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1977 versus 1978

Proctors

When I noted that I could remember specific years in my past, someone wanted to know how. As it pertains to 1977 versus 1978, it was easy. The first year was terrible, and the second year was pretty great. Not that 1977 was ALL bad.

I should start with the autumn of 1976. Ostensibly, I had graduated from SUNY New Paltz. By that, I mean I had enough credits to graduate, but I still had a course I was supposed to finish.

The Financial Council, the student government entity, hired me to sell concert tickets. While it was fun, and I got to attend some concerts for free, it didn’t pay enough to live on.

So, I must have called my parents in Charlotte, NC, and asked if I could live with them for a bit. I don’t remember the conversation, but I ended up there. My father had only moved down there in the spring of 1974, and my mom and baby sister in the autumn of that year. In January 1975, my other sister and I kidnapped our maternal grandmother and brought her to Queen City as well. So, my family didn’t have a lot of history there.

I’d help my parents sell costume jewelry. For many reasons, I hated it, except for the Kansas incident.

The big hassle about the city was that it was extremely difficult to get around. Most of the buses routed through the intersection of Trade and Tryon. If you wanted to go from Miami to NYC or LA to Seattle, imagine going via St.Louis. I did go to the library and saw the movie Gaslight, which was a small highlight. My family also watched the miniseries Roots, except we missed the first half hour of the penultimate night.

Skyscrapers and everything

By May 1977, I’d made my way to the apartment of my sister Leslie and her then-husband Eric in Jackson Heights, Queens. At least I had a semblance of a job: selling renewals of TV Guide magazines and the annuals of the Encyclopedia Americana or Brittanica.

I knew how to get around the Big Apple. Five days a week, I took the #7 train to the E train to Manhattan and back.

It wasn’t all bad. I met my friend Deborah, whose wedding I attended in May 2023 in France.

But the place was a bit unsettling. It was the NYC of the Bronx Zoo and the Son of Sam. Right before I left, I voted for Mario Cuomo for mayor over Ed Koch in the Democratic primary. Of course, the incumbent Koch won.

Back to the Paltz

I left there to go to my old college town. Crashing on my friend Lynn’s sofa, I tutored freshmen taking political science courses. They didn’t understand the three parts of the federal government; their real shortcomings were that they didn’t bother to read the books.

While I got to hang out with some old friends and met a new friend, Judy, I wasn’t getting enough hours.

The Capital District

I migrated up the Thruway to Schenectady, staying with Uthaclena and his then-wife. After Christmas, she suggested I apply for a job as a teller at Albany Savings Bank in downtown Albany. It seemed to be in my skill set, so I did. At the beginning of February, I got the job. However, I knew I would not love this career, even during the training process conducted by an excellent teller but a subpar instructor.

It turned out that Pam, the Innovative Studies coordinator at New Paltz, had also migrated north. Her beau, Paul, was in charge of a program operated by the Schenectady Arts Council, funded by federal grant money. I would be the bookkeeper. Moreover, I would make $8,200 per year, far more than the six grand I would be making at ASB; I had more money in my drawer at the beginning of the day than I was making annually. It became an easy decision when I spent an hour trying (and failing) to find a nickel shortfall in my drawer.

I started working at the Schenectady Arts Council. Immediately, my primary task was to contact businesses to see if they’d like to advertise for an event designed to help renovate Proctors Theatre. This old vaudeville venue had seen better days.

I also ran a biweekly Artisans Arcade; sang with Susan, the secretary, at nursing homes; was a partner with Darlene, the choreographer, when she taught dance to school kids; and served as the acting director when Paul went on vacation. I generally loved the job.

Although the funding suddenly disappeared on January 23, 1979, and it was greatly disappointing, it got me to where I needed to be.

Funerals and weddings

I Love You Truly

Rather suddenly, I recalled attending many funerals and weddings growing up. And I don’t mean funerals of people I was close to, like the funerals of my grandma Agatha Green (d. 1964) or my great-aunt Deana (d. 1966). Or the weddings of my mom’s cousins, Donald and Robert.

No, most were my parents’ friends, and most took place at my church, Trinity A.M.E. Zion, in Binghamton, NY. I don’t know that it was explicitly stated, but there was an implicit expectation that we should attend these events at my church because it was what people in my community did. You show up.

The funeral part came to mind after the funeral of Al Easton. I attended a Death Cafe four days later. I was one of a half dozen facilitators in a ZOOM breakout room. At least three participants in our group of six were young college students who had never attended a Cafe before, and I needed to insert a conversation starter. Early on, I told about a story I heard at Al’s funeral, which was very funny, and I laughed heartily. (It loses something in translation.) I think the experience of going to a plethora of funerals has made talking about death less scary and more “normal.”

Also, as a kid, I read excerpts of and several articles about The American Way of Death, the groundbreaking 1963 book by Jessica Mitford about the emotionally exploitative funeral industry.

The same year as the Titanic

As for weddings, not only did I attend them, I sang at them as a boy soprano, almost always I Love You Truly, the schmaltzy 1912 tune:

I love you truly, truly dear,Life with its sorrow, life with its tear,Fades into dreams when I feel you are near,For I love you truly,Truly dear!

I performed this at least a half dozen times before my voice changed. It’s strange how that rushed into my memory.

Sunday Stealing: SwapBot again

movies at the theater

Mark.Roger

This Sunday Stealing was swiped from SwapBot again.

1. Who is your best friend and why? What do you like to do together?

I have a handful. One, who I’ve known since 1958, is four hours away and we go out to eat breakfast every time they’re in town. Another, also from 1958, lives in Texas and I see them every chance I can when they’re in the state. We were texting about the one four hours away this week.

A third, who’s about an hour and a half away, whom I’ve only known since 1971 I was texting about genealogy when I saw the quiz. We went to Las Vegas together in September 2023 and chased a solar eclipse in April 2024.

2. What is your town like? What are your favorite places to go?

I’m sure I’ve described Albany sufficiently. That said, in the city proper, I like going to the Capital Rep theater and various restaurants; Sabor a Campo has an eclectic menu. But I probably spend most of my time away from home at the library and church.

3. What is your favorite meal? Where and when do you eat it?

I like Italian food. Frank’s Ice Cream & Restaurant, a very unassuming place on Albany-Shaker Road in Loudonville, is quite decent. The first time we went there, it was only because D’Raymond’s, essentially across the street was booked for the next 90 minutes.

Not working

4. What is your job like? What do you like about it?

I’m retired, and glad about it. I liked the day-to-day work, doing research for potential entrepreneurs, and I learned new stuff almost every day. The advisors in the field were generally wonderful. But the organization at the Central office was… inadequate.

5. What is your favorite place to go on vacation?

I don’t think I have one. The place we’ve gone most often is a timeshare in western Massachusetts.

6. What country would you like to visit one day?

Too many to list: I have relatives in Ireland and Nigeria, though I don’t know who they are yet. Italy, Cuba, and New Zealand.

7. What bores you the most?

Meetings. The only things worse than in-person meetings are online meetings.

8. What are you looking forward to this summer?

My wife is actually taking six weeks off this summer, unlike in 2023. So ANYWHERE we go will be fine.

9. What is your favorite film?

I don’t know that I have one or a dozen or a hundred. That said, I’ve liked almost every old movie I’ve seen in the theater: Rear Window, Casablanca, and Cabaret, to name three. When I saw The Wizard Of Oz, I saw, during Ding! Dong! The Witch Is Dead, a female munchkin spinning the wrong way. I’ve watched that movie two dozen times on television but I never saw that.

Of course, I do

10. Do you sing in the shower?

Invariably. The songs are determined by whatever the water is speaking to me.

11. What is the best gift you’ve ever received?

I always try to answer this question differently each time. I’ll go with the 1999 Hess truck that Santa brought me. I’ve gotten them every year since then.

12. Do you prefer being indoors or outdoors?

Indoors. I worry about sunburn because of my vitiligo. Allergy season seems to be nine months a year for me. And carrying groceries while walking with a cane makes holding an umbrella a PITA, as I experienced this past week.

13. When was the last time you cried, and why?

It was something sad on TV. Or it could have been a song that brought me tears of joy. I cry a lot easier than I used to.

14. What do you keep in your bag or handbag?

When I walk out the door, I need three things, and I recite: wallet, keys, and phone.

15. Can you play a musical instrument?

No. Well, kazoo.

The #1 Hits of 1944

liddle lamzy divey

If Bing Crosby was big in 1934, he was massive a decade later, as the #1 hits of 1944 show. He sang on six of the 17 songs on the charts, two with the Andrews Sisters. His 1942 smash White Christmas went Top 5 pop and Top 10 R&B in 1944.

From A Century of Music by Joel Whitburn: “The recording industry enjoyed booming success during the early 1940s until the era’s dominant big bands were stilled on August 1, 1942, when the American Federation of Musicians joined in a ban on recording due to a dispute over musicians’ royalties. By the time all record companies entered into an agreement to end the ban in late 1944, vocalists had assumed predominance over bands in popularity.”

Of course, the US was amid World War II, as some of the song titles make clear.

BTW, because of competing charts, there were 88 weeks’ worth of #1 hits. All songs were on Decca Records except the two indicated.

Swinging On A Star – Bing Crosby, nine weeks at #1, gold record. From the Paramount picture Going My Way, for which he also scored an Oscar on March 15, 1945, portraying Father Chuck O’Malley in the 1944 film

Shoo Shoo Baby – The Andrews Sisters with Vic Schoen and his orchestra, nine weeks at #1. From the Universal picture Three Cheers For The Boys.

Don’t Fence Me In – Bing Crosby and The Andrews Sisters with Vic Schoen and his orchestra, eight weeks at #1, gold record, written by Cole Porter. From the Warner Brothers picture Hollywood Canteen.

The Beatles covered this.

Besame Mucho (Kiss Me Much) – Jimmy Dorsey with Bob Eberly and Kitty Kallen, seven weeks at #1. The song was performed on the Beatles Decca audition of 1 January 1962; the label passed on them.

I’ll Get By (As Long As I Have You) – Harry James with Dick Haymes (Columbia), six weeks at #1

(There’ll Be A) Hot Time In The Town of Berlin (When The Yanks Go Marching In) – Bing Crosby and the Andrews Sisters with Vic Schoen and his orchestra, six weeks at #1. The writing credits are Sgt. Joe Bushkin and Pvt. John De Vries.

You Always Hurt The One You Love – Mills Brothers, five weeks at #1, gold record

San Fernando Valley – Bing Crosby with John Scott Trotter and his orchestra, five weeks at #1. It was composed by Gordon Jenkins.

My Heart Tells Me (Should I Believe My Heart?) – Glen Gray with Eugenie Baird and the Casa Loma Orchestra, five weeks At #1. From the 20th Century Fox picture Sweet Rosie O’Grady

I Love You – Bing Crosby with John Scott Trotter and his orchestra, five weeks at #1. From Michael Todd’s Mexican Hayride. Written by Cole Porter.

My mom sang this.

Mairzy Doats – The Merry Macs, five weeks at #1. A novelty song that I remember my mother singing around the house. The lyrics.

I’ll Walk Alone – Dinah Shore (Victor), four weeks at #1. From the Universal film Follow The Boys. Jule Styne and Sammy Cahn wrote it.

I’ll Be Seeing You – Bing Crosby with John Scott Trotter and his orchestra, four weeks at #1

G.I. Jive – Louis Jordan and his Tympany Five, two weeks at #1. Johnny Mercer wrote it.

Into Each Life Some Rain Must Fall -Ink Spots and Ella Fitzgerald, two weeks at #1, gold record

I’m Making Believe – Ink Spots and Ella Fitzgerald, two weeks at #1, gold record. From the 20th Century Fox picture Sweet and Low-Down.

It’s Love-Love-Love – Guy Lombardo and His Royal Canadians with Skip Nelson and the Lombardo Trio, two weeks at #1

“You’ll know when you know”

the damn left knee

Several months ago, my ortho doctor noted that I would eventually need knee replacement surgery since both knees are bone-on-bone. But when should I decide to go under the knife? He said, “You’ll know when you know.”

Well, now I know.

As I’ve mentioned, I tore my left meniscus on a mountain in the autumn of 1994. For a time, I started wearing an elastic knee brace, which was helpful enough that I continued to play racquetball until the local YMCA closed in 2010. I’d wear it periodically after that when I knew I’d be doing extensive walking, such as attending the county fair.

My knees always hurt. the right knee is probably 1.5 on a scale of 10. My left knee is usually at 3, and occasionally 4.

Sunday, I went to bed extremely early for me, at about 9 p.m. I woke up in extreme pain around 2 a.m. The best way to describe it is that my left knee had a massive cramp. And not a “boy, that’s uncomfortable” thing but an “OMIGOD I’M IN AGONY!!!” thing. It was at least an 8.

Bracing

When my wife got up, I asked her to get me the elastic knee brace. But I couldn’t move my leg to put it on. I had to pull my leg up by my pajama bottoms to try to steer my leg into the brace. My wife also got me a cane. But getting downstairs required sliding down a step at a time. I used a walker we had to get around the first floor. I didn’t get much done.

The next day, wearing the brace, I could walk OK in the house. The only challenge was the steps in the house, specifically going down them. There’s a railing for the top two steps, but at the curve, there’s about a meter drop, and then the railing continues. I needed the cane. Going up, I can grab the upper steps at the turn.

I used the cane when I went outside. Sidewalks can be uneven. Grassy areas I avoid altogether.

I’m seeing my ortho next week. He’ll probably give me a cortisone shot. I had one a decade or more ago. I had eschewed them subsequently, but I’m leaning into it now. We’ll talk about surgery, which will likely take place in the summer, mostly so that my spouse can take care of her gimpy husband.

So when you see me with the cane, you’ll know why.