Suzanne Calling

Schmutzie inspired others to post today about '25 Things You Miss About Childhood', and that sounded like a great writing prompt.  Then, I saw that 30 years ago this week, an album that I played to death was released, Rush's Signals. Yep, I'm officially old. For years, I couldn't even play the album, because it was inextricably linked to the ex-husband.  Moving on.  Anyway, I've spent a couple of hours thinking of things I miss about childhood and realized that a pattern emerged in those things I missed.  Without further ado, my list: 1. Heading down to Newbridge Park pool with my mom after dinner, enjoying the warm breezes off the Great South Bay (but not those pesky green flies), as the sun set.  Loved that the pool was open until 10 pm-many of those nights, we were the last ones out. 2. Going to the beach with my dad many Sunday mornings.  I didn't like having to get up before the sun rose, but it was worth it to get the prime parking spot in the ...

I wish you were here, to bake you a cake and spend time with the kids. I think you'd get a kick out of your five grandsons, and be proud of Giggles and me-we both have college degrees. Mets opening day, 1970-when dad and I dressed up for going to the ball park and it was crazy hot. Your ball teams are still in the fair-to-middling ranges, but that wouldn't stop you from rooting for them, would it? Maybe you'd watch racing with Ed and Big Joe, too? I'd like to think so.

The term 'snowflake' has been around for several years, but some people I know haven't heard the expression. Usually it's accompanied by special, or 'speshul snowflake.' The term refers to a child who is so unique that mom or dad must pave the way for the child to go through life. It is not a compliment. As an example, the parent of a snowflake might call the teacher and say "Suzie is already burdened with homework in Mrs. Jone's class for a whole half hour each night, can you please reduce the amount of homework you send home?" Mind you, Suzie is a 7th grader and each subject should have homework every night. You get the picture, right? Now, imagine a college student's mom or dad making their appointments OR making appointments themselves to speak to professors or academic advisors. Yep, it happens, and far more than you would think. Mommy calls and says "Suzie needs to come see her advisor, but I'm at work until 4:30-can we hav...

As an empathetic sort, I've traveled through life putting myself in the other person's shoes. It is a trait that was especially prevalent when talking with teachers, whether they were educating my own, friends or employees. To me, these are the people who have one of the most important jobs there is-preparing the young for their futures. It's part of the reason why, when asked what my major is, I say "Hero Support." Those familiar with the movie "Sky High" will get the reference, but to others, I explain that those in my intended field lasso technology and bring it into the classroom for the teachers in whatever way works best. For some schools, it's extensive, in that whatever you experience in the classroom is readily available online. In others, it's supplemental material that there isn't time to cover in class. No matter what, the Instructional Technologist is well versed in the programming languages used in education (PLE for short...

Dear Dad, It's been almost twenty years. Yeah, I know, a long time. Lately, I've been thinking about you a lot more than usual. I wonder what things you and the kids would be getting into, whether you and Chef would have been to a Broadway show, a hike or a hundred or whether you'd be debating the merits of various musicians. With Game Teen, you'd probably be pulling that literary storehouse out of the boy and had a lot of patience with his obsessions. The main reason you've been on my mind is that you valued education above all else. It took a long time, but I realize that my passion for books came from you. Your thirst for knowledge was impressive, and you stressed the importance of a good education to me and Giggles. You were so proud of both of us attending college and disappointed when I 'took a semester off' that stretched a lot longer than one semester. Right after you passed away, I returned to school to get those 12 credits done, but I got s...

As a kid, one of the things my dad loved to do in December was drive around the local area and look at Christmas light displays. Back then, Long Island had some pretty impressive displays. Each year involved a trek over to Uniondale to check out the what the Klimczuk's had done. The Klimczuk family decorated every square inch of their postage stamp sized yard, the sides and top of their garage and the entire front of their house with lights, wooden signs and animated show pieces. It was impressive, even if a little excessive, but their house was definitely one where we would stop the car, park and spend time marveling at what they'd added. Closer to home, families decorated more sparingly and simply. In his drive back and forth from our house to his the next town over, Dad would take different routes in early December, locating new decorations to view. Along his postal route, he'd note who was decorating and tuck that information away, too. One year, he was excited t...

It started back in 1985. My then boyfriend wanted a teddy bear to keep him company while I went out of town for Thanksgiving. I searched the entire mall for the 'perfect' teddy bear. Dad had picked me up from work one night and I commented that I needed to find the perfect bear. He asked what qualities the perfect bear had to have. It had to be soft and huggable. It had to have a face that just cried out 'squeeze me'. It had to have a belly, too. I'd know it when I found it, but I hadn't-yet. Then, a week later, in my own department at work, the perfect bear showed up. Crisis averted, I bought the bear. A year later, my sister was hit by a moped and broke her collarbones. She would be confined to bed for at least a month. I no longer lived at home, and once again, I was searching for the perfect bear. This time, it needed to be a bigger bear, so that Giggles could use the bear as a pillow. Once again, I found the right bear. As was typical, Dad not...

When I was a kid, my Dad gave me a great book. Well, actually, he gave me a lot of great books. The one I'm speaking of is Jane and Michael Stern's "Amazing America". In it, listed state by state, were some cool places to visit that were a little less well known. I've long since lost my copy, but on several of our trips, Dad, Giggles and I marked of pages of the book as we visited. The most memorable of these was a place in Cookeville, Tennessee, that was the ultimate in old swimming holes. There's another book from the couple that I have been meaning to pick up, "Road Food". For some trips, the meals are just as memorable as the things we did. One of those places lies along I-81 in Virginia. The ten foot, fiberglass man with a pot on his head probably indicated kitsch to those passing by. To us, it beckoned a visit. The warm apple fritters placed on the table when the waitress greeted us said we'd made the right choice. The drinks serv...

When I was a kid, the first day of school would start with telling about what you did on your summer vacation. It's funny, I can remember one classmate's trip to Walt Disney World in 2nd grade, with a detour to Georgia. A few years later, someone came back with a Hawaii '75 shirt. At the time, my summers were full of fun, riding bikes with friends, playing in the big woods off the Campgrounds and just generally having a good time. A trip somewhere would have been the icing on the cake of summer. The summer I was headed into fifth grade, Dad announced he was taking us younger four on vacation for a couple of days. The day was packed with fun, but the trip was supposed to be four days in upstate NY. Thanks to Ramada for screwing up the reservations, we arrived back home about 24 hours after departure. The following year, my dad opted for a different hotel chain and a different destination with three kids this time. Inspired by watching the movie "Rollercoaster...

On Mother's Day, I talked of the music that reminded me of Mom. Today, it's Dad's turn. My dad was the designated chauffeur for Giggles and I, driving us all over Long Island for our varied activities, mall shopping, to see movies at the best screen (in his opinion) and out for many enjoyable meals. Then you add vacations and weekend escapes and we were in that car a lot. This meant one thing: we were going to hear a LOT of music. Yes, we would check the news, but primarily, that radio was tuned to one of the dozens of music offerings that we had in listening distance of Manhattan. As a result, we were exposed to a large variety of genres: Jazz, Big Band, Show Tunes, Rock, Golden Oldies. Thankfully, it was rare that Dad wanted to listen to the elevator music stations. There are songs that remind me of trips taken: Walter Murphy's "A Fifth of Beethoven" and Chicago's "If You Leave Me Now" remind me of a trip to Connecticut and upstate NY tha...

I had a great topic in mind this morning, but it has escaped me by the time I got to the computer. That’s part of the reason why I want an iPhone, so I can blog on the fly. A Crackberry would also be better than the current system. It’s funny how used to technology we become. Take the cell phone, for instance. Six years ago, I didn’t even own one. It wasn’t a necessity to me. Then, on the way home from work (a 40 mile one way drive), I got a flat tire. On a two lane highway, three miles out of the little one horse town of Lucketts, Virginia. I was about a half mile from the local motel and thought, “Hey, no problem, I’ll ask at the front desk if I can use the phone.” Small problem: no front desk and just a pay phone. I called Ed collect and waited the hour plus for him to come and change it (having to pee something awful the whole time.) A week later, I had a Trac Phone, which was ‘just for emergencies’. Then, T Mobile came into our mall and gave a fantastic mall employee ...

Today is more of a soundtrack of someone else. My Dad. Today would have been his 80th birthday. If I had to say one person influenced my love of music, it would be Dad. Was he a musician? No. However, he loved listening to music and fostered Giggles and I in taking music instruction. We spent a lot of time in his car together, going to lessons, the mall, out to eat, on vacations. He'd get his news fixes, sure (I think that also fostered how Giggles and I became news junkies), but most of the time in the car, we had music. What was cool is that we girls would get to choose what we listened to as well. As different as our tastes might be, we somehow listened to it all. His big band, swing and golden oldies, my new wave, Giggle's top 40-it all got air time in the Dad mobile. I think he got a kick out of my love for Jazz. I made a tape for his car of Basia's Time and Tide after I'd moved to Maryland and Giggles griped that she was subjected to that tape over a...

Soundtrack Sunday started so that I could be the same, only different. Everyone does theme days: I had to start my own. It's the soundtrack of my life. If you want to do the same on your blog, be my guest, because it's fun to write about the music. Today, I talk about Broadway, baby. It is difficult to live an hour out of NYC and not be bitten by the Broadway bug. For me, the bug bit me hard when I was ten. I saw my first show for my 10th birthday, Doug Henning's "The Magic Show". That also was the year that Dr. Wheeler, our music teacher, took a well deserved sabbatical. His replacement, Ms. Maynard, was even more energetic than he had been, and that's saying something. Long story short, because it is a long story, I chose to be in chorus instead of art club. Ms. Maynard chose songs from "Fiddler on the Roof" as our songs for our Winter Concert. For weeks, we practiced "Sunrise, Sunset", "If I Were a Rich Man" "L...