The Jobs I Might Have Had!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                              No one can say, girls, that I wasn't ambitious.  Nor still am.  I have plans, both for myself, and Baby Gojira; but more on that, in another post.  Right now, I want to say that, being retired has given me the greatest chance to muse on jobs I might have had.  Who knows where I would have ended up, had I gone down any of these paths.  Which leads me to the other question--is the job we end up with actually the one we really want?????????????

                                 My first ambition was actually to go into fashion.  Whether my parents knew they already had a gay child, were forward thinking, or just naïve, I could not tell.  But they had two friends, Dotty and Don, and I got a lot of game hand-me-downs from their two daughters, Judy and Joy. And one of these was "The Debbie Reynolds Dress Designer Kit".  Now, this was Debbie during her "Tammy" phase, so she was lithe, and the dresses were gorgeous.  I cannot remember which was my favorite--if she had pink, I guarantee it was that!!!!!!!!--but I just loved dressing Debbie  over and over.  So much so I might have gone into the field.  Except, as I grew older, I discovered two things about myself--I had an eye for color and design, which would have served me well, but I could not draw good enough for what was needed.  Oh, well, fashion's loss!  Thank you, Debbie!

     
                          Color was the reason I ended up with "Miss Cookie's Kitchen," though it might have been Judy and Joy, again.  Anyway, this Colorforms toy, the first of many I would own, was all about domesticity.  I actually loved the kitchen set, where the cabinet doors and draws opened, and closed, and I could take Colorforms kitchen objects, and arrange them on the stove, table, wherever.  When I think now what I was doing to myself--training to become a Stepford Wife?  With my parents aiding and abetting?  How strange is that?  I gave up on Miss Cookie long before I admitted having no culinary skills.  That came when was I about twelve, and tried to make pancakes--a favorite of mine--at home.  I made the batter with no problem; I am proud to say there were no lumps in mine.  But I got into trouble, when I butter basted a cookie tin,  put batter on it to make pancakes, and turned up the burner on the stove.  Voila!  I almost caused a fire, the tin was flaming, and my maternal grandmother (Nana) who lived with us, and I had such fun with, came into the kitchen, screaming in hysterics, and somehow we managed to put the conflagration out.  I think from then on I was pretty much banned from the stove.

                           I might have turned into a tasty morsel, but I was surely no Miss Cookie!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                            Now, how did I get into crime?  Not committing, but the investigative aspects, thereof.  Throughout my childhood, quite a few toys and games I had were related to crime and mystery solving.  The earliest was one from Mattel Toys (a company I hear will be defunct soon; alas, the departure of another childhood legacy!!!!!!!!!) called Lie Detector.  In a way, this game pointed me the way to technology, because it had this mechanical device, similar to the debit machine in the supermarket, only much larger, where you inserted a suspect's card, and did something with the attached wand, related to some aspect of identification of a crime.  That is as much as I remember; hey, I was playing this more than fifty years ago!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                            But two of my favorite cards, again drawing me to fashion, were the Racketeer, and the Hat-Check Girl.  I liked the sound of the word, "Racketeer," and most of all, I liked the guy's suit.  I can remember proudly telling my parents, one night at the dinner table, that, when I grew up, I wanted to be a Racketeer!!!!!!!!!!!!  My parents, particularly my mother, adopted that look I soon came to know as "What are we going to do with him?"  So I kept quiet about my other ambition, to be a Hat-Check Girl, because I liked the hair style, dress, cigarette, and jewelry--and still do.  If I had to choose now, today, I think I would go with the Hat Check Girl, who looks somewhat Kim Novak-ish, and, as I learned, early on, it is all about glamour, darlings!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                           And look what being a Hat-Check Girl did for Madonna!  There was no telling what I might have accomplished.

                            But I am not giving up yet.  As I said, Baby Gojira, and I have plans!!!!!!!!!!

                             Maybe a road production of "Gypsy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"