PANDEMIC DIARY

“THAT CANNOT BE TAKEN AWAY”

October 28, 2020

“That Cannot Be Taken Away”

Because I remember the feel of cold steel climbing the jungle gym;
Because I remember being told “not to get dirty” in my new shorts;
Because I remember the taste combination of mom’s pot roast and Kasha;
Because I remember running for G.O. President in Junior High School;
Because I remember kissing Isabel while Johnny Mathis sang “Misty”;
Because I remember road trips to Kensico Reservoir for foot-long fried frankfurters;
Because I remember Dina breaking my heart;
Because I remember Friday nights spent with my brother, Chuck, and Barry Manilow;
Because I remember my lips and nostrils burning at Harbin Inn, New York’s first Hunan restaurant;
Because I remember seeing Nina Simone at the Fillmore East in Greenwich Village;
Because I remember eating with the great chef Alfredo Viazzi at his trattoria;
Because I remember my father and I going to the movies, just he and I, for my 14th birthday;
Because I remember jumping from a bus, chasing a thief who stole a pocketbook from an elderly lady;
Because I remember where I was when Kennedy was shot;
Because I remember where I was transfixed watching the unfolding of 9/11;
Because I remember having my hair clipped by Paul Mitchell;
Because I remember the sense of isolation waking on a Merchant Marine ship in the middle of the Atlantic;
Because I remember being reunited with my childhood friends, Bruce and Bob, after nearly a half century;
Because I remember holding Alexander for the first time;
Because I remember my blue Toyota Celica, the first car I purchased with my own money;
Because I remember the pain I felt watching Dustin Hoffman portray Ratso Rizzo in “Midnight Cowboy”;
Because I remember the great Zoe Caldwell in “The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie”;
Because I remember multiple anterior dislocations of my right shoulder;
Because I remember picking up and moving to Chapel Hill without a job;
Because I remember meeting Paul Bocuse, the ‘chef of the century’ who innovated ‘Nouvelle Cuisine"‘;
Because I remember behaving inappropriately and getting fired from my first professional job;
Because I remember how she responded to my question, “Are you Hungarian”…”No. I’m from BROOKLYN”;
Because I remember receiving the phone call advising me that our company had been sold for millions;
Because I remember meeting my ‘brother’ in Israel and becoming part of a family;
Because I remember how a college friend of mine and I purposefully set up camp in the path of a tornado;
Because I remember each day to express gratitude for having Adele in my life;
Because I cannot and absolutely will not regret what I have lived no matter what happens this election day.
I will not regret creating my own deliciously imperfect life.
That cannot be taken away.