes along.🎼

Our hearing is not what it used to be, 
And all the jazz.
Our patience is on the borderline,
And all that jazz.

So we watch where we are walking.
As falling is simply no good.
Our laugh lines are no longer laughing.
Dreary and dismal our predominant mood,
And all that Jazz.

So you left the water running and the door was slightly ajar.
If we were reading this new reality,
We’d be sure to hobble far.
The early bird specials are appealing,
Soup or a salad comes with.
Are we really living this chapter?
Please tell me we are just dreaming this.

Our morale is down in the basement,
Can’t find our get up and go.
The daytimes are getting shorter.
Our energy is running on low.

Brushed off the cobwebs of winter.
Planted some seeds in the ground.
Mallomars flew off the shelf,
We are turning this chapter around.
Wishes come two in a package.
We are thinking we’ll sign up for four.
Dog days will soon be behind us.
We will set the table for more.

Our new pair of sneakers are waiting.
We can get back on the treadmill of life.
We will grasp at our new found mojo.
Say goodbye to the anguish and strife.

So long to this dose of drama.

Let’s make it a thing of the past.
Say good-bye to the dark days of winter.
It just was a matter of time.

So pull your chair up to the table, 
It feels like all will be fine.

Double down for your chance at the win.
The sunshine it is a coming.
A new dawning day will begin.

And all that jazz.

When the early bird catches the extra blintzes.

It’s 4:45 when we begin thinking about dinner.

We have an hour to get ready.

We put on a new blouse we got at the Flea Market and hope It won’t get a food stain on it. Stains are new.

We walk out the door.

We’re on line at our go to restaurant of choice. Long line but we are in the door, getting closer to the table.

We grab some after dinner mints at the counter and a couple of tooth picks while we wait. If we order the corned beef and it is stringy the toothpicks will come in handy.

Oy, the beeper they gave us to hold just went off. One minute we are here- looking for the beeper which is carefully sequestered in our “handbag.”

We push through the crowd, disregard the dirty looks. We’re in and being escorted to our table. “Excuse me sir maybe you got a booth? My husband has a bad knee, is a lefty and needs to sit on the outside and with his leg facing out. TMI-

Again a dirty look, alas we are sitting.

“Here honey have a pickle, it’s a good mix and they have the sour tomatoes you like.”

We catch up with our friends about medical stuff, when the grandkids will visit and get that conversation out of the way.

I point to my mouth as to signal our friend that a piece of coleslaw is stuck to her very red lipstick. Yup, not a good look at any age.

So we open the vast menu of oh so many choices with melted cheese.

Excited that the two sides with our main course we can “substitute” did you ever? A potato knish or potato pancakes instead of baked or mashed. How lucky can you get?

Glad we swigged a little mylanta on our way back into the house because we forgot oh, well something.

Our orders are in. We look around the room and notice someone we met at water aerobics- we wave across the room. 

Only took twenty minutes for four people to decide. Not like it is ever an easy order going through the book of choices. 

Unless you had a willy for something. Like you could taste it.

“Saul, my friend says to her husband of all the many items to choose from a hamburger deluxe with sweet potato fries is what you are getting?”

Saul says to my husband, can you believe with everything going on in the world you would think if I want a hamburger it would maybe, just maybe once go unnoticed and not become a gonza magilla. 

Do I tell her a side of balsamic dressing is not going to matter in her salad if she orders the fried chicken as her main?

Ok, so we get our food and only one of us returns something- a veritable miracle.

My friend sent her fried chicken back, she only likes dark meat. She says go ahead eat. Your meatloaf won’t taste good cold. We don’t want to tell her it came that way.

So we talk over one another. We know every detail about their grandkids new school and how long they waited at the airport when they went to Aruba this summer.

The table is cleared, a new dessert menu is handed to us. Wait, oh my they have the Boston Cream Pie tonight. I ask my husband if he wants to share, I suggest four forks and one dessert. You would think I was taking their toys away.

No, my friends husband Saul says I am getting my own. 

Under her breath I hear my friend whisper “ maybe get the jello, you ate every sweet potato fry.“

Then give a kick  he says to her- mind your own sweet potato fries, did I mention that you inhaled the potato pancakes like they were going out of style.

Goodnight, it was great seeing you we yell out the car window. 

Same time, same place- next week. We took the flyer at the door it says the specials are chicken in the pot or flanken. Two sides -vu den? See you tomorrow at Bingo.

Vayismir I am so full.

Have a good Sunday!

The Theft of Time.

Dear Columbo- we are having a conundrum of sorts. We need your help in solving the mystery of misplaced time.

We know it was here somewhere close and yet it flew by. If only we can feign absentmindedness as well as you. The early years we recall euphorically and with more clarity than yesterday’s lunch.

The toys we played with, the Pyramids along the Nile and under the Blue Moon, we heard about in song.
The exact spot where we did homework and our after school snacks, still top of mind. Where were you when Kennedy was shot?. No problem.

Our Saturday’s in high school spent buying bangle bracelets and new alpaca sweaters at Ginsburgs and Wechlers after lunch at Wassers. Miss those French fries.

With ease we remember the day to days of our jobs and hard earned pay/commissions. You still with us?

All the backgammon games at Cavallero’s and dancing on the crowded floor at Studio 54, we can still turn that beat around. Love a little Gloria Gaynor.

Not sure how we arrived home pre-Uber days and woke up in our own beds, two aspirins and at least 8 hours of sleep later.

Of course, yes, our share houses on Fire Island and in the Hamptons. Hazy days of summer to say the least. Soda, pretzels and that Almaden bottle of white.

The Weddings, babies, watching school plays our #niecestopieces starred in, indeed. Except how did it get to them having babies of their own?

Easily remember Family Thanksgivings, Chanukah and birthdays.

No, it’s more a case that the long ago’s and far aways are accumulating into decades.

So Peter Falk when you’re trying to figure out who stole the cookie from the cookie jar- please give us some answers about all the years. As we debrief our time thru picture albums and how we looked in madras shirts and tennis sweaters we remember the fun, the glory days and our first hang over. But Columbo where how did we get to so many yrs.old? Especially noted during b-day time.

“Yes G-d father-time I’ve come to ask a favor on the day of your daughter’s wedding.”

Can you please slow down. My friend’s are having milestone b-days, we are going to bar mitzvahs of friend’s grandchildren and our young nieces are having babies of their own. We would take back our own good and not so good luck. Wouldn’t change much about fate and how it has unfurled. But, for heaven’s sake the only thing we really want to be binge watch are the shows we taped. So Columbo, “one more thing,” exactly what were you wearing under the famed raincoat.

Make it a euphoric recall kinda day.

And so the story goes…Swing easy!

G
O
L
F
When Birdie met Bogey in the old neighborhood they were pretty much hook(ed). They (fore) warned their parents that they believed strongly this was their (stroke) of good luck. They knew there might be (rough) days ahead, but their attraction proved to be (out of bounds.) With no (mulligans) in sight and no red (flags) in view they would plunge ahead, not let sleepy dogs (lie.) They would disregard an (albatross) as an impasse and call it three strokes in their favor.
Perhaps there would be (hazards) along the (Fairway) but for now they were in the (Green.) They vowed to (bunker) down together, knowing all the while as long as the (Eagle) has landed they would invite everyone to the 19th hole to raise a glass as they celebrated their ( hole in one.)
See you on the Tee box- off to drive a few buckets. Reeking with enthusiasm. 

“Everytime we say goodbye, I die a little.
Everytime we say goodbye, I wonder why a little. Why the G-ds above me. Who must be in the know…

We shared a Mitzvah ceremony at Temple Beth-el last evening. We prayed and kvelled as we observed Josh Harris become consecrated as a Cantor.

“Everybody loves a winner- Everybody loves him.” He’s in his early 30’s. 

Raised in Brookline, Massachusetts, educated in Hebrew, sings in celebration “and” the cow jumps over the moon.

He is engaged to a female Cantor, his colleague at the same Temple. 

“To the Moon Alice” and away they go.

Sometimes along our journeys with luck on our side, we fall into someone else’s story that captures our hearts and helps locate our souls. Serendipity cannot be overestimated.
So just for today we embrace the glory of this young,  profoundly devout and talented man. 
  “Sing Hallelujah come on get happy.” Count your Blessings two by two.
“We bless the day we found you.”

“Each time we meet love,
I find complete love
Without your sweet love
What would life be?

So never leave me lonely
Tell me you love me only
And that you’ll always-
Let it be me.”

While taking the long view through our cataract altered rose colored glasses, we stop and pause at how far we’ve come.
The lessons keep coming with rapid fire speed especially during periods of transition.
The world as we’ve known it is entering a terrain the likes of nothing we have ever known.
Against the odds of continuing our journey with more standards of familiarity than not, we try to hold onto our base of the steadfast, that have offered predictable outcomes.
We tap into our family and our deep seated bench of players.
We avoid subjecting ourselves to too many new and unknowns.
As we all grapple and wait to see where we will land, just for today bring your nearest a little bit closer.
Get out your placemats, your dishes and set the table for a group of family and dear friends who reach down to help you up when you have a lost moment in finding your way.
The familiar mj game yesterday, adding $.50 for concealed hands certainly was a perfect start. Thank you ladies.

Happy Birthday Mr. Mel Kaminsky a.k.a. Mel Brooks.

The consummate Steadfast lodestar of comic behaviors -98 and going great.

You embodied the role of a Producer (1968) when you hid jewels in one of The Twelve Chairs (1970.) 

Your pairing of Cleavon Little and Gene Wilder got some Saddles Blazing (1974) -which left you in a

state of High Anxiety (1977.) It was then that you knew it was time for a Silent Movie (1976) and it gave you time to prepare for Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1993.)

You had us when he appointed a new sheriff, his friend Ahchoo. So today we say Bless you Mr. Brooks and may you continue to make sure we Enter Laughing (1967.)

One day when I was 12 my Bubby showed me how she made her Grade A mandel bread.

All the ingredients were set up. She handed me some raisins to munch on as she sprinkled flour, got her erstwhile rolling pin and started to roll the dough. She said to me in her most comforting voice-“mamala take a deep breath and watch everything I do. You should make this for your husband one day.”

I cherished the moment and wrote a composition about the experience for my writing homework the next day.

Little did I know I would be recounting the experience on the internet so many, many years later. On a day like today, exhume a favorite long ago and far away feel good experience.

One of the best parts of memories is making them.
Thanks Bub- for the love -laced with powdered sugar that lasted a lifetime. B”H!

We set the tables- one for the game of play, the other for lunch. Check with Sonos, our unwavering music pal, fill the coffee table with treats, unlatch the door and wait with anticipation for the women to arrive. 

The day is analogous to moments of enjoyable pleasures we have gathered along our journeys. We aim for cheerful friendliness. With zero ambiguity and the absence of pushy tactics we roll the dice. Shuffle the cards. Celebrating our time together is optimum. Yes we compete, but know that ultimately “Everyone Wins.” 

After our day of play a friend and I debriefed our time together. Her mother, who also played games, gave her a sound piece of advice. She told her above all to make sure you really enjoy the ladies you sit down with. This is ultimately how we live life now. Weeding out disappointments, striving for better fits. Merely overlooking much more. 

We bask in treasured certainty- pleased, proud… Amazed at how good it can be- astonished by it’s capacity for sudden bursts of brilliance. “Fill our hearts with song and let us sing forevermore.” Make it a great Fall Back! What time is it?