"St. Bridget, Deliver Us To Beekman Place!!!!!!!!!"

                                        Well, darlings, today we welcome in December--can you believe it??????
But why a depiction of the Cast Album cover of "Mame???????"  I know some of my girls out there, and most Theater Queens extant, know the answer to this one!!!!!!!!!!!

                                           Aside from having one of the most noted secular Christmas songs--"We Need A Little Christmas!"--according to the liner notes on the back (or folded inside, if you have a CD), under the heading of "St. Bridget", it says--and I write this from memory--

                                             "December 1, 1928. Into the brilliantly blinking Manhattan
                                              night wander two lost lambs from Des Moines, Iowa--
                                              newly orphaned Patrick Dennis (Frankie Michaels), age
                                              10, and Agnes Gooch (Jane Connell), faithful Nanny
                                              delivering her charge to his only living relative, a certain
                                              Mame Dennis of No. 3 Beekman Place."

                                        Yes, dears, the story we all know as the musical "Mame" kicks off on this date!!!!!   And in past years--just like "Frank Mills" at the Waverly on September 12-- after work, or
in the evening, I would walk to St. Patrick's Cathedral, stand in front of it, and sing "St. Bridget!"
And I won't be too far from it today, lambs, as we are going to see the Christmas tree at the Metropolitan Museum Of Art.  So, who knows what might happen?????????

                                           Today is also an anniversary, and a day of circularity, pointing, once again, to how my life seems to run in a series of circles.  Just like "The Windmills Of My Mind," darlings!!!!!!!!!!!

                                             On this day, 29 years ago, my father and cousins piled all my worldly  possessions into a U-Haul truck, and drove me to Bay Ridge, Brooklyn,, where I moved into my small, but cozy, apartment, at Bergen Place!   That's Bergen, not Beekman!  You want to hear something poignant???? That eve, after everyone had left, I was alone,and watching, on TV, the holiday classic, "Rudolph, The Red-Nosed Reindeer!"  Tears began cascading down my cheeks, not over the program , but over the fact, that, much as I had wanted to be on my own, I was now alone!  What I did not know, till much later, was my father (not watching 'Rudolph!!!!!!!') was having the same reaction, back in Highland Park!!!!!!!   Far from Beekman, but nice.  Based on the trajectory of what had gone before, and coming from a family who did not just plant roots, but embedded them, I thought, "Well, here I be for the next 50 years!!!!!!!!"  I also thought--I really did think this, girls--that, at the age of 29, if I am here for 29 years, by that time, I would be 58!!!!!!!!!  And, of course, that was a long, LONG time from now!

                                              Well, guess what?  Today is 29 years, and I am 58!!!!!!   How fast did that go, darlings??????????  Faster than I ever thought!!!!!!!!!!  And today, while I am not at Bergen Place, I am, happily, back in Bay Ridge, so who could have imagined that??????  Especially when there was a time, not too long ago, when  I felt I would never get back here, much as I wanted to!

                                               "Circles of hope, turning and yearning," darlings!!!!!!!  And here we are with 24 days till Christmas, just thirty days to go in 2012, with a constellation of Holiday Happenings ahead!  I wish the same for you, girls, and lots of Holiday Happiness!

                                                   Welcome, December!  And don't run over Grandma with a reindeer!!!!!!!!!!