OMG - of course! I had a BBF who passed away in ‘92 and it broke my heart. The whole horrible experience was almost too much for me. We were the same way. BBFs know more about one another than their own families know - that’s what I realized at my BBFs funeral … so sad!

I think I know where that is, Laura. I once looked at a nice building across from the Galleria. I have a daughter in Spring, and wanted to be more "urban" than suburban… ;-))

Stanford - what a vicious brute! I know people who were eaten up by him!

Oh gosh - I never heard of that one… in fact Regina opened after "my" time. :-( I’m sorry they did that to you - The Mercy order was like that - primarily b/c they were a wealthy Order - the Dominicans were not; later they became rather ‘odd,’ though.

Laura, you might call Salvation Army (my old standby when help is needed) b/c they can go out and meet with some of those loitering to find out the reason - most likely its alcoholism or drug dependency, and they think taking any help will land them in the "clink." SA is excellent in that regard - in fact, when we ran out of foster families, they’d always take people in for us - thank goodness!!

Hugs

Barbara - which school? I later truly abused myself (after Wayne) with a misererable 2 years at Mercy - those nuns were the living and real end. Boston beckoned, thank goodness.

My Best & Co coat is still in my closet - I’m going to have it remade into a cape keeping the huge shawl collar (it pulled up into a thick headcovering) … because … the arms are too tight (at least!).

Dang, we’re old!

But, we have lived in the most incredible era in history. Yesterday I sat crying watching our president give the National Medal of Honor to our nation’s top scientists and physicians - I had met 2 of them! What a time to be alive! http://www.cspan.org/Watch/Media/2009/10/07/Obama44/A/24039/Pres+Obama+Presents+National+Medal+of+Science+and+Medal+of+Technology+and+Innovation.aspx

Ha, Barbara, I mentioned Best’s … and Peck & Peck had the best shoes, opps, besides Fyfe’s! Do you remember the Tycora sweater sets with the "scatter pins?" We had a hay-day with them at my 50th - I flew back for that one!

Now, I remember those darned white suede shoes, with the miserable puff we had to use to keep them clean, and ‘saddles,’ too - I went to a h.s. where we had to wear uniforms, though, and hose, too! We could wear "bobbysocks" but had to have hose covering our legs (then we suffered unimagineable pain with garter belts - or later the miserable Playtex (rubber) girdles! i CANNOT begin to tell online what happened to me in one of those things.

For formal events, 4-5 a year, most of us relied on "Best’s" (I still own a lovely, thick, black velvet coat that was a feature in an ad from them!) to buy our gowns in advance to be "checked out" by our teachers to ensure we had no flesh showing below the armpits, nor the pits themselves! If we did, we were tucked, and stuffed, and sent to the seamstress. I never got that far ‘south.’

How about Wright Kay Jewelers? In Boston for me, later, it was Shreve, Crump & Low. ahhhh memories. Capezios kept me dancing at Elaine Ardnt School of Dance in GP. I can hear the taps and thuds to this day.

and … Barbara, New Era Potato Chips and their infamous Kosher ones made for Jewish Holy Days - I have a photo of them in fact! My grandmother made them in her basement for New Era supplying all the taverns around Chippewa Lake, and the Muskeogan River areas, up to Long Lake in TC! What about the "porceline room?" Do YOU remember what that was?

While our Thanksgiving dininer was being prepared the men in the family would take us down to "the parade," where we’d wait for Santa, sitting on their shoulders, along Woodward Avenue. Later, when I was older, I’d meet my dad under Kern’s clock and we’d go to Eastern Market for a "corned beef sandwich, and buttermilk (which I hated), and back to JL Hudson’s to shop for my mother’s gifts, freezing every minute. By that time, we didn’t need to hop a bus home - tires were back ‘legal,’ and everyone had their cars, but those early years, were interspersed with shopping at Sear’s on Gratiot Ave., and grabbing a v-shaped carton of A&W and a Daddy-Burger, or Mommy-Berger or "Kids-berger."

Does anyone remember the "Shaney Man" who would go up and down alleys tooting a horn to pick up trash (to recycle - they were millionaires!) on horse-drawn trailers? They were not unlike the iceman trucks - we ran after those trucks when I was a wee child, catching the wide drips sloshing off the rear of those truck, and slithering off the ice blocks, splashing the frigid water on our feet and legs.

Glenda, what is a BFF?

Shera, I believe that ‘dressing’ was, and is, a sign of respect. I’m always ‘overdressed’ unless it is a stated event - and then, I still appear more formal. Respect to me extends to educators, actors, all performances that I would consider paying for in advance, church/temple/mosque services, dining out where served, museum collections, and even physicians appointments - I adore casual-living, but even with that, I push it to the Country French edge.

btw, Joan, where I am it would be nigh unto impossible to find the cheese much less rarebit, at least under $15/lb (the best things are underpriced, and the mediocre generally over-priced). If you find it, you know where to send it!

Baker’s dozen hugs.

Oh Callio O … out where I live now every car is a VEE-HICK-EL, and this region’s worse error has spread to the NYT - "looking to go," "we are lookin to get … " "They’re lookin to … " anything, makes my teeth numb!

Can’t anyone see anymore?