Criteria for choosing underwear

Granted, I don't buy my underwear at Victoria's Secret anymore.  I buy in bulk at Target with the occasional bra from Stein Mart...but when I purchased a 6-pack of underwear at Target a few weeks ago I was surprised to see this testimonial to the briefs' staying power.  I guess Target is not pushing the "lingerie" concept and has accepted that many of the women buying underwear in their stores have more serious concerns.

My mother

Here is my mother, Helen Hamilton Bennett, on her wedding day, April 19, 1948.  She and my father had just eloped to New Hampshire from Massachusetts, and 10 months later, she was a mother at 20 years old.  I didn't get the dark hair, my sister did, but I did get her legs and her love of art.  Happy Mother's Day, it's been 64 years since you welcomed me into the world.

 

Happy Mother's Day to my sister, girlfriends, cousins, sister-in-law, nieces and Aunt Betty

 

 

Wish I could call each one of you today to say "Happy Mother's Day."  You all deserve to be honored today and every day by your children, spouses and friends.  Love to you all.

 

...and whle we're on the subject of purses...

Another friend, Keely Benkey-Reichman, has made many purses for me over the years using her own fabric as well as fabric that I've supplied.  Here are a few samples:

 

This was a custom purse.  Four of us went to NYC in the fall one year, so Keely made four slightly different purses with red and black fabric, New York scenes and nuns, for the guest of honor.

 

 

I supplied the vintage fabric for this purse.  It features "rich man, poor man, beggar man, thief" and Keely created the "thief" on the front to complete this great purse.

 

 

A very retro science fiction fabric purse.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fabulous purses by Patrice Valenzuela

My friend, Patrice, makes fabulous purses in several sizes from men's ties.  The top purse features a vintage western tie with a horse head made of sequins and she coordinated other western motif ties and colors to complete it.  She has made purses for women who have lost husbands or fathers using their ties; what a wonderful way to keep them with us always.  She also makes flowers of ties to use as hair bows and necklaces of fibers and ties.  She doesn't waste a thing and is the queen of recycling ties!  Contact me if you'd like her to make you a purse.  You don't have to supply the ties unless you want to; she has HUNDREDS ready for the next purse.

Chucko the Birthday Clown

Back in the 50's when we arrived in California, we lived in Pacoima in the SF Valley.  That area is now called Arleta and is near the neighborhood where a plane crashed into a school playground in the early 50's.  If you remember the movie, La Bamba, Ritchie Valens used to have nightmares about that crash.  It was a great place to be a kid in the 50's...a neighborhood full of families with lots of children of all ages and my parents made friends with people that they remained friends for years, even though we only lived there about 2 years.  Every other house in this neighborhood had a pool and I had to learn to swim very quickly.  We were outside playing and swimming all summer long and my sister and I were the tannest we've ever been.  Our next door neighbors, the Zatkins, had a daughter a little younger than me, named Bonnie.  One year she had a birthday party and invited most of the kids in the neighborhood.  This wasn't just any party...we went to the taping of a Chucko birthday show in Hollywood, and I was picked to participate in some of the contests on the air.  I wish we had a photo of that day, but I do remember that I won a huge box of crayons and some other toys.  Chucko (Charles Runyon) was a nice, kind clown...not scary like Bozo.  After the TV shows were over, he continued to make appearances at hospitals and convalescent homes.  The original Chucko died in 2008 and his son, Randy, who became the second Chucko, just died in February.   I have only met one person who was also on the Chucko show, my friend Paul.  That visit to Chucko made a lasting impression on me and I was never afraid of clowns like some people I know. We even hired a clown for my son's birthday party when he was four or five years old.  I later found out from "someone in the know" that he was a bad clown and had to change his clown name to keep working.   "I'm Chucko, I'm Chucko, I'm Chucko the birthday clown, I'm Chucko, I'm Chucko, I'm the happiest guy in town, Happy Birthday from Chuck the birthday clown."  RIP Charles and Randy, you made a whole generation of LA kids happy and fearless.

Lots of wonderful images to be found on Pinterest!

This image from Pinterest reminded me of the old Carmen Miranda movies with elaborately choreographed dance routines.  Oversized bananas were either wielded by the dancers or elevated as a stage for Carmen to rise into the background.  I remember these gals whipping the bananas through the air as Carmen sang and danced in one of her elaborate outfits with BIG shoes (she wasn't even 5 feet tall).   Lots of fruit, metallic materials, ruffles, fringe and RED lipstick.  She upstaged Jerry Lewis and the Marx Brothers in the movies they did together...how could they top her?

Pinterest has some great images, many that I've used in my blog posts.  If you have not discovered Pinterest yet, it's habit-forming...