(Posted by Ron)

• That the Fresh Prince of BelAir would become such an accomplished actor!
• That only the Chinese and Indian restaurants would be open on Christmas Eve!
• That Walgreens would not stock refried beans!
• That bean dip would be a fine substitute!
• That tamales, bean dip, flour tortillas and Herradura Tequila make a fine Christmas Eve dinner!
• That none of those things matters if you truly believe in the spirit of Christmas – family and all of those you love.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to you all!

First you start with sex.

(Posted by Ron & Gayle)

Lest you get the wrong idea, we’re talking about the conceptual kind of sex as in our parents procreated and made us kind of sex.   What’s interesting (another visit from Sarah N. Dipity) in our case is that both sets of our parents were procreating at roughly that same time.  Our mother’s gave birth to baby boys on the 10th of December in 1942.  Sadly, Gayle’s parents lost their child three days later.  This strange coincidence is part of our story and seems to have woven us together long before we ever laid eyes on each other.  Such is often the story with May December loves.  The inexplicable hand of fate can be found moving mountains behind the scene to bring the lovers together.

In the weeks to come, we’ll be sharing our “back stories” with you.   Subscribe to our RSS feed and newsletter now you will come to learn what mountains lady fate had to move to bring us together.

I’m still not sure, but it is a looooooong way from the Windy City.

(Posted by Gayle)

Recipe for Making a Little Princess (who will grow up to be “a May”.)

1. Two 40 year old parents.
2. No living brothers and sisters.
3. Add a pinch of unresolved grief due to a son who died 15 years earlier at 3 days of age.
4. Make sure dad’s business is booming when she is born.  You need lots of money to make a Little Princess.
5. Live in a high rise brownstone apartment a few miles away from downtown Chicago.
6. Send her to the University of Chicago Laboratory School (I was among the “handful” of elementary students mentioned in this article).
7. Don’t encourage playmates of her same age.
8. Do encourage her to be adult-like, a great little hostess, and exceptionally polite (make sure she raises her hand and is called on before speaking if adults are having adult conversations in her presence.)
9. Dress her in “ruffle butts” .
10. Make sure she has a designer wardrobe (way before designer wardrobes are cool) from Marshall Fields with matching Keds for each outfit.  (She can only wear tennis shoes to her la-te-da private school. This will ensure that she will never really fit in with kids her own age.)
11. Inspire her to be like her contemporary – Caroline Kennedy (do not encourage her to be a democrat or catholic though!)
12. Take her to adult functions.  Do not leave her with babysitters.
13. Vacation with her in Jamaica at the Playboy Club for her Christmas break in first grade (who needs Mickey and Minnie when you’ve got Hugh and the bunnies?!)
14. Give her everything you wanted and never had.
15. Make sure she isn’t spoiled.
16. If number 15 seems impossible in-light of number 14, heavy helpings of guilt can be used for counterbalance.

Read Part 1 of Ron’s Story

Read Part 2 of Ron’s Story

Read Part 2 of My Story

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The great (Luster) depression.

(Posted by Gayle)

Striving for more compulsively can cause you to end up with less. My father was never satisfied.  He did everything big (except save money).  By the time I was in 5th grade his thirst for more was leading to some pretty bad business decisions.  He made a mess of his business (against my mother’s pleas) and was in some very hot water financially.  We moved from our luxurious brownstone apartment into a small two flat on the far south side of Chicago.  I began attending a public school in 6th grade.  We spent 3 years in this neighborhood.

The things I remember about this period of my life are:

• Buying my clothes for school at K-Mart.
• Hoping that if I wore the same dress to school two days in a row the kids might begin to like me.  I had problems at the private school because it was obvious my family was wealthy.  Now that we were “poor”,  I was hopeful that I would fare better with the kids in my class.  I actually wanted them to know were poor.  I had enough clothes to wear a different outfit each day, but being resourceful I hoped repeating ensembles would work in my favor.
• My father laying in bed depressed because of the financial situation.  I never saw him being violent again, but he was filled with self-hatred.  I’ve heard it said that depression is anger turned inward. Read the rest of this entry »

Shiny things get tarnished, but there are ways to restore a Luster.

(Posted by Gayle)

We do what it takes to survive. As mentioned, my mom and I shopped a lot.  Chicago is famous for it’s magnificent mile.  I’ve been to only one other place in the world that compares – Le Champs Elysses.  No wonder I’ve fallen in love with Paris – it reminds me of home.  My mother, Aunt Doris and I covered every inch of that mile over and over again.  On this particular day, we had ventured to another unique area in Chicago – Old Town.

I do not still love shopping.   It was on this day the worm turned.  Read the rest of this entry »