Monthly Archives: May 2012

Well today is my birthday.  I have never really been one to make much fuss about my birthday and can actually say that the total number of birthday parties I have had over my lifetime is in the low single digits.  It was by my own choice and I was not neglected nor deprived, it’s just that I never really favored all that pomp and circumstance merely because another 365 days has passed me by.

My best birthdays were back in the years when my mother was alive.  I used the day to celebrate her.  After all, wasn’t it she who did all the work?  It was fun to send her gifts for my birthday and call her up at exactly 8:05 in the morning to say Happy Birthday to Us!  It was one of those things that made her feel special and she was always so proud to tell the story to her friends.

Today I turned 55… Double Nickels!  It seems like only yesterday  I turned 18 and as I remember, at that time it felt as though it took a century to get there.  Then something happened between 18 and now… In the blink of an eye, a lifetime transpired!  My lil’ nephew Matt just got out of the Marine Corp, two nieces are in college and the others are growing like weeds!  My favorite music is now considered classic oldies, and mega-star entertainers from my youth are now unknowns to anyone under the age of 30.

Where have all the years gone?  I guess if I truly took the time to look back and recall my life, I would understand that it indeed took 55 years to have had all of the experiences [both good & bad] that have filled my life.

I’ve watched my sisters grow into beautiful women and start families of their own.  Maureen is a grandmother to the world’s most delightful little girl.  I’ve spent 18 years working side-by-side with my dad selling Coca-Cola downtown Brooklyn – which I still consider the best [and most enjoyable] job I have ever had, in spite of the hard work involved.  I have been reunited with long lost family and lucky enough to cheat death to come back even stronger; at least in spirit.

In my lifetime, I have lived in both a tenement building AND a Park Avenue Apartment in New York City.  I was blessed with wonderful friends that I love like family and met my soul mate, James who has filled the past 22 years with fun, excitement, interest, and most of all, love.  Together we have traveled the country, been to the Caribbean, Mexico, Canada and journeyed throughout Italy.

Now at this late stage of my life, I am pursuing a writing career and have just had my first children’s book published.

 Of course into every life some rain must fall, but I choose to recall only the good and consider the sad or the bad times as life lessons and opportunity to grow.

So today I look 55 in the eye and say “thank you.”  Thank you for the good, the bad, the laughter and the tears.  Thank you for the beautiful memories and for the endless possibilities of things to come!  Thank you quite simply for my wonderful life.  And mom if you’re up there seeing this, Happy Birthday to Us!

Until next time,

Don

Don’t ask me how these things come across my desk but today I was lead to an on line blog dated September 18, 2010 for “Catholic Under the Hood, Catholic history and theology from a Franciscan perspective.”  The article itself was titled “Today in Catholic History – The Last Episode of The Flying Nun.”

The article went on to talk about the old Sally Field’s sitcom from the late 1960’s to 1970 and its place in Catholic American history… yatta, yatta, yatta.

Overall, I did find the blog interesting but there was one major mistake in the article that apparently bothered me quite a bit [hence this blog].  The writer made reference to the fact that the sitcom was based upon a book written by Tere Rios.  This much was true; however the blog’s author gave the title of Ms. Rios’ book as, “The Fifteenth Pilgrim.”  The actual name of the book was “The Fifteenth Pelican!”   Had the blog not been two years old, I would have posted a comment with the correction but after two years, what difference does it make any longer?

Then there is the bigger question… Why do I even know this kind of useless information?

Over the years I have retained a seemingly endless well of the world’s most useless knowledge imaginable.  I know what the good witch from The Wizard of Oz says when the bad witch leaves Munchkin Land in a fiery burst of dark black smoke.  To most others, her first line is inaudible but somehow I not only discovered the line but sealed it away for future use.  FYI; as she waves her hand in front of her face Glenda says, “What a smell of sulfur!”  The rest of her speech you most likely know, “and to say you made rather a bad enemy of the Wicked Witch of the West, the sooner you get out of Oz all together, the safer you’ll sleep my dear.”  Then again, this may be a bad example as I know every single line to this movie and can recite it verbatim on command.  This alone is sickness enough. 

When my sister Janice was carpooling home from her job at a restaurant late one night with a group of friends, I was her lifeline when they wanted to find out what group sang the 1972/73 pop tune “Dancing in the Moonlight.  Even through my drowsiness at one o’clock in the morning I was able to respond, “King Harvest.”  Of course my Dancing in the Moonlight facts and information doesn’t stop there; I also know that King Harvest drummer Wells Kelly, whose brother Sherman actually wrote the song, went on to be the drummer for the group Orleans of “Dance With Me” and “Still the One” fame.

This morning James and I saw a promo for Johnny Depp’s new film Dark Shadow’s.  “I caught a few of the shows back in the day, but I don’t really remember what the storyline was about, do you?” James casually asked, refering to the TV Soap Opera of the late 1960’s that it spoof’s.  I not only remembered the storyline, but also the character names and… even found myself humming the tune to Quentin’s theme!  By the way, Kate Jackson played a ghost on that show before rising to fame on the Rookies and Charlie’s Angels.

It’s like a curse, I very often cannot recall what I had for breakfast on any given morning but I can hum the tune to all three of Lucille Ball’s hit comedy series, I Love Lucy, The Lucy Show and Here’s Lucy.  I don’t even want to hear from those of you who are going to bring up Life with Lucy, the very short-lived series she had on ABC, as I did say “HIT” series.  However even here, I can tell you that the show came out in 1986, stared Ball, and Lucy’s old friend and costar Gale Gordon.  I also remember that the show’s theme was sung by Eydie Gorme; a first for Lucy as her previous shows were jazzy instrumentals.  All three of these themes were composed by Wilbur Hatch (sorry, I can’t help myself, the junk just spills out if me).

I can sing the jingles to thousands upon thousands of commercials from the 1960’s and 1970’s and know the words to countless TV themes songs from My Mother the Car to Friends.  I not only remember the Yumbo, Burger King’s hot ham and cheese sandwich, but remember the jingle that introduced it.  I feel like I am the only one who remembers that Hawaiian Punch helped promote Donny and Marie Osmond’s movie “Goin’ Coconuts” in 1978.  I sometimes feel that I am the only one who even remembers Goin’ Coconuts! 

Now all of this nonsense aside, why can’t I remember where I put my reading glasses?

Until next time,

Don