Memories, Monticello And Me

We went to see the grandchildren in Virginia and when I came in the door Ethan age 6.5 said “hi grammie, I missed you. I did not see you for 3 weeks and that is 21 days” I said “I missed you too and when I cannot come to visit, I get tears in my eyes. So I look at all your pictures on my office wall and then I feel better.” He said “you work?” He realizes that grandparents are older and retired and was wondering why I worked. So I said “I write stories (articles) on the computer.” He said “you are like a photographer who does not take pictures.” What a smart kid (of course all grandparents think their grandkids are smart and gorgeous, of course, they are.) What he meant was that I write, but it is on the internet computers and so it is not in books which he is into. In his smart mind, this is interesting. I had no grandparents when I was a child and I have written in former articles, I sure missed out on having them; because all my little friends did have at least one or two grandparents. It is a continuous joy at our senior age to have two younger ones in our present lives. In younger children, you speak with them also about school, their friends, their toys and book and movies. Movies, I am not knowledgeable about that they view at their age, but I tell them often that “when I was little like you etc.” this is what we did and had. When I was around fourteen or thereabouts, we did a vacation as a family. My brother did not go because he was five years older than me and had his college life and other social activities in the summertime. Dad took us via the bus to Monticello which was the home of Thomas Jefferson in Charlottesville, Virginia. I had never seen anything so grand or spacious and since this was a great bit of history, it was fun to view. It was a long trip going and coming home the same day. It was a treat to go on a trip in those financially strapped days. We also went to Wildwood New Jersey for some ocean recreation and when I was fourteen, I went on a train to Miami Beach, Florida to stay a month with my uncle and step aunt. That was my traveling and it was fine and delightful for a kid in those days. Actually, it was really a lot of traveling since many of my friends other than Myra who went each summer to Canada to spend months there with her other grandparents; never went to any vacation spots. I look back and think, wow, Dad did take us to some areas and I remember viewing the Jefferson Monticello house with awe and exceptionally amazing thoughts of being there. There was much to see and to take in about a president having lived there. The furnishings were of course, ornate and lavish and something a kid had never seen in her teenage years. When I visited in Florida, I saw buildings and homes that I never had viewed here in my city. Many movie stars lived there for their second homes and in my aunt and uncle’s building lived a movie star Van Johnson with his wife Evie Wynn. She had been married to Keenan Wynn, an actor and comedian who was very well thought of in those movie star days. It seemed that Van had taken Evie away from Keenan and Keenan and Van had been good friends before that. It was a type of movie scandal that was rare in those days of 1948; but is common today. Many of his fans were alienated over Van stealing Evie from his best friend Keenan. He died in 2008. He was the old time handsome, young actor and was always thought of as a good guy. I remember as a youngster, we collected photos of movie stars, female and male and we either sent away to their managers and received one in the mail or we bought magazines called movie magazines where almost every page featured a photo of the current and popular stars. We tore them out neatly from the magazines and carried them in a box. Girls did this, not boys and we would call something we did ‘trading.’ I would trade you for a picture of Van Johnson for your picture of another popular star. You were known by how many neat photos of them you owned and who were the most popular actors. An inexpensive hobby other than the twenty five cents you paid for the magazine with at least 50 photos for that month’s issue. We knew in those days how to entertain ourselves with small amounts of money. No iPods, cd’s, Wi-Fi, cellphones or anything of that nature. Of course, they were not invented then and we had no conception that anything like that was in our grandchildren’s future. We were satisfied with what we had and had great dreams of a future with much more in material items than we had. Everyone in the area was in the same position; so not too much envy or yearning in those days. The girls all wanted to be slender, but curvy, and most of the female teens wanted a bigger top portion of their body. We did not use words like pregnant or other words connected to sex. When a neighbor’s daughter became pregnant and unmarried and no chance available to marry the father of the child; we knew she was in trouble with her parents. We did not learn to drive the minute we were almost sixteen, in fact, I did not until I was 26 , it was ok because Dad had just bought a car a few years before and he really needed it for his work. I went to a few high school dances with different guys and one of them; it was to a high school prom where my date was only one of about six Jewish guys to attend that school because it was known as an engineering high school. Whereas the boys attending it, always went to college to become engineers and most Jewish boys at that time wanted to be doctors, lawyers, accountants and businessmen and pharmacists. I wore a gorgeous tan taffeta and net long gown and he sent me the most beautiful wrist corsage via the delivery from the florist. Mom who loved flowers did not know exactly what it was, so I called the florist and he said they were Cymbidium Orchids dyed to match my champagne tan gown. How sweet it was that Freddie was so thoughtful he had asked me the color of my gown. I had such a marvelous time and Freddy had been popular in his class and so I too, for the few hours was popular being his date. Funny, the details we remember from our past and how delightful they are even some sixty years later. I have always as Mom did too (she had wanted to be a florist in her youth) loved fresh flowers and what they mean when they are given to you. In those days, the only fresh flowers you obtained was through a corsage or some you cut from your own garden. People who frequented florist shops were considered rich to be able to do that kind of shopping. I had a friend Martha Holt whose uncle owned a florist shop called Holt’s and I often walked by the shop and peeked in to look at the lovely fresh flowers in containers. She lived behind the shop with her mom and uncle. How sweet I thought their surroundings were. So happenings like collecting movie star photos, a trip to a president’s home, a corsage of an unknown flower variety and lots of reading of books borrowed from a library; this made up our social life and our everyday life. We were content and I always knew that someday, somehow, somewhere, when I was an adult; I would be in possession of other items that would also make me happy at that moment too. Of course, you would like to be years younger now, so you will be around much longer, but still the old days may be old in your olden memory, but they are still golden thoughts and now being what I call a golden senior, they are still important. Pass these thoughts about the former years when you were young onto your grandchildren if you have them and show them that you too were fortunate in having your fine parents, siblings, relatives and happening events and even though those times were not as fantastic, shining or expensive; you too had a happy childhood life that you are grateful to have experienced. elita sohmer clayman