It’s amazing how memories are imprinted on the circuits of your brain and anything can trigger them as if they were yesterday.

I lived in Queens but went to High School in lower Manhattan. So, I had to get up early every morning to get ready to catch the bus then the subway. My mother always had the radio set to WOR Rambling with Gambling (John Gambling). He had the same sponsors for years. One was Manishevitz Wine where the tag line was “Man oh Manishevitz what a wine”. I still say it today. The other was Chock full o’Nuts coffee “Chock full o’Nuts what a Heavenly coffee” sang by Paige Morton Black, the owner’s wife. My mother always bought the big tins and we saved them for miscellaneous items. You know, to save all the things you will probably never use again but think you will. I can’t see one of those and not have a fond memory to go with it.

I gained a lifetime of memories throughout High School and then College. Later as I got older there would be coffee shops that specialized in Chock full o’Nuts coffee before Starbuck overran everything. You could get a nice hot cup of eye opening coffee on you way to work but not without either a toasted buttered bagel or a toasted buttered corn muffin. You would see others carrying their daily morning staple on their way to work. Most of the women were wearing their Reeboks instead of their work shoes which they would then wear in the aerobics class at the local health club. The movie Working Girl harkens back to those days.

I worked for many years at one of those health clubs and now looking back on it I realized the dirt and germs they were bringing in with them into the club. Oh for the days when we weren’t afraid of every germ and allowed our bodies to fight them off.

Now THAT is a good memory!

Fond memories are what keep us warm and smiling in the dark days.

I hope you’re having some of them now as well.

Smile,

Richard