Connie's Corner

A fleeting memory...

When I was sixteen and during my summer vacation, my Aunt Dorothy (my very favorite) took me on a trip to Suffern, New York. I started thinking about this yesterday when I spied an abacus somewhere on my net rambles. We took a side trip to New York City, visited Chinatown, ate at the Rathskeller (my first Chinese food), and an abacus was one of my take-home souvenirs.

Aunt Dorothy went to Suffern to visit a girlfriend, an artist. Suffern is a small town just over the New Jersey border. I am not sure what I expected, but I was awed by everything. Her artist friend lived in a barn that had been converted to a rental. The surrounding land must have had some historical significance because it was littered with old cannon and other Revolutionary artifacts. There was even a mountain pool, icy cold, but I swam in it anyway. Just beautiful country.

Anne, the friend, of course was hippie-looking, long hair and long dresses. She served me my first English muffin (I know that sounds strange now, but this was in 1960 and I was from a teeny town in Delaware). We ate outside on a glass table that had a flower arrangement underneath (blue, artificial ones) that you could admire as you ate.

Anne painted portraits and other things in oils, and at the time, I thought she was as good (maybe better) than Van Gogh. What did I know...absolutely nothing. For living expenses, she worked as a shop window designer in Nyack, which we visited also. She treated us to a play in the City called "See How They Run". I did not understand one little bit of it.

One other very interesting thing to me as a naive sixteen year-old. Anne had a live-in boyfriend about fifteen years her junior. Of course we had several flirting encounters, almost leading to something but not quite. I think he was just entertaining the hick . His name is right on the tip of my tongue but will remain a mystery for now. Obviously, a very memorable trip. All this from the glimpse of an abacus....

until next time....c