1) Mother died five years ago today. Perhaps my mind hasn’t fallen into the usual (preferred) furrow of anniversary thinking because she is with me so much? Yesterday I found in some old scrapbooks from her family her engagement and wedding portraits, and the newspaper clippings from when she and Daddy got married in 1955. Mother was always so much herself to me — I mean, she’s my mom! — but looking at these photographs now, years later, I see my sister and my niece, and even my great-niece.
1a) I come from families in which the female genes are strong. Now when I look in the mirror I see more of my father than my mother. But my father took after his mother, and anybody who met Granny or any of her many sisters knew that they were in charge. Always.
2) Call me a fussy old queen — you won’t be the first! — but I will not be condescended to. I may not know everything, but I know more than you credit, and my experience is greater than what you allow. Don’t forget I’m a Scorpio, dahlings — I love you, but I will cut you.
2a) Tallulah Bankhead’s moon was in Scorpio . . . and not just because she didn’t wear underwear . . . so look out!
3) Last week I watched Fame for the very first time since high school. Astonishing, considering how much that movie impacted my generation. And tonight, rediscovering the importance Donna Summer had in those years for me. I had that On the Radio two-record set with all her hits on it . . . and that music has just not been present for me — I have not made it present — for such a long time. So, because I just read Barbra Streisand’s memoirs in December (you notice no one’s still talking about it, yes?), the era-defining “Enough Is Enough.” “And I won’t waste another . . . tear!”