Ohh Lila … I think you can call me a very satisfied customer of Hampton.  To plied with hot chocolate chip cookies to kill for (and how do they make you feel that they ARE right from the oven??) in mid-afternoon onward as you arrive — to actually eating a second baking powder biscuit on the complimentary breakfast menu — well, as you can tell, when I like something I really like it … and it makes me want to get on the road right now to be honest.  I LOVE travel.

OK, let’s talk about happiness - pure happiness - before we go further.  For years long ago, it was Australia that gave the largest number of holidays and vacation time off.  Once I spent time there, I was seriously thinking of Perth or Sydney, or Melbourne (yes, Melbourne seemed so civil — but then Sydney was really swinging — but then, I had already climbed to the top of the Sydney bridge — which you can do if you have the inclination which I did — so maybe the fun was gone, but . . )

But now - guess what, all of you who hardly say a sentence without dropping "Tuscany and the French countryside" into it, you are in luck.  France has gone to the top of the list with a grand total of 40.  How is that for tempting??  Instant Berlitz is still being taught you know. 

But Australia - now it’s as big as it gets, isn’t it? - and it’s a stone’s throw from Fiji when you want to shuck your clothes and veg out -  Maybe.

And have you heard about working and getting something called "sabbaticals" … I mean PAID and I mean on top of vacation time???  OK, we have a few companies who have entered the 21st century … but try and find them!  In other countries, when you hear the expression "get a life, mate", you actually can get one — I mean, on a plate!!  Look it up.

OK … here we are dealing with "get a job" so I won’t go further.  But I could.  We were talking HAPPINESS though, so I will end by saying that I have found my version of that in my travels in the states.  How? By pretending I am the Queen, no less, at the Hampton Inns.  Do you know that heaven actually begins with the most luxurious bed - you know, the kind with the mattress that you would kill for in your home.  Don’t even look — the Hampton Inns have a corner on royal mattresses so they have my vote.  At last look, they made my bed without trying to bribe me, too!  Now if there were anywhere in our country that we weren’t knee deep in snow or sloshing around waiting for a mudslide in rain … .

There’s always April (and wasn’t that the phrase from some really really good English movie???) … .

Jeannot … you chose my other choice.  Great minds think alike I say!

Sorry about the above "mess".  ‘Twasn’t me that scattered my favorite Winnie the Pooh to the four winds . . but instead, a moment of madness in the office perhaps.  It should be a gift to have child and grandchild!

To our poet extraordinaire . .

As always, we can count on you to say in such a concise way — and for gosh sake, rhymed no less, what we might take a page to explain.  As always, just plain wonderful!

If ever there is tomorrow when we’re not together.. there is something you must always remember. You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think. But the most important thing is, even if we’re apart.. I’ll always be with you.
                                                — Winnie the Pooh It would have to be Winnie the Pooh hands down.  Not only a best seller at the time (with the companion volume of The House at Pooh Corner), this surely is a book for the ages, a book to read over and over.  Even now, just mentioning the characters - Piglet, Eeyore, Tigger, Rabbit, Christopher Robin (A.A. Milne’s real son) - and we find that we can envision them still.  But the golden Pooh Bear - with those wondrous illustrations - are as current today as they were back then. Reading to children, we find that the quotations are truly appropriate for grown-ups:                       You can’t stay in your corner the forest and wait for                        others to come to you.  You have to go to                                       them sometimes.                                                           -Winnie the Pooh I think we remember a small number of special books in our lifetime that stand alone for any number of reasons.  But books that touch the heart — from childhood on — forever after??  There is something about a teddy bear … .     
 

Ohhhhhhhhh Liz .   .   . do you have to make us all absolutely lime green with envy???!!!  But I don’t think there is one of us who is surprised at all at your revelations.  It does, however, tell us just who is responsible for the fountain of youth that you so carefully guard, and just why every photo of you finds you aglow, alive, and just plain radiating.  If I didn’t have my own at home, I would be asking you to share - knowing there would be NO WAY.  Wasn’t there a song a long long time ago called "Tis Wonderful"??  It should be your theme song, dear Liz!

 

I think I can speak for all of us in saying that we are truly happy for you!!!

Carol … you are so right in your own plea.  What I have found, what I have noticed is that those of us who have always believed in the credo of "Give unto others . ." that most often did come from childhood tend to open our pocketbooks further in situations like this.  We give from the heart.  That is a given. 

In my own years heavily involved in charitable organizations in a big way, I found that by actually bringing friends, fellow board members to the organizations themselves truly opened their eyes in a way that giving from afar could never do.  In my own suburban area are several local organizations, well run, but not needing the high overhead of the "name" charities that I (and others like me) have taken to our hearts and watched their quiet giving first hand.  I have given my time along with my monies, had almost a word-of-mouth campaign told with such enthusiasm that it has brought others into that charity’s fold.

We can’t solve all the problems that are now almost at our own doorsteps.  In my own life over time, I find that if I can concentrate on a few, giving my all, I get a lift.  HOpefully, those who are helped also feel that lift for they surely need it.

So thanks for saying what you did, Carol.  I second it . . and have a feeling that Liza will approve of our thoughts today.

I have to apologize for being serious after one of Liza’s choice cartoons . . but this one does have its levels.   There is something about writing a check to an organization for Haiti and feel satisfied and off the hook, but I give more credit to those who feel so deeply that they take giving that one extra personal step.  I find it touching.  You can’t be down there, but you can actually feel that you personally are making a difference.

One of my children has a fantastic way of raising monies for Partners in Health - one of the "sure your money gets to where it should get to" to help people called Partners in Health (one of the top ten).  Her first tears for the people have turned to action, touching me as I watch her commitment. 

We do what we can do.  And thanks, Liza, for letting me get on my unaccustomed soap box that was brought on by that beneath the surface portion of this great cartoon !!  Joan 

Hi darling Phyllis . . Better later than never, but you (and everyone else) MUST pull up the Lillian Ross article (with snapshots) of her relationship with Salinger in Feb. 8 New Yorker. Following it is another column done by a friend of Salinger’s son from his youth.  These should have had much wider exposure as every writer in the world seemed to leave him curling in the wind, slowly.  DO take a look!!  Joan

Penny … I love your choice for the inspiration it brings.  I have always felt that, as we only go around once, we better make our lives as good as they can be.  For much of my life I did climb every mountain in the very real sense, always with the feeling of the spirit absolutely soaring as I reached close to the peak.  An unpredictable accident high up put those days behind me but, metaphorically, I find myself still climbing and don’t intend to stop.

Dorothy … I will be most happy to share my song with you — for you obviously are a kindred spirit.  Like you, I have no regrets, but do believe in making the most of every day, filling it with laughter and energy and just plain fun.  I think only then do you become a magnet for others, and - as you have done - be considered a role model in your own family.  THAT is the ultimate compliment!!!  Joan

To our Liz …

Don’t bother with candles as you already light up the sky for all who know you and adore you.  You light up our lives, leave us breathless chasing after you, set the standard for "enjoying life to the fullest" and making us want to cheer for you - not just on your big day but every day of the year. 

Joan

I’ve had a life that full

I’ve travelled each and every highway

But more, much more than this

I did it my way .

For me it would have to be Frank Sinatra’s My Way.  In the beginning, we have our hopes and dreams with a road stretching ahead of us.  As a believer from the beginning that we don’t know what tomorrow will bring - or even IF there will be a tomorrow, I decided early on to make the most of each day, making sure that I was taking at least a baby step forward on making my life as good as it could be.  We know soon enough that the road of life is not smooth.  Bumps and deep holes are part of the journey - everyone’s journey.  That’s Life … as Sinatra would sing. . and it was tough.  But in the end "I did it my way" and don’t have regrets.

There’s life … and then there’s love.  And I am still in love so that song would be an old one called Only You.  It says it all and I’ve danced many a slow dance to it — with fond memories.

Susan, what a beautifully done piece you have written!  In writing this weekend, it has been for me a look back also at childhood past … but you know, in my heart and mind I still see the signs of a child.  I like snippets of Salinger for that:

That’s the nice thing about carousels, Holden muses, as he watches his sister, "old’ Phoebe, on it, they always play the same songs.

We wanted to (often still do) hold on to the familiar.  The fear of letting go of youth really.  And you know, we can have that fear at any age.

Susan, I wish WOW gave us the question of what other coming-of-age novels took a special place in our hearts.  Would it be A Tree Grows In Brooklyn, Goodbye Columbus, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Emma, or a book not thought of for a long time:  A Separate Peace?  Or other books that have escaped the mind at this hour.  I know if anyone does, you could tell us about your own favorites!!! 

A website has come out this weekend that let’s you look back in time at your old neighborhood as it is now.  What I have found is that all I had to do is see these beautiful pictures of where I lived in childhood and finding specific instances, special days of childhood seeping back.  Take at look at this one: HTTP://VPIKE.COM - it is a real winner.  Joan