That Girl
Madeleine's (pictured here with Anto on Sunday) first day of school, post holidays, a non-starter on account of 'tummy upset' which gets us (mostly Sonnet) out of bed 4X. Quel horreur. Eitan meanwhile up-and-at-em, crack-of-dawn with knot-in-stomach at max-i-mum. I really do not know why this kid worries so much - he is tops in his class in reading and writing and knows his times-tables cold. I suppose his nature - I had this too - which means making sure we are tuned into his Sunday evening blues. But today about Madeleine who still feels a bit, er, green and we draw pictures of volcanoes and dinosaurs. We also dance to Steve and Lucy's 11th annual "holla-day" mix which arrives by poste. Or I dance to amuse my audience which, to my credit, does get a smile.
Madeleine now sits on the counter top, above the warm water boiler, and watches me type. We make funny faces at each other. When I had it sick this meant one thing: television. We had it good, too, with 'Underdog' (and 'Sweet Polly Purebred', ace TV reporter and Underdog's girlfriend), 'Yogi Bear' (and Boo Boo), 'Love American Style' and 'That Girl,' which starred Marlo Thomas as Ann Marie, an aspiring actress who moves from Brewster, NY, to make it in the Big City. Though Ann has no job or anything, she has a huge apartment and fab, freaky clothes - bright mini-skirts and white knee boots. Big African necklaces. Without, like, Viet Nam and Nixon that would have been one heck 'uv a time. 'That Girl' played from 1966 to '71 and it strikes me this may have been my first exposure New York City and perhaps began one of my earliest ambitions - to live there. The show captures Manhattan on a spring afternoon with flower boxes, white walled buildings and tree lined streets. Friendly door men. Everything, you know, works out. This anyways my expectation as I drove up 6th Avenue on July 4, 1989 - the next day, First Boston.
My first New York dirtier, bigger and more stressful then 'That Girl' but I also remember its majesty. From my third-floor crowded flat shared with three college friends I could sit on the fire escape and see the World Trade Towers. The 41st floor of Park Avenue Plaza offered extraordinary views as well - Gotham City laid flat before us. We had adult parties. Well, I used to say the two times to live in New York when young or rich and preferably both. Of course this nonsense. Like any great city, the joy is in the ebb and the flow.
