How Could I Have Forgotten, Darlings?????????????????????

                                      Two days ago, the Longest Day Of The Year, was also the 53rd Anniversary of Judy Garland's death.  I have to post this, especially after going to that screening of "The Wizard Of Oz," honoring her 100th birthday, which would have been this year.

                                         This story bears repeating. It did a number on many, including the Gay Rights Movement.   I had just graduated eighth grade--a form of HELL--and when I came downstairs, Sunday morning, my parents, fixing breakfast, both told me Judy Garland was dead.  I was devastated.  I also, at 14, thought how old she was, at 47!!!!!!!!!!!!  Hah!, as I write this now.  I went into the living room, turned on the TV, and there was all the coverage.  I could not move.  To distract me, my parents got reserved seat tickets at the Claridge Theater in Montclair, NJ, to the 2PM screening of "Ben-Hur," where I cried my eyes out.  Then we went back to Cedar Grove, to Aunt Martha and Uncle Jack's, for dinner, before which I had a quick swim in their pool.  It was distracting, but it also created a special memory I always associate with Garland's death.

                                             What I could not anticipate was less than ten years from then, I would lose my mother. But that is another story.

                                                                                     

                                                                                

                                   Here is the penultimate Judy Garland--"Over The Rainbow," "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas,' "Get Happy," and "The Man That Got Away."  Who can we count among such talent today???????????????