Revisiting the 50’s
Rather than the last minute, traditional year-end list of Top Ten “what-evers,” I decided to take the month of December and do something I had never done before. I didn’t work.
Work for the last three decades has been writing. Every weekday I would jot the date at the top of my narrow reporter’s notepad and then list my official/unofficial To Do list for the day. The entries were brief and to the point. I.e.
- Walk dog
- Write
- Submit
- Read
The decades prior to this routine, the work day was a bit different.
- Go to the gym
- Dress in business attire and head to work, i.e. SONY Pictures, The Record Plant, Wally Heider’s Studios, United Western Studios.
- Business lunch and/or dinner
- Evening screening
Of course, there were a few years after earning my Masters in Music when I taught public school. I worked my way through college teaching instrumental music lessons, and in high school worked as a salesperson in a department store.
As long as I’m shuffling backwards in time, my early teen years were spent babysitting and working parttime in my dad’s haberdashery store. Suffice it to say, you live long enough, your work resume goes well beyond one page. Trust me, December 2023 was different AND enlightening!
I felt like I recreated the TV image of housewife, I mean, homemaker Donna Read/Barbara Billingsley. But the 50’s I remember touted TV dinners, fish sticks and tater tots, and Swanson Pot Pies, supposedly to make my mother’s (and other stay-at-home moms) life easier. I’m conscious of cholesterol and sodium intake, so I opted out of those conveniences and spent more time in the kitchen preparing healthy meals. I also spent more time baking cookies and breads which did not help with cholesterol and sodium and fats.
I still walked Dolly twice a day and accomplished all the chores and errands expected of women in this decade who have careers AND maintain a home. Grocery shopping, laundry, post office runs, vacuuming and dusting – really must I go on?
The month of December is quickly drawing to a close and I am ready to move on. 2023 has been a tough year for loss of people I love which may have had something to do with what I’ll call my “December experiment.” I am grateful to have lived this long and know I’m lucky. The sad part is missing friends and relatives who have now become a memory.
I’m anxious to get back to writing. As I pen this column, I am reminded of how long I have actually lived and how much work has clearly given my life purpose.
Wishing all who read My 3 Cents peace and happiness and the best life in 2024.