Darlings, Can You Believe It Has Been 35 Years??????????

                                Girls, remember "The Sandy Becker Show?"  Don't lie to me; I know that some of you out there do.  One of his most memorable characters, and one of my faves, was "the Big Professor."  He was a white haired, moustached pedagogue, dressed in cap and gown--true Robert Donat/Mr. Chips tradition, but with a decidedly comic twist.  He marched on to the strains of what I learned later was "Pomp and Circumstance."  The melody I got right away, even at the tender age of six, and being in First Grade.  Being also monstrously precocious, I instilled the melody with the repetitive lyric "Knowledge and College," because at my tender age I felt going to college meant one had knowledge, and that  one had knowledge if they had gone to college.  Honey, did I have a lot to learn!!!!!!!!!!!!

                               But, back in those long ago days, there was no question that I would be college bound; indeed, I could not wait, even as early as first grade, to get to college, where I believed I would become a Font Of Knowledge.  Not unlike the Scarecrow in "The Wizard Of Oz" once given his brain!

                                The difference between contemplation and actuality was vast.  Nevertheless, I did make it to college, which turned out to be a mixture both of what I did and did not expect.  One thing I did, which is a mistake I am sure many made, and I wonder if young people do, was to script out my life, like a filmmaker or screenwriter, noting that A, B, and C, would happen, never considering for a second things might not turn out exactly the way I had "written" them.

                                 "Picture this," as Sophia Petrillo (Estelle Getty on "The Golden Girls") says. IF thing had turned out the way I had written, it would be MY byline in the Times, rather than Ben Brantley or A.O. Scott.  I would be living in a huge house in Bergen County, New Jersey--affluent suburbia--where I would have married, had eight children, all of whom would have gone to exclusive private schools and Ivy League colleges.

                                    No one can say I did not have goals, darlings!  But that these goals were just a tad unrealistic, not to mention might have done me in, took years to realize.  For one thing, I might not be writing this blog, which I am so glad to be able to do.  For another, I  never would have met my beloved Monsieur, an experience that is more cherishing as each day passes.   And how about that hypothetical wife, who by now would either have left me, or would be unable to walk??????  And those children, who most likely would have rebelled at the bit I was forcing into their mouths, and would have gone on to defy my expectations for them, the way all children of parents have been doing for Time Immemorial?????

                                    So, perhaps it is for the best my "script" did not pan out. But, to think it has been thirty five years, since I graduated from Seton Hall University.  At that time, I could not possibly imagine the place I would be right now, or what I would be doing.  And, looking back, the journey I have traveled has been pretty amazing, and I would not have missed it for the world.

                                     School reunions are like colonoscopies; they generally take place every five years.  Which would make Reunion #7 at Seton Hall, but, though I get the alumni magazine, I have never heard of any class reunions, or been invited to one, though I am very curious about how many of the people whom I knew in college--both in my class, ahead and behind--turned out.  I have had glances via Google, but am not sure if I will ever know conclusively, for sure.

                                        My two best memories of that day are the fact that I made it, and my mother!
She was to pass away barely less than two years later.  Somehow, I knew her time was limited--I had a sixth sense about it.  I often prayed to God that he allow her to see my college graduation.  He did, and she did.  Which was why it was one of the happiest days in her life, considering I began kindergarten on a note that  I would never achieve anything.  And here I was, graduating with honors.

                                         So, this day shall always remain a special day in my life.  Many of us at the time saw it as "the End."  But it really was not.  It was "the Beginning."

                                           Cum Laude, darlings!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!