Fifty Years Ago, Today, Darlings!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                  Now you have to remember, girls, that half a century ago, I was 14, had just graduated from eighth grade, Judy Garland had died the month before, my future was pointed toward high school, and I was firmly entrenched in the world of Jacqueline Susann.

                                   Georges Melies  made the sci-fi classic, "A Trip To The Moon," but the real thing did not happen until 67 years later.  To this day, darlings, I am firmly convinced that the landing looked just like this.

                                     And I remember being disappointed that the walk on the moon was not a Technicolor lit spectacle like MGM gave in 1968's "2001:  A Space Odyssey."

                                       To me, then, it looked like the early days of television.  Or even film of the Melies era, though the costumes were, obviously state of art, for the day.

                                        I also recall that during this time my playmate up the street, Billy Ducca, and I, were having a marathon Monopoly game in his back yard.  The board was on the picnic table, and the weather was sweltering--but we all could tolerate Summers better, then--and so the game was left out all night for us to continue or continue.  I cannot recall when exactly it ended but I do know I did not win.  Monopoly, much as I loved to play it, I did not excel at, because I was too focused.  I always set my sights on Boardwalk and Park Place, no matter the cost, just like, in CAREERS, another Parker Bros. Game, I always set my sights on Hollywood, because I wanted to win that Oscar!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                        And now, here I am, fifty years later.  Though, at the time, I could not conceive of such a thing.

                                         So, these are my reflections, on that day!

                                         And what more apt thing to listen to than "Also Sprach Zarathusta," from
"2001, A Space Odyssey."

                                           Here's to another fifty years  of Happy Landings, dolls!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!