”You shouldn’t know from it,” is the best way to sum it up.

“Morris wake up it’s light out.” Yawning- Morris replies Shirley it’s only 7:00 o’clock.

Ok I’m getting up geez. Between the second glass of Rose’ that we split and staying up to watch the new Mel Brooks special on HBO The 99 year old man, I need a minute. Here she says take a couple of extra strengths and get up it’s gonna be a gorgeous day.
Plus Morris we can park the new Lincoln close to the entrance to the beach, it’s safer.
So Shirley has prepared the soft boiled eggs, a half of a toasted bialy and for a treat cause it’s Sunday and here’s where the “you shouldn’t know from it starts,”pickled herring in cream sauce with onions. 
The beach bag is packed with two big striped, albeit worn out beach towels- all together “you shouldn’t know from it,” from the Far Rockaway beach days. 

Amongst the contents in the yup! striped yellow and white canvas beach bag from the 80’s, is an old Coppertone and zinc oxide plus a new spf 50 lotion. 

  Now onto Lunchtime in Delray.

Shirley packed a special salami on rye with deli mustard and potato salad. Plastic forks she saved from the Bagel place and a thermos of iced coffee. A veritable throw back feast laced with such good memories. So they get to the beach and even though they pull up in their brand new Lincoln Morris won’t pay the beach guy to set up very comfortable beach chairs. So he schlepps the new beach chairs they bought at Target,  BOGO – buy one get one. Who could pass up such a deal?  One caveat -getting up from them after finishing the Sunday crossword puzzle to get wet after a dunk in the water was a major gantseh megillah. 
In days gone by they would bring a transistor radio, prop it up on the beach towel, croon out loud to the Mills Brothers on WMCA 570 AM. Now they both put in AirPods, no singing aloud. The only noise Morris hears after he dozes and takes a nap is Shirley telling him to turn over on his stomach he’s too red. Oh what fun, exactly what they needed after a week of in unison “ you shouldn’t know from it.” Shirley had a tooth pulled. Morris had a colonoscopy. All’s well that ends ( joke) well. 
So they take a little beach stroll, they collect some sea shells, grab a handful of raisins and bridge mix before they pack up to go home.

Next act Dinner.

They are meeting the Kleins at Motek. The food is delicious , reservations impossible to get. For those in the know you know. They made reservations a month ago.
The best Pita and hummus. “Try it you’ll like it,” Morris tells his friend Bob Klein as he rubs in some aloe lotion Shirley rubbed on his face- so he shouldn’t peel too badly from his sunburn. Now this is what we call a Successful day -Mic drop!

On the precipice of change, we take two steps forward- one Big step back.

“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? Out of the mouths, when the fish were jumping.

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. Com to help find yet another husband. 

We re-dialed after our friends line was busy the first time and screeched with excitement, Conrad Birdie style, over our anticipated coed- girl/boy party that evening. We left it up to Wally and Beaver to make  sure there would be enough Fresca and Potato sticks. They were heavily endowed with the Cleaver organizational skills 

The back ground sound on our portable radio as we primped for the evening  was set to Cousin Brucie’s Saturday Night Rock and Roll Party.

We crooned to Build Me Up Buttercup while we sat under a hot dryer with beer can sized rollers in our hair. We were almost ready as we brushed away the fumes from our eyes left by Aqua Net.

The decision to curl our hair rather than iron it straight was a good one, it came out just right. Getting ready was the beginning of 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, new Penny, dated 1969 heads up in place. Taps on the sole.

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

With dejavu on our breath we can still euphorically recall how it felt as we unbuttoned the wooden clasps that kept our new Pea Coats in tact.

We proudly walked in, en masse as if we were auditioning for the Miss Pre-Teen of America contest.  

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 in the Still of the Night? 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 way. 

The evening was a success as we twisted and shouted and moved around as we were invited to the dance floor to do the Loco-Motion.

The specialty years of pre-teening in the 1960’s had a wonderful life of its own. 

We made room for our daydreams filled with Johnny Mathis lyrics and wondered if we would ever ride on a rainbow and sit starry eyed. 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 The Tokens knew as the “lion slept tonight” those were our “Magic Moments.” Have a Good Day!

The New Rage on Aging Series -Season 2. Laughing out Louder.

Who can touch their toes?

As you are on the way down traveling south past your new hip, you might bypass the pins and screws in your knee or perhaps an ankle. Vayismir.

Destination -our newly coiffed toe nails. We stopped at Dr. You Nailed this before we picked up six bialys to freeze from The Boys.

We change our top, put on some lipstick and get ready to meet at Poppies for the early bird dinner/lunch for tomorrow.

We ask to have our table changed a few times as the A/C was blowing right on us. We put on the new/saving for an occasion cardigan sweater we got at the Flea Market on Sample Rd. a few years back. Miss the place. You shouldn’t know from the $1.00 store within a store and unfortunately now you won’t. 

 After we pool our medical updates, compare specialists and order a sloe gin fizz we ask for the bread to be heated. You could plotz as we wait for 20 minutes until we see our waiter again. Ok then, the conversation ensues with a new pill for this, a new procedure for that. As long as our “funny bone” is intact- we got this. We talk over one another about our tennis game, a round of golf, the new group pilates class. We acclimate to the “back nine” with our new cataract less foresight, becoming our new hindsight. So just for today we will put on our prescription less rose colored glasses. Tomorrow we will go to the we got Lucky dept. at Bloomingdales and feel grateful that a table opened up at the Mediterranean restaurant on Federal Highway. They give you all the hummus and Baba ganoush we can eat and we will watch as the belly dancer shakes her age appropriate belly fat from table to table. 😎 So glad you are sitting next to us cause Gladys spits when she talks, you shouldn’t know from this too. 

Go ahead take the after dinner mints and put them in the baggie in the glove compartment.  Have a great Saturday, 

 a.k.a. Bogo day at Publix.

Put that in your pipe and smoke it. Our parents had a few favorite expressions when we were growing up. 

If the shoe fits… it’s a hard pill to swallow, do unto others. A penny saved is a penny earned. If at first you don’t… 
So many cliches that still go the distance, even hold water and don’t grow on just any tree. They live at our front door, on the daily like orange juice and  “all the news that’s fit to print.” Just ask my sisters, we hardly grew up in a cliched environment, but somehow exhuming adages from our childhood surface like a “rule of thumb,”. 

Always look on the bright side of life, money doesn’t grow on trees, and if at first you don’t succeed- try, try again.
We often heard in order to shake things up and effect different results do something different. Walk to school on another street. Take a course and learn another skill. Or how bout listen to your gut. If something doesn’t feel right, just doesn’t mesh, flip it and move to another table. 
Some of the people some of the time. You will know when you know. Try it on for size, because the shoe doesn’t fit…
Fast forward and so many years later of trying not to cry over spilled milk, we wonder if during those “Wonder Years” when Harry met Sally and the Beav was not included in a game of B ball with Wally’s friends, would we still want to, as our friend Linda says dance at every party? Run on sentence counters yup that was a doozy. Is there a point when our egos don’t fracture easily, where we pick up our colloquial Barbie doll,  i.e. canasta and mj cards and move on to a better 8 card fit? Just for today turn the (Gloria Gaynor) beat around.
Have a great day at the table where they are holding your seat.

It’s all in the Bag!

On this date in 1921 Judith Leiber was born.

Judith was notorious for her handcrafted crystal one of a kind clutches.  She honed her skill until she was 97. 

The accessories designer whose work was favored by multiple First Ladies, was best known for her tongue-in-cheek approach to bag design.

Her husband of 72 years Gerson Leiber died a few hours after her.

She was a holocaust survivor, married Gerson, an American soldier during World War II and moved to New York. She created and helped them live “jeweled” lives after devastating beginnings. Her works of Art entertained our eye through the fanciest and dearest pocketbooks. 

Cafe society ladies could be seen sporting them on the tables of Grenouille and Cote Basque during the Jackie O years.

In random episodes of Sex in the City they were highlighted as arm candy to exemplify deliberate signs of wealth and wonder. Our take away was “wondering” how they came up with the thousands of spare change dollars to purchase one, or more. What a life Judith led from the outside in. What a blessing head on. A Survivor who was talented with an amazing eye for detail displayed through her artistry and a 72 year marriage that lasted till the last day they both passed away. Cut to…

There are some locations that never thrive in New York City The corner of 1st and 79th Street has housed one restaurant after another. Every time we think the new sign that went up looked promising we pass again and the lights are dimmed, sign down.

And then the Jim McMullen (no credit cards taken) on to Atlantic Grill spot on 3rd Avenue and 77th Street flourished until the building was torn down to develop more hospital space. 

So the take away question of the day—is the success of the Judith Lieber cocktail a mixture of championing the fallout of devastating beginnings, hard work and extreme talent with Lady Luck poured on top,  or is it that she made the very best of her “location” whether it was in the ghetto basement with 60 other holocaust survivors or the front room at La Grenouille, where her hand bags are perched on tables in statue-like fashion? If you find yourself in a paper bag today, work your way out, put up a new sign. Perhaps discover a new corner on a new block even if it is in just your imagination. Let’s do it Sunday.

When I was just a little girl I asked my mother what will I be?

Here’s what she said to me.

Que sera, sera, whatever will be will be.

The future’s not ours to see.

Que sera, sera.

What will be will be.”

And then she let go of my hand and “what will be” became what is.

How much easier life would be if we had a crystal ball for which to see.

The future unfold before it came.

Minimize the struggles, our choice of game.

Challenges and misfortunes factored into the fold.

Gives us our backbone, our strength to behold.

With times so uncertain, a future unclear.

Our nearest and dearest become more clear.

But just for a moment with a dream in place.

Take away the name, add a new face.

If we could throw our troubles back into a pot.

Would we accept beshart?

Be grateful for what we got?

I suppose we would, but just for today.

With a dream, a prayer and fantasy intact.

We’d trade some for sure, not take ours back.

With less of that and more of this.

Our hardships, our strife wouldn’t be missed.

As fate unfurled, at our front door.

The cards were dealt, we tallied the 

score.

Divine order in place, sensibility kicked in.

Focused on blessings, called it a Win.

“When I grew up and fell in love,

I asked my sweetheart, what lies ahead?

Will we have rainbows,

Day after day.

Here’s what my sweetheart said-

Que sera, sera

Whatever will be will be,

The future’s not ours to see

Que sera, sera”

Make it a good day.