Tag: birthday

Friend Bill is 60

Carol, Lois, Karen and I all descended on Bill’s house.

Bill was one of my friends I’ve known since kindergarten at Daniel Dickinson. When we all walked home en masse, we stopped at his house first, since he was less than two blocks away. Actually, we stopped at the candy store across the street from his house, where I usually bought red shoestring licorice.

High school was full of cliques, but Bill was one of those people who got along with the jocks and the politically active freaks. Yet he was always able to be his own guy; I admired how he negotiated that. He was, unsurprisingly, senior class president.

A bunch of the Dickinson kids attended our 10th-year high school reunion, and it was actually quite a bust; i.e., boring as all get out. But some of the Dickinson kids decided to get together ourselves. Some months later Carol, Lois, Karen and I all descended on Bill’s house. We went shopping for food, stayed up all night talking and eating. It was one of the best experiences I’ve ever had.

A short time later, I went to his wedding. Don’t remember the service, but I do recall the reception was in a chalet near here.

When we had our 32nd-year reunion(!), it was a better-organized event, or maybe I viewed it differently. Still, it was seeing Bill and the other Dickinson kids that made the trip worthwhile.

Bill and I don’t live that far away, yet fail to see each other that often. I took a train to New York City one time and ran into Bill. I’ve met him unexpectedly other times as well.

Happy birthday to friend Bill.

Presents for Mom

She was a tactful woman, but it was quite evident that she did not particularly enjoy my selection.

When my sisters and I were growing up, buying presents for my mother was not exactly easy. But for either her birthday or Christmas and occasionally both, she would receive some product from Jean Naté. It was “her” product line. I didn’t even know it was still being made until I looked it up; it’s now owned by Revlon.

When she, my father, and baby sister moved down to Charlotte, she started collecting decorative bells. There are LOTS of bells out there, so this made purchasing easy.

Still, I wanted to go off-script, and in 1981, I decided to buy her an LP, Joe Jackson’s Jumpin’ Jive, based on my understanding that she liked some of the original Louis Jordan and Cab Calloway songs. She was a tactful woman, but it was quite evident that she did not particularly enjoy my selection. I went back to the bells.

Then around 2000, she decided the bells were just dust collectors and got rid of all but a handful of them, indicating that she didn’t want any more. Suddenly, I didn’t have a gift for which to be on the lookout. I would ask my mother outright, and she’d always say something useless, such as “You don’t need to get me anything.” Yeah, Mom, but I WANT to. Ultimately, I’d just ask my baby sister, who lived with her.

For either her birthday or Christmas 2010, I found this just perfect sweater – warm, the right color purple. Plus I got her those word puzzles that she liked to do to keep her mind sharp.

Today would have been Mom’s 85th birthday. I wish I still had to struggle with what to buy her.

Petula Clark is 80

Petula Clark recorded the song This Is My Song, written by Charles Chaplin, not only in English but in French, German, and Italian.

Dustbury kindly reminded me about a month ago that Petula Clark, who most Americans know from her 1964 song Downtown [listen], and her subsequent hits, was actually about a decade older than the Beatles and the others from the British invasion.

She had hits on the British charts going back to 1954. Her 1961 song Sailor not only went to #1 in the UK, it went to #2 in South Africa, and #12 in Belgium. Another hit from that same year was Romeo [listen], which was a hit in Australia and Norway, to name a couple places.

Love this Wikipedia post about her song, This Is My Song [listen], written by Charles Chaplin. (Yes, THAT Chaplin.) “Clark recorded the song not only in English but in French [listen]…, German…, and Italian… In fact, Clark did not wish to record the song in English as she disliked the deliberately old-fashioned lyrics which Chaplin refused to modify; however, after the translated versions of the song had been recorded there happened to be some time remaining on the session…

“Clark had assumed her recording… would only be used as an album track; on learning of Pye Records plan to release the track as a single she attempted to block its release. Instead, she found herself atop the UK charts for the first time in six years…” She didn’t dislike the song, merely thought it wasn’t commercially viable.

Dustbury also promised some links to her tunes. I integrated some above. Also:
The Cat in the Window
You’re the One
UPDATE: Dustbury’s day of post.

Petula Clark turns 80 today.

Isaac Hayes would have been 70

Isaac Hayes was undoubtedly best known for composing and performing music for the soundtrack of the film Shaft


Isaac Hayes was one of those behind-the-scenes guys at the Memphis-based Stax Records in the 1960s. He co-wrote songs with David Porter for Sam (Moore) and Dave (Prater), Carla Thomas, and others. He was a producer and session musician.

Some of their songs for Sam & Dave (LISTEN!):
You Don’t Know Like I Know
Soul Man
When Something Is Wrong with My Baby
Hold On I’m Comin

Hayes himself became a recording star, with his second album, almost out of commercial necessity.  The label was reeling from the death of its big star, Otis Redding, in a plane crash in December 1967. Stax had leased some of its songs to Atlantic Records, for wider distribution, but somehow lost all of its back catalog to Atlantic in early 1968. Some labels might have decided to pick a small number of albums to release and promote; instead, Stax wanted a couple of dozen albums, in a throw-them-against-the-wall-and-see-what-sticks methodology.

From the Wikipedia:
[Hot Buttered Soul] is noted for Hayes’ image (shaved head, gold jewelry, sunglasses, etc.) and his distinct sound (extended orchestral songs relying heavily on organs, horns, and guitars, deep bass vocals, etc.)… Hayes re-interprets Walk On By (listen)… into a twelve-minute exploration. By the Time I Get to Phoenix (listen) starts with an eight-minute long monologue before breaking into song, and the lone original number, the funky Hyperbolicsyllabicsesquedalymistic (listen) runs nearly ten minutes…

But he was undoubtedly best known for composing and performing music for the soundtrack of the film Shaft. “The title theme (listen), with its wah-wah guitar and multi-layered symphonic arrangement, would become a worldwide hit single, and spent two weeks at number one in the Billboard Hot 100 in November” 1971.

Here’s my Stax post from five years ago.

Unfortunately, the singer “was found unconscious and unresponsive in his home located just east of Memphis on August 10, 2008, ten days before his 66th birthday,” and died of an apparent recurrence of a stroke.

I remember Ike.

The recovery, at least in my tribe

Happy birthday, middle child.

My sister Leslie was employed at a company when her workload virtually doubled, responsible for the safety at 51 drug stores, rather than 26. This is, unfortunately, a rather common scenario in corporate America; one is given so much work that the only way one could possibly fulfill the obligations is to work 60 or 70 hours a week and get paid for only 40. Ultimately, her company was purchased by another company, and she lost her job a couple of years ago.

She survived primarily on short-term, part-time work, and the fact that she had one rental property, which at least allowed her to not end up on the street.

Earlier this year, she got a new job. I’d describe it more fully, except that it’s not entirely clear to me. I DO know that involves her being a safety coordinator. In one scenario, she had to get someone to get rid of bees that attached themselves to a newsstand. She didn’t have to deal with the insects herself, but she did get some city workers to remove the bees, then to ascertain who should get the bill, in this case, the newsstand owner.

Possibly not coincidentally, my father was the vice-president in charge of safety for the construction company for which he worked for a couple of decades. (Hmm – I’m the fire marshal for my office, and took training to use a defibrillator a couple of years back.)

I took her new employment as a sign that the economy recovery, however slow, is coming along.

Happy birthday, middle child.

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