Lost in Macy’s

I was only four or so when Mom (Aldine Marie Busch) took me with her to do some shopping at Macy’s.

I do not remember how I got separated from her, but I did. I do remember the terror of being alone, wandering around among all the adults, trying to find my Mom.

Finally, a male store employee found me, and took me back to where I belonged, to the safety of my Mom’s hand.

Mom was relied, but also angry with me, that I had wandered away. Whereas I felt she was the one who had wandered away!

My 10 minutes with Jimmy Durante

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Durante

When my Mom (Aldine Marie Busch) and I left Kansas City, MO for good, our first stop was Las Vegas for an extended visit with Uncle Clay (Emory Clay Campbell). He had been working as a ‘studio musician’ for the shows at the Desert Inn for about two years.

It was late one night, when Mom and I were picking Clay up from work after the last show at the Desert Inn that I got to meet and talk with Jimmy Durante.

I was not allowed backstage, as I was underage. So, as usual, I was left in the lobby while Mom went and collected Clay. I soon got bored and wandered into the main floor restaurant. It was totally empty of customers at that hour, except for one lone older man, dressed in a suit and tie, sitting at a white cloth covered, table by a window. I wandered over, sat at a table next to his, and said “Hi!” No shrinking violet me…

It was not long before he started talking to me, between bites, never putting his knife down while he ate with gusto, asking what I was doing there, etc. Of course, I told him about Kansas City, Uncle Clay, and my Mom.
It was not long before my Mom and Uncle Clay arrived, with stunned expressions on their faces at whom I was talking too. They claimed me, and we left for the parking lot. But once out of the main lobby of the Desert Inn, they were beside themselves with awe, “That was Jimmy Durante!” And Uncle Clay giggled that embarrassed little giggle he had, while shaking his head.

I had not realized that it was Jimmy Durante till I was told so. To me he was just a friendly older man that took interest in a bored teen.

33 Years

After 33 years, I still miss my Mom (Aldine Marie Busch). She died on July 22, 1975.

Seldom does a day go by that I do not think of her. It has only been in recent years, that I have stopped myself from heading to the phone to call her when ‘important’ stuff has happened that I wanted to share with her.

We had a loving, close, relationship. We talked on the phone or saw each other every day. (Except when she was traveling, still, she would often phone me, to tell me what she had seen or done.)

Though there were many things we disagreed on, we LIKED each other.

Even after I married and had children, we spent time together. Once or twice a week we (just the two of us) would eat out, or go to a movie.

Or, she would come over after she got off work, and the three of us (hubby included, and often times, other family members) would play hearts or scrabble (both of which she was very good at and enjoyed), evenings filled with love and laughter.

My own children were only 8 and 6 years old when she passed, far too young to remember how wonderful their maternal grandmother was, how much she loved all of us, or to remember what a good relationship between a parent and adult child could be…

John Holmes

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Holmes_(actor)

Long ago and far away, John Holmes was an acquaintance (and a great dancing partner!), of mine.

John Holmes and I spent many an evening after dancing all night, alone at his Glendale apartment, talking and having coffee.

He was a pleasant, nice, regular guy (I had no idea of his 'porno' stardom at the time.). I think he liked having a female friend that he wasn't involved with romantically, sexually, or 'work related'.

I did not even know, at the time, that his birth surname was ESTES (his father: Carl Estes, and my father of record was Clyde Estes)! I would have had a LOT of questions for him

Our acquaintance was just as he was getting involved heavily in drugs. Once he was really into drugs big time, (as were so many in that time), I lost track of him. (We even stopped phoning each other.) Except of course, I 'followed' him in the papers as they reported on his legal woes

And finally, the story reporting his death.

Uncle Clay and chicken(s)

Emory Clay Campbell was the only child of Lula Garrett, Aldine’s half-sister. Aldine and Clay were very close; perhaps because there was a 12 year difference in age, Aldine felt ‘she had raised Clay’.

At any rate, Clay had this life long ‘thing’ about chickens; he was scared to death of them, living or dead! He was so phobic; he would not even eat chicken, and would almost turn green when others did in his presence.

Clay attributed this to having to gather eggs when a child (for those that haven’t done this, it is a dangerous thing, the hens will peck your hands and arms till they are bleeding). Clay said that not only did he fear this daily chore as a young child, but that the ‘adults’ (unknown – Grace Garrett?) told him that he had to be careful as the chickens would get his ‘pecker’.

Thus a life long phobia…