Nana

1. Beating Rutheta Buckingham at the Menlo Country Club family swim race, with Greg Buckingham (a world record swimmer in later years) almost in tears.

2. Telling me about the time you sneaked over the fence and took a ride on Man O' War when you were a kid in Kentucky (you were chased out of the field).

3. That wonderful picture of you and John in front of the Colliseum, in Rome, when you went on a vacation, just the two of you (was it your honeymoon?)

4. Calling us to you, weeping, after you received a call from your husband Don in Mexico, telling you he had run away with his secretary and wanted a divorce.

5. Sewing labels in my shirts so they wouldn't be lost when I went to Andover.

6. Paying me 25 cents to tickle the back of your legs with a feather at the Menlo club pool.

7. Taking me with you and John and Herb and Nancy Packer to the ballet where we saw Margot Fonteyn.

8. Telling me on numerous occasions that I should "save myself" for the woman I marry.

9. Working at the Laundromat in South Palo Alto, with Jeep helping, and taking a temporary job wrapping gifts at a Menlo Park sports shop, to help make ends meet.

10. With string and a knife, cutting off the tails of Toni's puppies.

11. Taking me skiing my first time in Yosemite, where there was a rope tow at Badger Pass, and we stayed in a cabin in the valley.  I petted a doe one night and it's mother butted me off my feet.

12. Spending a most wonderful Summer in Glyfadha, eating at the little restaurant that served cheese appetizers, and swimming at Vouliagmeni beach with Gina and Giovanni.

13. Giving me enough money on my 20th birthday so that Bruce and I could have lunch at Les Pyramides, and see the show at The Crazyhorse Saloon.

14. Winning a free stay at Highlands Inn, where we boys enjoyed ourselves so much we were never invited back.

15. Driving back across the U.S. after I graduated from Andover, staying in cheap motels next to the train tracks, and when I found a worm in a salad, you told me to just ignore it.

16. Showing me just-born Bruce in his crib.  Len and I asked if it was a boy.  When you said "Yes", we answered "Whew.  Thank goodness.  A girl would have ruined our family."

17. Taking me to San Francisco to get a suit at Brooks Brothers, and a treat at Blums - this happened several years in a row.

18. Asking our opinion of John - we recommended that you to marry Mack the Air Force Pilot.

19. Coaching me in math at Edgewood Lane so that I would pass the math exam Andover required (I passed).

20. Urging Len and me to get Summer jobs such as: collecting bottles, collecting coat hangers, baby sitting (Bea Holtzer!), and mowing lawns. 

21. Telling me many times that I should have become a ballet dancer.

22. Pointing out to me how beautiful all black people are.

23. The house on Gerona Road, and the time I backed up the car into the basketball pole.

24. Saying no to a new house, over and over. 

25. Horse trophies.

26. Movie picture of mom as a young woman, jet black hair, flashing eyes, incredibly beautiful.

27. Telling us she spent her youth dancing and playing bridge.

28. Going to Esalen and hearing the leader say "What terrible burden are you carrying..."

29. Encountering naked people at Napali Cliffs on Kauai.

30. Being the oldest member at the Stanford Golf Club.

31. Sparky.

32. Riding Man o' war.

33. Picking tar weed in Woodside.

34. Answering "What's for dessert?" with "George Washington Pudding".

35. Toni riding the Big Dipper roller coaster at Santa Cruz.

36. Getting a free stay at Highlands Inn because you were on your honeymoon.

37. skiing in Badger Pass in Yosemite. 

38. Doing dishes for parties.

39. Riding with you around Paris in your new Volvo P1800 sports car.

40. dinner with you at Les Grenouilles in Paris, where, after the head waiter goosed you, you exclaimed "Thank Goodness I was wearing a girdle!"

41. Listening to a wonderful fado singer in Lisbon.

42. "John weighed... when I married him".

43. Fat people in general.

44. The candy and cigarettes vending route.

45. Stuffing two pennies into every cigarette package.

46. Urging me over and over to take golf lessons.

47. Telling your favorite joke: "Oh Shi To bad Joe."

48. Telling your second favorite joke: "Does anyone in the audience have a clam opener?"

49. About dad: "He never apologized..."

50. blackstrap molasses and brewers yeast.

51. Not marrying Olly Keller (our favorite) because he would pay more attention to us boys than to you.

52. Being afraid to tell Iva May that you had decided to marry John.

53. Black and white clothes.

54. The art business.

55. Walking through the kitchen of a French restaurant with Monica and me, and getting whistled at.

56. Teaching us that if we continued to fart, one day we would lose control and never be able to stop them.  

57. "Leonard gave me this No Domestic Violence bumper sticker.  It's a big help in finding the car."

58. "Drink O.J. before the vitamins jump out."

59. Poop bags when walking the dog.

60. Patting my stomach each time I see you, and saying: "Better watch it!"

61. "I'll be 90 in a year and a half."

62. "John has a girlfriend at the gym."

63. "I don't feel a day over 50."

64. New house: too much trouble to move.

65. "I plan on living to a hundred."

66. How Pop and Gay-Gay supported you after the divorce.

67. All blacks are beautiful.

68. Crying as I get in the car with the Murphy's.

69. Finding the dead body near the Palo Alto Creek.

70. Eating crab with Jeep.

71. "Eat a mouthful of your veggies."

72. Selling all your beautiful silver trophies one day.

73. "What did one of the fat woman's thigh say to the other one?" "You go first, I'll go next."

74. "There is no life, truth, intelligence or substance in matter.  All is infinite mind and its infinite manifestation."

75. "Jack Fowle thought I was a good driver.  Certainly better than your father."

76. Favorite lunch place: Niemann Marcus: popover and cup of soup. 

77. "How old are you?" "65."  "How old are you?" "65."  "You mean I have a son who is 63 years old?"

78. Look at the little baby." "All I can think of is changing diapers."

79. "My stepfather taught me to drive.  He said 'You may know what you are going to do, but you need to let your passengers know, too.'"

80. "I once drove from NYC to Lexington and San Francisco with a boston terrier (Mickey) and  a baby.  It wasn't too bad because I was nursing."

81. Poker game with the Arrows, the Donegans, and Nancy Packer.

82. After falling down and hurting myself: "It doesn't hurt.  It doesn't hurt."

83. The sensation you created dancing the hula at the Lexington Country Club.

84. "You eat too fast."

85. "Lightning almost struck me when I was 12."

86. "Big Man's Foursome"

87. Blaming the carpet stains caused by Louise on rats.

88. Saving the young boy from drowning when you were a young girl.

89. Raising so many tomatoes in the garden at Pine Hill Road that I was able to spell "Hi Mom" with them when you returned from a short vacation.

90. "It's good for babies to cry - it strengthens their lungs."

91. Winning the women's golf championship at the Menlo Country Club.

92. Being the best mom in the whole world.

93. All your silver trophies you sold one day.

94. What a terrible burden...

95. Oshi obajo

96. Big Man's Foursome

97. Are you sure it's a boy?

98. Mom gathering us around when Dad left us.

99. Getting mad when I broke my front teeth.

100. "Mommy, you shouldn't have done that" when I fell out of the car.

101. Lombard street peeing contest.

102. "You look like a nice sailor.  Would you like to come over and sleep with mommy and me sometime?"

103. Didn't marry OJ because he loved the kids more than mom.

104. Walking through S.F. restaurant with whistles.

105. Pulling tarweed in our horse paddock in Woodside.

106. Vending machines business: putting 2 cenrts in each cigarette package.

107. Constantine w/Gina, outdoor movies

108. Nancy a legend here (said of her to Len when he visited Louisville).

Further memories

"Good thing I'm a leg man" (quote by John referring to Nana after her mastectomy)

Brewer's yeast and blackstrap molasses: What Nana was feed us during her health food kick when we were kids.

Iva May thought we were bad boys until she started to spending time with her own family's children.

Nana said her stepfather always favored her stepbrother Shelby.

When she and her mother Jeep moved to Kentucky to live with her stepfather, he gave her a pony Sparky.

Nana tried to get me to play golf - but I never liked it.

Whenever we asked what was for desert, Nana would answer "George Washington Pudding".