Answer:  the very first time I felt I was an adult is when I had to pay full prize for a ticket to the movies.  I was 27.

The story:  I had graduated from high school at an age when most people hadn’t started.  I met my husband-to-be the first week at the university, and married him three years later at graduation day.  I actually still felt I was about 12 and looked very young and - yes - innocent (which I was). 

This was still a time - at least in my village - that there were kids’ tickets at the show, high school tickets through age 17, and adult.  The person told the price of the ticket himself - HE made the judgment I felt then - so every week I would go to the show and I was automatically given a high school price ticket. 

My kids were now in school.  As I still felt like I was very very young - and looked it - the high school price tickets still came thru the slot at the movies.  I wasn’t not going to look a gift horse in the mouth when we had little money!  But there came a day — and we all know the feeling of THAT day when the ticket seller unbelievably thought that I was "an adult" and said the adult price.  I still felt like a kid … and so it was a blow to the heart.  And so, at 27, I must have looked 18.  It was a crushing day, still remembered.  Did I suddenly "grow up"?  No.  But I felt I could no longer get by with feeling like I was a kid (a kid who had kids).  There was NO adult purchase afterwards that had the impact this day has had on me.  I remember it well. 

wow 0 wow O wow .  .  . you three gals look so beautiful that there HAS to be secrets that you can share - can’t you - for looking so young.  How in the world do you do it????  If I didn’t know better - and I do! - I would not believe that you worked so hard and yet - yet - manage to look like sweet young things without a care in the world.  Sen-sation-al is all I can say. . and wow wow wow!!  Lovely.

Sara … I think you will love it here … with people quite easy to know and link up with.  As one of the very earliest who found WOW, I have been "hooked" ever since.  As for FAR SIDE — frankly, I don’t get it … and my husband has each year their day calendar and actually laughs … and privately I say "What is this?"  Hope we didn’t get off to a bad start - that would be a first for me.  Joan

You must see - as I have been on wow forever - that I have never done that before without giving credit — but I am at work — working on something else — and slipped on fast to say that — as I happen to love Liza and am defensive for her when people don’t get it.  She knows that … and now you do.  Sorry about that, Sara. 

Sara Smile — why don’t you ask Washington Post what "inconvenient truths" as you see I copied a quote to help people who don’t watch the news.

Somehow, some way, with all the news thrown at us daily by the media, it is so easy to let this "one day wonder" of a personal "tidbit" escape most of us.  So, to help Liza out, this is what you missed:

President Obama drew heat last week for a story that surfaced outing his private White House male-only b-ball games. The story was that even though two female members of his cabinet were members of their basketball (!) teams in college, they were excluded, as were all women, from this most private of male-only clubs. The story became a metaphor for how the president views women generally and threatened to reveal some inconvenient truths about the man. 

And now you know.

Like Susan, I too felt this interview was far too short when I too would have liked to have heard so much more about the author .  .  . and would have had questions galore.  For those who haven’t read Birds of America, the book is worth picking up, and its author is to be applauded.

After years of watching the career of Harold Evans with interest, on reading his autobiography I often found myself humming: "Those were the days, my friend, I thought they’d never end … those were the days, oh yes, those were the days."  It is always enlightening, encouraging as well, to read of a person’s climb from seemingly nowhere to the Sunday Times in London - a position we knew he was suited for.  A time when he was at his peak.  Yes, there were plaudits for his accomplishments when he jumped the Atlantic to New York and made his mark in publishing here.  But, it seems to me in looking back, that he reigned in England at what seemed - in looking backward - to be the height of the Golden Era. 

Will we ever see anything like it in journalism again?  Sadly, I believe I have to say "no".  But Evans has to be glorying that he was there in its heyday - that he was an intregral part of it … a man with stories to tell us.  And readers who still care.  

 

Home delivery … we have all but forgotten those days so long ago that were so much a part of our lives.  There were alleys - actual alleys behind our homes - where those deliveries were made.  Men came along with carts, calling out that they would sharpen your knives as you waited.  And - while you would go into the heart of the city to the department stores to shop, that same afternoon a green elegant Marshall Field department store truck would deliver your purchases free to your door.  Those were the days!!

Even in the 1990s, as we travelled through New Zealand, it was a view back in time.  At meals, doilies (you remember them, don’t you?) were always placed on the array of courses served in restaurants.  Place setting of silver to correspond with each course had been placed for each person.  If you were having fish, a fish knife was replaced for the regular knife — and this was everywhere we went.

But back to milk bottles, in Christchurch, NZ, a beautiful small church - a landmark building - was across the street from our room at the hotel.  And every morning, lined up on the stoop were milk bottles with the cream rising high over the top with that old-fashioned cardboard lid still in place on them.  Shades of the old days, bringing forth memories of old.

As one of those who travels in big planes, small planes, tiny planes - and have forever - I would probably state that "the joys of getting there" that brought some of my greatest experiences over the years have become - what? - I guess I would say "an ordeal".  But like other things in life, you accept what you cannot change OR, if you choose to, you can ruin your trip from the start by bitching about it.  My own focus tends to be the joys I hope to find at the other end, whether it is people or just the romantic ending. 

But there is no doubt the constant, continuing evolution taking place in technology - seemingly overnight - making the products you bought continually outdated has taken us to another world in a very short time.  We no longer question the amazing advances.  We no longer say "who did this?"  "How could this be?"  The monetary outlays we, as consumers, are paying is rarely talked about … but we know that this industry will continue to be the most lucrative.  I think all of us would have to say that this technology has changed all our lives faster and more radically than any other single thing.  So you win, Candice.

We do think alike, Sura.  If I get to an age where I sit(in the first place) and reminisce - rather than looking forward to the life that lies ahead, well - you can shoot me right then.  As for the young (though I think of myself as young), I love their company, especially one-on-one when we can talk at length.  I am wide open to confidences for that is how I learn myself, and I would never betray the teller.  Throughout life we must not stop, "retire", but instead continue throughout our lifetimes to learn and to grow.  Meeting new people — and I do love lively older people that don’t mince any words ("lively" is the key word there) — is my dearest pleasure.  If you have been on for a while, you must know that I have many more men friends than women.  . and this has gone on for too many years to mention.  I find my men choices not only fun but extremely stimulating - and the learning factor goes both ways.  They light up my life.  As you say, the connection with all ages is delightful.  . lovely.

For me, the sun shines every day… and my mind goes a mile a minute … and when I travel, the whole world is my oyster - and how I love that!!!  That, perhaps, more than anything.  Never never let our minds dry up - and asking questions, getting involved with others in things that fascinate us — really makes a life extra special.  Mine is — and I think yours is also. 

And isn’t that wonderful!!!

I am honest.  I find phrases such as "the great divide" between generations so negative.  . and defeating.  The world turns.  It has always turned.  Can we keep up with it all?  Probably not.  But let’s openly acknowledge that change happens — and frankly, with all the complaints, there is a lot of change that is helpful to us and for the good. 

A favorite book is Spenser Johnson’s Who Moved My Cheese.  . and over the years it has become a gift to many.  The concept is so simple, so easy: Don’t be the one that sits around expecting things to never change and then refuse to adapt to the change when it happens. Go out, look for, and get a hold of your cheese again.

To relate this to generations, to families, I would say that we should always respect the differences between our children and ourselves.  They are not us.  They are leading their own lives in a much more complicated world.  Yes, one hand and one ear seems to be holding the newest and latest plastic gadget . . but this is change.  They are keeping up with the times.

So we as "the generation before" can bridge that chasm, bridge that gap by not necessarily learning every new thing (I think we would be out of our heads if we tried frankly).  But if we — the parents, the grandparents can be open and interested in the changes taking place, we may find that our children will not sense that the chasm is not too wide, too deep to jump.  Their enthusiasm for life, for the new, I find can be contagious.  We find if we listen, they will come.  And - and this is the most important part - when they come, our generation can despense the love and caring that is needed by each of us so badly these days.  And have it reciprocated. 

Bridge the chasm, be interested and you will be interesting.  But - and I think I am right — what we do see lacking more and more is that LOVE, that CARING that comes with leading such separate lives.  We know that as a fact.  I know in my heart that we can elicit our own "changes" by radiating a warmth, a love, a pride of their individuality - that sometimes missing element that will hopefully bring the so-called chasm down to a small puddle.  Then - instead of the dreadful word "division" - we have replaced it with respect and with love.

It’s worth a try!

 

Thanks, Janet .  .  . as those of us — and I am sure it is about all of us — who give so freely of ourselves and open our purses to do our best to help in the multitude of ways to others - who, at another time, another place could be ourselves - we are so glad to be in a position to do as much as we can - and gladly.  There is something so wonderful about people helping people!!!

Joan

Sadly, Liza, I happen to know a few women who hang out at that bar all year around.  . and they don’t have to carry a broom to be recognized!!

Hope your weekend, Liza, is only filled with treats !!!