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Ree Remembers of the Fifties, born in 1954. When Mattel launched its Barbie doll, I had one of the first series. Traveling on a NYC subway or bus was a treat, not a combat exercise. Radio City Music Hall was an awe-inspiring place; the yearly trips to the Easter Show and the Christmas Show became pilgrimages to a rich and musical fantasy world. My mother wore lovely full-skirted shirtwaist dresses around the house - the skirt like an upside-down hollyhock - and always wore a hat and a special "church" outfit on Sundays. Life was full of special events then; we took nothing for granted and no one was demanding. It was all right just to be. And to enjoy the pace of life. The memories float by in my mind's eye like the images clicking on an old Viewmaster (which incidentally I also still have): My dad's Cadillac Coupe de Ville, in a soft powder blue with cream roof; how proudly he drove that and how majestic that car looked! My parents celebrating my First Communion in May,1961 by taking me to lunch at a "ladies who lunch" restaurant called Patricia Murphy's in Westchester. I still have a pretty candle they bought me from the gift shop - all pink and floral - and I still have the photographs taken of me and my parents in the gardens for which the restaurant was famous. I felt so special and grown-up that day. The photo album yields snapshots of me, first with one parent, then the other, then with both, their arms protectively around me and around each other's waists, their bright white smiles. They look like a movie star couple! Who are these glorious celebrities, my parents - I don't remember how young they really looked and were, although they were in their 40's when I was born. Will my daughter say the same thing about me in years to come? Going to the Cross County Mall (one of the first shopping malls in the US) to either Gimbel's or Wanamaker's with my mom was always a special shopping occasion. She would go to either store's Charles of the Ritz counter and order her face powder, which they mixed from scratch. I was so fascinated by the way the cosmetician measured each color of powder, mixed it, tested it on my mom, adjusted the formula, and then filled the loose powder box (which looked like a mini-hatbox), and then pressed a compact. I can still smell the fragrant scent of that face powder! And I remember my mother getting her lipstick "bullet" refill for her lipstick tube - and I seem to remember her having a red lipstick that smelled like roses. I don't really wear red lipstick but I have one in my makeup box that has a scent which reminds me of those days. I remember marveling at this elegant being my mother was, that she could have her makeup made just for her! Neighborhood shopping trips were special too: getting an apple from the greengrocer, a cookie at the bakery, watching my mother chat with each shopkeeper. And they actually delivered your purchases! The only thing my mom carried home was the fresh blueberry or huckleberry pie for that night's dessert. I recall getting dressed up "fancy" to go out with Mom - white gloves, black patent Mary Janes, freshly pressed dress. And at special family gatherings, my mother had a cocktail, never a "drink." And having that cocktail looked like a special, secret grown-up's ceremony. I remember my mother and I having lunch at Schrafft's in Eastchester - my mom's cup of tea and the glass of milk for me, which was brought to me with the glass perched on a paper doily on a saucer. I also remember her taking me to the Automat, and handing me the silver change that was the open-sesame for those little compartments.
I remember my girlhood Easter outfits, and the hats, and my little white
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