(T)he point of these reminiscences isn’t a specific memory, it’s about the conversations that ensue about those memories.
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My reconnecting stories begin with ways to rekindle old ties that have fallen away over the years.
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I shouldn’t be surprised that I now have such problematic arthritis in my toes that I’ve needed two surgeries in six years. It began when I was a child. My chiropodist had me wear arch supports in my shoes and walk up and down the hallway of my Detroit house, doing special exercises to try and strengthen my feet.

I, however, wanted to watch TV in the late afternoon. I had already given up practicing piano. Too many distractions. I tried to march up and down that hallway on a regular basis, but dammit, my brother was in the den watching the Mickey Mouse Club Show.

The allure was just too great. I wanted to be in there too, singing along with Jimmy Dodd (wasn’t Roy vaguely creepy?), “M-I-C, “See you real soon”, K-E-Y” WHY? Because we LIKE YOU? M-O-U-S-E.” That was the first great jingle that I remember. The Mouseketeers were our friends and idols. The boys might have fantasized about Annette, but I loved Bobby Burgess. We enjoyed “The Adventures of Spin & Marty”, “Zorro” ((I liked Guy Williams too), Darlene, when she was featured in some adventure; Karen & Cubby. Far too tantalizing for me to do those boring exercises.

Those advertising geniuses on Madison Avenue advertised candy for us youngsters during these TV shows that we so enjoyed and they are embedded in my mind. Here a few that come to mind:

This is a newer version of the twins; the jingle that sticks in my mind is: “Double your pleasure, Double your fun, with double good, double good, Double Mint gun”. I preferred Juicy Fruit.

Though I never cared much for the candy, they had a wonderful cartoon and jingle that I can still sing.

“Choo Charley was an engineer…Charley says…love my Good & Plenty, Charley says…really rings my bell”…  Does that ring anyone else’s bell?

This jingle is iconic (I’m Chiquita Banana and I’m here to say…), and Carmen Miranda became the famous Latin dancer associated with and copied for the look (perhaps she was the model for the banana spokes-model; I don’t know who came first). But as I listened to the jingle, I realized that what I remember is a phony take on it. The real one was an infomerical, introducing the fruit to the US market, telling consumers of its benefits, how to let it ripen, store it and its health benefits. The banana was still considered exotic in the early ’50s.

One of the most iconic jingles becomes the source of enlightenment for the ultimate Mad Man, Don Draper in the final episode of the award-winning TV show of a similar name. Coca Cola (a former client; my company did testing for the roll-out of New Coke…no comment) is legendary for its wonderful advertisements. One of its best was:

I’d like to buy the world a home
and furnish it with love.
Grow apple trees and honey bees
and snow white turtle doves.
I’d like to teach the world to sing
in perfect harmony.
I’d like to buy the world a Coke
and keep it company.
It’s the real thing…

We could use more harmony and love today, even if I don’t drink soft drinks and when I did, I preferred grape Fanta as a teen and Mountain Dew when I was a stage manager in college, calling a show. I had a pyramid of empties up in my light booth along side my prompt book. I had no idea it was so highly caffeinated. But that reminds me of a great folk song I sang in my youth, sung along side my beloved camp counselor, Grundy, of an earlier Retrospect prompt.

 

Wahoo, it’s mountain dew…
They call it that good ole mountain dew, dew, dew,
And them that refusin’ it are few.
You can hush up my mug, if you’ll fill up my jug
With that good ole mountain dew.

 

(Not advertising for the soft drink, but really fun to sing; it is true – I do not have a whiskey-soaked voice but I did figure out multimedia.)

 

 

 

 

March 15, 2020. We were having a socially distant dinner at close friends. An annual winter event of mac and cheese usually followed by watching a Masterpiece Theater episode. This year, nothing suitable was on, so we watched a movie on a DVD. COVID-19 was already surging in parts of the West Coast and we learned that a biotech company meeting on Boston’s waterfront turned into a super-spreader event (we barely knew that term). St. Patrick’s Day loomed, a raucous time in the Boston area. With an eye on the ever-increasing numbers, an alert came through on our phones that evening: Governor Baker would shut everything down, imposing a state-wide lockdown at noon on Tuesday, March 17, forestalling big barroom carouses. That was the last time we ate indoors anywhere but our own home, to this day.

We were waiting for this since the governor had imposed an emergency order on the state five days earlier, so I had already laid in a supply of food and paper goods. People tease me. I don’t really cook much, so how did we survive? We continued to bring in take-out from the restaurants that remained open. We adapted to their schedules, even if we had to plan hours ahead. We washed our hands thoroughly after the food came home. I never did Instacart, nor did I wash the food containers. I threw those out immediately. It took us a while to secure masks. A friend dropped off a few good ones, a high school friend back home advertised on Facebook and made a few for me. I really liked those. Eventually supplies eased up and we were able to secure hand sanitizer (I like the spray stuff that I bought from a cosmetics site), plastic gloves, masks. Just a few weeks ago, with the variants emerging and new masking recommendations, we got N95 masks. We still don’t go out much. My trips to the grocery store are very quick.

By March 23, my favorite instructor from my regular gym showed up on Zoom. Josie Gardiner had retreated from her Boston condo to her larger summer home on the North Shore and was working out of a studio owned by PJ O’Clair, a renowned trainer north of Boston. Both are phenomenal trainers/instructors (legends, really) who have kept me sane during these stressful times. I know what day of the week it is because I know what class of theirs I’m taking. PJ runs the show, has improved the technology, is always trying to offer more. She now offers an entire streaming platform (video on demand) so you can take classes anytime you desire (PJ Online). Five days a week, I push aside my ottoman and my den becomes my gym, in front of the computer.

On Martha’s Vineyard, I work in my bedroom, in front of my iPad, though once lockdown was lifted, I did take classes under a tent set up on the lawn in front of our club and went into the socially-distanced gym a few times a week for a ride on the recumbent bike, wiping it down before and after each ride, and always wearing a mask, in addition to Josie’s Core class. Can you see me in the photo below? Wonderful Emily Phillips, in the center, is the teacher of that class. We adore her too. I am behind and to her right; the lady in black. We provide our own mats and don’t use props. Four doors across the room are open for great ventilation and we don’t breathe hard in this class. It had turned chilly by late September and the tent was gone.

A highlight of the spring and early days of COVID was being able to attend Passover Seder with my brother, sister-in-law and other members of our family, who are far-flung. I wrote about that in Behold It Is the Springtime of the Year. No need to dwell on it here, beyond a simple graphic reminder.

Life on Martha’s Vineyard was different than other summers, but still, a relief from the tedium of Newton. Every public event was canceled. Dan played a ton of golf. He enjoyed being outside and got involved with a few steady groups, staying late after each round just to visit with friends. As I mentioned in earlier pandemic discussions, we renovated our patio to include a propane-driven fire table and enjoyed having friends to dinner at the far end of the table (everyone provided their own food), turning on the flames as the sun set and the chill set in. We only went to three restaurants, all with outside dining, where we thought they handled safety precautions well. But we did see friends in backyard settings and once had a glorious beach picnic, watching the sun set.

The case load was very low all summer. We technically live in the commercial district and there was a mask mandate in effect beginning around July 1. Dan did a lot of hollering at people. I avoided people as much as possible, taking different routes to stay off Main Street. But coming home from dinner on lower Main Street, over Labor Day Weekend, the streets were packed with people. We ran into a gaggle of 20-something boys, all maskless. Dan engaged them. He told them this was a mask mandatory area. One hollered back that they only had to wear masks indoors. Dan corrected them and tried to walk on. Then one clapped back, “You know, there have really only been 9,000 deaths.” I just couldn’t contain myself. I turned back, glared at him and said, “Oh my god, you are a stupid Trump supporter!” I was quaking with rage, as I continued to walk the block and a half to my home.

Yeah, that sort of sums up how I felt going into the fall. The stupidity and politicization of information about COVID-19, the wearing of masks, and distain for science in general from our “Fearless Leader” caused our country to be much sicker and this pandemic to be much worse than it needed to be. We would eventually find out just how terrible and deceitful his lack of  communicating and planning had been.

My beloved National Music Camp, now the Interlochen Arts Camp, had a Zoom reunion for people who attended during the 1960s. 100 people showed up, way too many to adequately moderate. They tried again later, but my “gang” of friends are now having our own reunions and we decided to meet about once a month…so great to have the opportunity to eyeball one another on a regular basis, check in, chat. I guess that’s the bright side of all this. We are mostly home and most use Zoom. If we were out and about, we would never have the time to get together.

I go to Rose Board meetings over Zoom, lectures at the Rose over Zoom, Culture Club over Zoom. It is the way we communicate.

We haven’t seen our children since Christmas, 2019. Last summer we began having video chats every other Sunday. It is good to check in, see them and have an extended time to talk. David and Anna are trying to buy a home in London. Vicki was able to renew her lease for less money than she had been paying. We talk across EIGHT time zones, but its worth it.

I came back to Newton at the end of September. No chorus this season, but at least I could get back to my gym for a month, which did an excellent job with safety protocols. I felt perfectly safe. My 50th high school reunion in suburban Detroit, scheduled for September was postponed to next year, but we did hold a virtual one in October on Zoom. Kudos to the committee for planning a really wonderful event over two days. I got to see old friends and make new ones.

At the end of October, I had another toe surgery, to correct the arthritis in the second toe on my right foot, now misshapen and curling toward the big toe. It was easier surgery than six years ago, when I replaced the joint of the big toe, but I was still in a boot for several weeks, then in a sneaker all the time for another month, so exercise was impeded.

We sweated out the election and it’s aftermath. I went on a serious M&N binge, which I’m trying to work off now. The stress of watching  T***p try and steal the election and demolish our democracy was almost too much. Watching the insurrection on January 6 was WAY too much.

In mid-January, before the snow and bitter cold set in, we went on a day trip to the Vineyard to pick up the car we leave there (we are buying a new one and trading in the old one which is 17 years old). We got to have an outdoor lunch with the friends whose house we were at the day the lockdown was announced (symmetry) and were with when I snapped that perfect sunset photo. We also got to see our across-the-street neighbors, whom we love dearly. A perfect day.

Along with at least 81 million of our fellow citizens, we celebrated the Biden/Harris inauguration and breathed a sigh of relief that it went off beautifully, with no violence, an uplifting message and our country can begin the work it needs to get back to normal.

Now we have lived through a second impeachment. Even with acquittal, the evidence is overwhelming and T***p should no longer be able to escape civilian and criminal consequences. Even as I write this, a member of Congress sued the former president, his personal lawyer, the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers for violating an obscure law, the 1871 Ku Klux Klan Act. This will be interesting.

A funny Zoom moment happened in a Texas courtroom recently, as seen in my Featured photo. A lawyer showed up using a cat filter (one of his kids was the last to use the computer). He didn’t know how to get rid of it. It offered a moment of levity in an otherwise solemn week.

Though Massachusetts is known for its extraordinary health care and research (Moderna is headquartered here), the vaccine rollout has been awful. I see friends around the country posting that they’ve been vaccinated, but people in my age group were not eligible until intense pressure on our governor finally paid off and he announced we would be eligible as of 8am on Feb. 18…all additional million of us baby boomers. So Dan and I began trying to work the website, which crashed for hours. And hours. In fact, the new vaccine appointments weren’t even loaded into the system for hours. But each of us were able to snag our first shots within the first week. We feel tremendous relief and joy.

Between September, 2020 and February, 2021, I have lost three first cousins. Not to COVID, just age-related infirmities and other maladies. As I’ve said before, at 68, I am the youngest of the first cousins. It is sad to lose my loved-ones.

We are among the fortunate. We didn’t have jobs to lose, children who needed remote learning, we are not just scrapping by. We managed to navigate our lousy vaccination site and get appointments as soon as we were eligible. Still, it has been a stressful year for everyone. I am grateful for what we have: our health, our family, our well-being, a new, responsible government.

And a different happy recent event: my brother’s 73rd birthday on February 12. My sister-in-law hosted a surprise Zoom birthday party for him. He was truly overwhelmed and touched. We came in at the end with close family and stayed to talk. Even David joined from London, though it was close to 2am for him. He wanted to see his cousins. And I already have a “save the date” for their next Zoom Passover Seder. A year has gone by.