WHERE’D TIME GO?

Time is like a telescope and I think I’ve been looking through the short end.  Events are a lot farther back than what I remember.  What seems like 25 years ago is actually 50.  How could 1964 be 50 years ago?  When I was 15  the term “50 years ago” sounded like the turn of the century and actually it was!

Trying to keep time from moving so fast works out about as well as putting a brick on your child’s head to keep him from growing up.

When I was born, the Civil War had ended only 70 years earlier.  Now it’s almost 180 years ago.
The Armistice for World War 1 had been signed just 17 years earlier. Now it’s 96 years ago.  No, it doesn’t seem like yesterday!

I have a mental image of my high school classmates as being forever 17 years old.  The reality is, they’ve aged (and I haven’t?)  Sure.

My mother was always cagey about her age.  When I was 13 I found out quite accidentally she was 36 years old.  I thought, “Wow.  She is old!”

My kids are in their early 50’s.  It can’t be 28 years since I was that age. 

When I was 21 I thought I had all the time in the world.  I still think I do because I have 22 years yet til I’m 100!

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Stay tuned!

Thanks for stopping by!

Joan

HISTORY IS BORING?

The study of history is a lot more fun than just memorizing dates and locations of historical events. Reading between the lines is essential.  If you’re a fan of soap operas, history has it all.  Demonic dictators, multitudinous mistresses, drugs,  and unfortunate babies. Read history and learn from the past!

In an era of very short folks (around 1550) where the average man was about 5’ 6” tall,  Mary, Queen of Scots was almost 6 feet tall.

In 1897 heroin was touted as a “wonder drug” and good for many ailments.  When it was taken off the market in 1913 hospitals were full of drug addicts.

In the year 1000 men were taller than men who lived hundreds of years later on the eve of the Industrial Revolution.

In 399 B.C. the philosopher, Socrates accused of “anti-democratic views” by the citizens of Athens was forced to commit suicide by drinking a cup of poison hemlock.

Joan of Arc was burned at the stake as a witch on the argument that her claims of direct communication with God were heretical and an act of disobedience to the Church.

Queen Anne of England (1702) during her life had 17 pregnancies that ended in stillborn babies.

The inventor, Charles Edison was said to have slept only 4 to 5 hours a night.

Many English kings have had mistresses but Charles II was insatiable. He had 13 of them.  Fortunately not all at once.

The Pre-Raphaelite painter, Dante Gabriel Rossetti also wrote poetry. When his wife, Elizabeth Siddal died he was so grief stricken he buried his poems with her.  But 7 years after her death he had her coffin exhumed so he could publish the poetry.

In Victorian England many factory owners would house their employees in bizarre substandard housing,  trying to cram as many houses as possible into the space available.  Up to 100 houses would share one privy , usually a deep hole dug in one corner of the yard or just heaped up against a wall.

Adolph Hitler had a passion for witchcraft.  Not white witchcraft, the black version.

Captain James Cook, navigator and explorer, (around 1750) was not eaten by cannibals as originally assumed.  He was killed in the Sandwich Islands (now Hawaiian Islands) after a dispute with the natives and his body was buried.

See you soon.

Joan

I’LL BE BACK LATER

Who knew at the age of 78 there would be too much to do and not enough hours in the day to do it in.  With a part time job, a big old house and  animals to take care of (and a husband who helps a lot) Savvy Over 70 is going to become intermittent and not weekly.  You don’t have to be over 70 to log onto this site.  Savvy Over 70 is me.  I’ve been around a long time and have picked up general info which might be of help to those coming up after me.  So I’m still here dreaming up more stuff to talk about.  Talk to you later.

Joan

SPRING CLEANING AND GLAD OF IT!

Spring cleaning to me means cleaning up the outside.  The inside can wait.  It’s been  an unrelenting cold and snowy winter here beside Lake Ontario.  Today the temperature was 73 degrees.  The first time it’s been above 70 since October 13th of 2013.  Our old house here is 180 years old.  I’m sure it’s seen colder winters than this one but it’s hard to imagine.

 We have 2 big Labrador Retrievers who eat a lot and the resulting dog- do tends to accumulate under layers of snow in the back yard.  When spring comes it’s an amazing sight and does require a strong stomach to clean up. 
I put seeds out for the birds and squirrels and I guess raccoons, too.  I found a baby raccoon that had fallen out of the big old tree that’s full of cozy holes for critters.  He was a cute, fuzzy little fellow but unfortunately I wasn’t able to save the little critter.

Layers of ice and snow and ice and snow piled up on one of the back roofs.  And the icicles were a wonder to behold.  

We are a stoic bunch up here but as the winter dragged on it became easier to understand why folks in the far north countries tend to drink a lot.  Bars and obscure poetry readings became more popular than usual.

Our saving grace up here was the realization that some regions of the country had it worse than we did.  We’re used to snow measured in feet and know that sooner or later those crocuses will show up.

Today the front yard is full of purple crocuses!

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Joan

THE FUNNIES

Seventy years ago-in the 1940s- we used to refer to  newspaper comic strips as the “funnies.” I don’t know if that was a family thing or maybe just an Ohio expression. The “funnies” were a standard feature in almost every major American newspaper except the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal.  Before television arrived on the scene the funnies were a major source of amusement and everyone had their favorites.

When I was 10, I would wait down by the mailbox for the afternoon’s edition of the Canton Repository.  RED RYDER was the big attraction for me.

I don’t recall what Terry looked like of TERRY AND THE PIRATES but I was fascinated by the Dragon Lady’s outfits.  When I was 12 she was the epitome of chic!

GASOLINE ALLEY, LITTLE ORPHAN ANNIE AND POPEYE were “before my time” and they didn’t hold my interest.

The lush illustrations in PRINCE VALIANT caught me as a young adult.  The cartoonist was big on historical details and it made for fascinating reading. The first comic strip I recall reading where people got older.

DAGWOOD has been around since 1933.The guy never ages and seems to entertain generation after generation.

I still like the funnies but read them only occasionally now.  They were a major part of my growing up.  Books are my reading now.

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Joan

NOSTALGIA FOR FREDDIE L.

It really isn’t much fun to fly anymore.  A hassle, anyway you look at it.  Very expensive for what you get, which isn’t much.  But back in the 60s an aviation entrepreneur named Freddie Laker had the wonderful idea of starting a “no frills “airline. 

I have a special fondness for Laker Airways because I was a “no frills” passenger on several of their flights between Gatwick Airport in England and JFK Airport in NYC during that time.

In September of 1977 Laker Airways introduced its first daily SKYTRAIN low fare scheduled service between London’s Gatwick and New York’s JFK.  The one way fare was ￡32 in winter and ￡37 in summer.  Tickets were sold on the day of departure.

Seats were sold on a “first come-first served” basis and passengers brought their own food aboard. The whole enterprise appealed to discount travelers: backpackers, families with children and adventurers in general.

Laker Airways was one of the early buyers of the first AIRBUS airliners.

Freddie Laker was knighted and became Sir Freddie Laker for his contribution to British aviation.

We couldn’t believe it when SKYTRAIN declared bankruptcy in 1982 owing more than￡250 million.  The company had expanded too quickly and was undercapitalized.  There were possible implications of the decision to build the business on discount travelers only.

Other larger airlines were aggressively price matching Laker Airways even by doing so they were suffering huge losses themselves.

There were a lot of trips to Europe after that for me but flying has never been that much fun again.

Sir Freddie Laker died in 2006 in Florida at the age of 83.  Thanks for the ride, Freddie! 

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Joan

TIME OUT

SAVVY OVER 70 WILL RETURN ON MONDAY  MARCH 31st

SPRING IS RIGHT AROUND THE CORNER!

STAY WARM AND WELL.

JOAN

A HANDBAG BY ANY OTHER NAME

In early days something to carry valuables in was a ”pouch,”  in medieval days it morphed into a “purse” and in the mid 18th century the term became “handbag.”  Whatever you want to call them they are ubiquitous now.  Women wouldn’t be without one and men are slowly coming around to the fact that handbags aren’t a bad idea.  

Historically there are some strange facts about pouches, purses or handbags but the modern ones fascinate me.  Excepting the “bling” ones I never met a handbag I didn’t like.

No matter how many handbags you have there’s always one that’s your favorite and you tend to carry it a lot.  

What to do with a lot of handbags?  You could always start a museum of handbags.

One is always advised that the accessories for your handbag should be chic and black.  They should match.

Unfortunately they usually match the lining of your handbag which is usually black.  Northing worse than fishing around in your handbag for something you can’t identify by its color.  Everything is chic and black!

Crossbody bags are really practical.  Especially for shopping!  Both hands free to examine price tags and to make sure interior pockets are available for cell phones, etc.  I still have handbags from “way back when” with no pockets for cell phones. They’re fine.  I usually forget my cell phone anyway.

Handbags that are carried by a short strap in your hand look great on some women.  I always feel like I’m carrying a lunchbox around.  Not a very “with it” feeling.  

Shoulder strap bags are classic.  Leaves your hands almost hands-free.  But if you have sloped shoulders your classic bag tends to fall off and you’re forever clutching at it.  One wide strap, not two usually solves that problem.  Men like the shoulder strap (messenger bags).

We tend to carry too much stuff in our handbags and wonder where that pain in your shoulder came from.  Awfully hard to pare down the “essentials.”  We need all that stuff!

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Joan

WATCH THE TIME

It would seem that today our wrist watches are no longer considered a necessity to tell time.  Glance at your cell phone or laptop and tiny digital clocks appear to tell you what time of day it is.  Are wrist watches more of a status symbol now?  I like wrist watches for the same reason I like books better than e-books.

Back in the 16th century wrist watches were called wristlets and only women wore wristlets.  Men turned up their noses at them.  They liked pocket watches--more of a manly thing. They were quoted as saying they “would sooner wear a skirt as wear a wrist watch.”  Apparently, they didn't ask the Scots.

During the 19th century soldiers discovered pocket watches were not useful in wartime situations.  They were awkward to carry and clumsy to operate in combat.  Hence the birth of wrist watches for men. 

After World War 1 came the demand for reliable, accurate wrist watches.  Companies were improving technologies and introducing new models to keep up with the demand.

I’ve loved watches since I was old enough to tell time.  I bought my first wrist watch from a pawn shop.  It was a Lord Elgin and pre-quartz.  I still have it.

Another “keeper” was a Dueber-Hampton watch made in Canton, Ohio in 1918.  It still runs but very sporadically.

Watches take the place of bracelets for me.  Over the years there have been a lot of them. Too many.  

Everything from the Lord Elgin on up.  I’ve given a lot of them away. In my late 70’s how many watches do I need?  

I can’t recall my mother ever wearing a wrist watch or my father either.  We had a huge clock in the kitchen above the “icebox”.  That must have sufficed.

As long as there are beautiful and pricey watches out there to be had I wouldn’t expect them to be obsolete any time soon.

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Joan

SHOES- WE LOVE ‘EM!

Humans have been wearing shoes of some sort for around 40,000 years.  Sandals were the most common footwear in early civilization and in modern times flip flops carry on the same tradition.  There are a myriad of shoe styles now- some bizarre and some extraordinarily comfortable.  I can say we honestly love shoes.  Women, especially!

Around 1850 shoemakers started making right and left shoes.  Until then all shoes were made on a straight last.

Sneakers were mass marketed in 1917 under the Keds name.  The word “sneakers” came to be because the rubber sole was quiet hence you could “sneak up” on someone.

During the 1940s and 1950s we referred to warm weather shoes such as sneakers and sandals as “playshoes.”

Brown and white saddle shoes were enormously popular during that era. The white part was kept pristine with white shoe polish.  And of course “bobby sox” were an integral part of the picture.  I don’t miss saddle shoes.

Bare feet are more fun but unfortunately it’s a necessity to wear shoes most of the time so they might as well be comfortable.   Wearing shoes changes the way humans walk.

There are differences between feet that regularly wear shoes and those that don’t.

Wearing tight shoes can lead to bunions  and 5 inch heels can shorten the ligaments in the leg.  People who don’t wear shoes have wider feet and a larger space between the big toe and the second toe.

Sage advice has always been “don’t wear the same pair of shoes every day.” 


That calls for a whole wardrobe of shoes!  Any old excuse!  We love our shoes!

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Joan

WINTER WEARY?

Even we hardy souls who live on the shore of Lake Ontario think this has been an exceedingly rough winter.  We’re used to heavy deep snows and a few sub zero temperatures but these arctic blasts keep coming at us and we and the rest of the country, too, are ready for any signs of spring!  

Short of drinking yourself into oblivion or becoming morbid and immersing yourself in Icelandic poetry there are a few other ways to ward off depression and the blahs

Put your hiking boots on and go for a walk.  If possible take a dog with you.  Dogs seem to take an innate joy in snow.  The deeper the better.

Buy a gardening catalog and pick out your spring planting scheme.  Visualize all those marvelous colors.

Hot tea or hot cocoa are great mood lifters.  Don’t forget the marshmallow with the cocoa.

Take some  time to look over your warm weather clothes.  Try a few things on and don’t look out the window-that snow will be gone soon.  Spring merchandise is in the stores right now and it’s not too soon to invest in a few new things.  Try to hold off wearing them just yet.  No point in freezing!

Whatever kind of music makes you happy-listen to it!  

When I’m really bored I rearrange furniture in my house.  I always think it looks better and that makes me happy!

On dark and depressing days you can curl up with a friend and a good book or in the inimitable words of a great and learned lady “curl up under the covers with a friend who’s read a good book.”

Hang in there! This winter of 2013-14 has been one for the record books and you can say you lived through it!

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Joan

GLASSES-SOME FACTS

The very earliest idea of magnification dates way back to the 1st century AD when it was noted that “letters are seen enlarged and more clearly through a globe or glass filled with water.”  The first actual eyeglasses came along about 1,200 years later.

They consisted of thin pieces of glass placed directly on the eye ball. Earlier version of contact lenses? 

Eyeglasses today besides being a necessity for most of us are also a fashion statement for women.  Here are some interesting facts to consider.

To avoid eyeglasses in most cases there’s always Lasik surgery, contacts or cataract surgery.  Cataract surgery worked for me. It was quick and easy and Medicare took care of it.

Things to think about when choosing glasses are eye color, hair color, face shape, what color you wear most, how the glasses fit and your budget.

As for color, tortoiseshell frames work out well.  The tones and undertones are similar to those found in hair color.

Benjamin Franklin invented bifocals but try to avoid them. They tend to make your eyes look really big as through the viewer were looking at your eyes through a magnifying glass.  Progressive lenses solve this problem.

Rimless or cat’s eye glasses are not particularly flattering for women.

Every spring and fall eyeglass manufacturers launch new styles, technology, shapes and colors.  Think about changing your glasses if they’re more than five years old or something as simple if you change your hair color.

Don’t hang your glasses from a necklace.  “Half glasses” for a woman made you look older than you really are.

Dark glasses are really worthwhile!  Besides blocking out the sun’s UV rays they ward off macular degeneration and you can get away with no eye makeup. They can make you feel anonymous, too. You can see people but they can’t see your eyes.  Just those cool dark glasses!  The darker the lens the better but stay away from yellow or pink lenses.  They can make the sun look brighter.  Sunglasses can even be made with prescription lenses!

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Joan

WEATHER YOU LIKE IT OR NOT

Each state here in the U.S. has its advantages and definite disadvantages weather-wise.  Folks from the north want to live in nice, warm Florida but will settle for North Carolina- better jobs to be had.  Ohio, where I was born was a good place to leave 60 years ago.  No nostalgia there: nasty winter weather.  Upstate New York where I have lived for almost 30 years is famous for its heavy snows.  No hurricanes,  floods, forest fires or drought. We try to remember that while shoveling 3 feet of the white stuff. It could be worse!

In Ohio  the Thanksgiving weekend of 1950 was remarkable for its 4 feet of snow.  We had company in for Thanksgiving dinner and they couldn’t leave for home in Pittsburgh for a whole week.  My father and uncle put away several cases of beer and chess helped to pass the time. In addition to loud political arguments.  Photo credit: Andrea Costa Creative / Foter / CC BY-NC-ND  

We pulled up stakes and left for Ft. Myers, Florida in February of 1955.  Like a lot of northerners Florida to my father was the promised land.  The weather had to be better and it was a lot better.  Too much for my father. He couldn’t stand the heat. Air conditioners weren’t everywhere back then.  If the heat was too much there were always movie theaters that were air conditioned.   Ft. Myers itself is 14 miles from the beach and the summers were unbearably hot.

After one year in the deep south we made the trek back to Ohio in a four car plus one truck caravan.  Seven kids, one set of parents, miscellaneous cats and dogs and one large black spider tucked away in the tool chest in the truck.  My father was intrigued by the enormous size of the spiders in Florida and wanted to take one back north to see if it could adapt to the cold weather in Ohio.  The spider didn’t make it.

 After one more winter in Ohio, Sarasota, Florida seemed like a better bet.  Less humidity and the beach was right there. Hurricanes were not as frequent as they are now but we did have to hunker down for two of them.  After a few years the family dispersed.  My mother died,  I got married and my father bought an old bus  and he and 5 of the kids left for Denver, Colorado. One of my brothers owned a thriving junkyard out there and he would wrote back extolling the virtues of life in Colorado. And so the bus headed west and I stayed in Sarasota.

In 1965 my husband’s new job on the Winston-Salem “Journal-Sentinel “took us to North Carolina.  A reasonable state, weather-wise.  Hardly any snow so of course the occasional drought.  Summers can be very sticky.  Air conditioners essential.  Spring time is beautiful with dogwood and azaleas.  Winters can be cold and rainy and in 1985 when I left N.C. for N.Y  the temperature reached a new low of 10 degrees below zero.  Fortunately, that doesn’t happen often.

In Upstate NY the weather is fine.  People say “it builds character”.  Summers are splendid and fall is spectacular with its brilliant colors.  But winter always shows up.  We’re right on the shore of Lake Ontario and the area is subject to “lake effect “ snows.

There’s a pristine beauty about it all but driving can be a little dicey.  In my early days here folks would ask me -knowing I came here from N.C.  “Well, how do you like our winters?”  I would reply “they’re not as bad as I thought they would be”.  And the answer was “Well, you should have been here in ’66 or ’77.”  It seems in those years there was 12 feet of snow in this area  and getting around was a real challenge. I missed that.  Darn it!  

This winter will be remembered for the extreme cold.  Florida does not beckon.

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Joan

PHONES, THEN & NOW

Once upon a time there was a black telephone with a round base and a rotary dial.  This was 70 years ago and the round black stationary phone morphed into what we now call a cell phone.

The telephones of the 1940s and our cell phones today had and have their advantages and disadvantages.

Phones in the 1940s weren’t portable. You definitely couldn’t carry them around.  Cell phone users today are “attached” to their phones.

The phones 70 years ago had “party lines”.  Two or more families used the same phone line.  As a kid it was fun to pick up the receiver and realize a conversation was in progress. 

If it was interesting you quietly listened in but if it was a long winded conversation and you really wanted to use the phone you would announce right in the middle of their conversation “excuse me, but we have an emergency and really need to use this phone.”  Hopefully there were no parents in the vicinity.

It was quicker to dial phone numbers back then. No area codes and there were only 5 digits in your phone number.

Maybe folks didn’t have that many friends to call 70 years ago.  Today people seem to be on their cell phones all the time.

Big old, black rotary phones weren’t dangerous unless you picked one up and threw it at someone.  Modern cell phones can be dangerous at times.  It’s too easy to fall into a fountain or walk into the side of a moving car while being engrossed in your phone conversation.

If you had to make a phone call back then and you were driving you just waited til you got home.  You can make a phone call now while driving but it’s dangerous and illegal. Texting while driving is even worse.  One eye on the road and one eye on your phone doesn’t sound logical.   People aren’t constructed that way.

My cell phone has a life of its own.  We seldom are in the same place at the same time.  I think we prefer it that way.

I’m downstairs and it’s upstairs or I have no idea where it is.  I hate to admit it but I could probably do without it.

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Joan

THE INDISPENSABLE EYEBROW

Eyebrows do have a purpose besides defining the face.  They keep sweat and rain out of one’s eyes and are great for verbal communication.  Over the years cosmetic methods have been developed to alter the look of one’s eyebrows.  However you treat them it would be difficult to do without eyebrows.  Some observations: some scientific, some firsthand.

Eyebrows can convey emotions like surprise, joy, anger and sorrow.  Difficult to keep your emotions in check; eyebrows will give you away every time.

However, you can Botox your forehead.  Smooths out lines and the eyebrows don’t move.  I don’t recommend that, though. 

Eyebrows do help to keep moisture out of your eyes.  Visualize mowing the lawn on a hot day with sweat dripping in your eyes.  Says a lot for bushy eyebrows!

As a bleached blonde back in the 80s my darker eyebrows didn’t match my hair.  How to bleach one’s eyebrows back then?  I didn’t attempt that.

Eyebrows thicken at puberty.  

Unibrows have been favored by cultures through history.   In Roman times the men favored unibrows.

In ancient Egypt when a cat died in a private home all inhabitants of the house shaved their eyebrows.

Elizabeth Ist plucked her eyebrows and hairline to non-existence.  It was the fashion and high foreheads were greatly prized.

17th century society women wore mousehide brow wigs.  And in the 1920s movie actresses favored mouse fur to enhance their eyelashes.

In the past 100 years there’s been a great variation between thin and thicker eyebrows.

Dark, skinny eyebrows were big in the 1920s and Madonna epitomized the bushy eyebrow look in the 1980s.

A word to the wise, though.  If you continuously pluck your eyebrows they don’t grow back!  If you “want to re-route your eyebrows” (a male’s words)  proceed cautiously!

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Joan

FOOD REDUX

Food preferences change over the decades.  Depending on what part of the country you come from and how old you are now, you probably have different food memories than I do.  

What did long suffering parents feed a large family back in the 1940s and 1950s when my six brothers and sisters and I were growing up?  A lot of stuff, actually. Comes down to whatever they would eat!

We had a “victory garden” during WWII.  The Ohio summers were hot and vegetables grew well.  No deer to be seen but the rabbits thought the garden was their own supermarket.

Photo credit: x-ray delta one / Foter.com / CC BY-SA

My three little sisters didn’t have epicurean tastes.  Looking back it seems they were raised on scrambled eggs, applesauce and macaroni and cheese.

Because of rationing during WWII a lot of foodstuffs were difficult to come by. An old recipe for Butterless, Eggless, Milkless Cake was revived. A strange conglomeration of ingredients were substituted.  My mother was not an adventurous cook and didn’t give it a try.

We raised chickens.  As the oldest I was designated to feed the flock before I left for school.  Years later I had a pet chicken with a real personality but a flock of chickens and hungry ones, at that, were something else.

The cafeteria lunch at school seemed to be mainly Sloppy Joes.  Lunch brought from home would be a peanut butter and shredded carrot sandwich. It sounds weird but it was good!

Fresh fruits were not available all year long as they are now. Our Christmas stockings always had a tangerine or an orange tucked in the toe along with some walnuts.

I don’t recall ever eating out at a restaurant.  Dinners at home included such staples as meat loaf, mashed potatoes or chicken.  My mother liked using a pressure cooker. Her specialty was meat balls mixed with rice. We called them porcupine balls.

Always a turkey or baked ham at Thanksgiving and Christmas.  Ordinary fare included tuna casseroles(really tasteless), and tomato cheese rarebit.  We all referred to that as tomato cheese rabbit.

We drank a lot of milk and eagerly awaited the parents coming home with bags of groceries. They’d be torn into before they could be unloaded.  I was especially fond of whole heads of lettuce!
We never ate hamburgers, yoghurt, spaghetti or pizza.  Not that they were forbidden: we didn’t know they existed.  We did eat a lot of white bread though.

“Butter” was fortified margarine.  It came in a block that looked like lard with a packet of yellow food coloring to mix in.

Essentials for a good life were cornflakes, peanut butter and cookies.  We all had a sweet tooth.

New products were introduced during the 1940s: Cheerios, Tootsie Rolls, frozen orange juice, Dannon yoghurt and something called SPRY which was pure vegetable shortening.

It was not a wide spectrum of fascinating foodstuffs back then but I think it was typical Midwestern fare and we all survived pretty hardily on it.

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Joan

COLLEGE DEGREES

If you don’t have a college degree what does the lack of one get you in life?

I don’t have one.  One and a half years at Kent State Univ.  was enough for me.  At the age of 19, “life” was calling.  The years passed and I have never suffered boredom behind a corporate desk but I have also never made much money.  If I could do it all over again I’d probably do the very same thing.  

In the past 60 years of my working life these are some of the jobs I’ve had.

At 19, I was a saleswoman at William Kitt in Cleveland Ohio, living in the YWCA and fending off advances from Asif who wanted me to go back to Pakistan with him.

My family moved to Florida and I modeled for the Ringling School of Art in Sarasota for $2.75 per hour.  That paid for a hitchhiking trip in Europe.

I was a “board girl” for F.I.duPont & Co, a stock brokerage house in Sarasota.  I would change prices on a big blackboard as they came through on the screen.  A lot of cigar smoke there!

In 1969 McDonalds Corp started hiring mothers with kids in school from 11 a.m. til 2 p.m., so the mamas would be home when the kids got out of school.  This was in Winston-Salem, NC and thanks to Big Macs I gained 10 lbs  while working there.  Back then McDonalds paid $1.20 per hour.

I lost the 10 lbs and bought a steakhouse in Winston-Salem. Really!  I had to try it.  NC had just gotten “liquor by the drink”  and my bar was a busy place. I quickly got over the notion that owning a restaurant is like having a house party for all your friends.  Too many long hours, the kitchen help walking out the back door with food, etc.  I moved on.

A route dispatcher for American Wholesale Beverage in Greensboro, NC. It was the early 80s and Americans were just becoming familiar with European wines. It was an education for me. The only alcoholic beverage we had at home was my father’s Rolling Rock beer

A housekeeper in a Victorian Bed & Breakfast in Winston-Salem.  The Jacuzzi tubs had nothing to do with Victoriana but they were immensely popular and hard to clean.  Once, Maya Angelou was a guest, and she asked the owner and me to join her in celebrating her birthday at breakfast.  We drank champagne. 

A move to upstate NY, and I was the marketing person for Syracuse Colour Graphics.  I commuted every day from Oswego and was there for 9 years.  Another education-commercial printing. I learned all about blueprints, matchprints and Heidelberg presses.  Folks from out of town would fly in to check their work on press  and I would drive them back to the airport with 10 minutes to spare before their plane took off.  They always made it!

My partner (now my husband) and I started a yarn shop and weaving studio in Oswego called Northwind Yarns and Weaving. He’s a weaver and I learned to weave years ago in NC.  The location of our shop looked very European, through a gate and down a long brick walkway.  We came into the business at the beginning of the “scarf craze.” The yarns were gorgeous and even if you didn’t knit,  a couple of these yarns in a bowl made a great decorative accent!  The yarn shop was a learning experience but after 8 years it was time to move on.

TJMaxx is a fun place to work.  Designer clothes coming through and all those purses!  I’ve had a fixation on clothes ever since wearing a uniform all through high school.  It’s a wonder I ever draw a paycheck!

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Next Post, Next Monday.

Thanks for stopping by!

Joan