Written 7/30, but it wouldn't let me post....
I just spent about 10 minutes trying to figure out how to get HERE to write. Of course, I have been doing that ever since I started this stupid blog, but one would think I could remember a silly little thing like that... well, maybe if I wrote something more often, I would. No... from the time I was a kid, I can remember Jessie, the wonder woman of remembering 'important' things like the names and addresses of the about 200 people in her Christmas card list, looking me straight in the face and saying, "Georgie Lou, Betty Rae... what IS your NAME?" I suppose she did the same thing with them... god, I hope so... or was I the odd man out in that crew? Now I'm doing the same thing with my IHS workers... I look at Martha and say... "Ana... no... (?? with the face) and she says politely, just as I said, "Peggy" to my mother, "Martha, Mrs. Cartwright." Yet I do the same thing with Ana... calling her Martha.
Oh the foibles of getting old. I think you forget the things you were bad at anyway. I was never any good at remembering names, ever! Well, we moved so often you had a whole new bunch of names to remember all the time, making the old ones easy to forget. I am ashamed of myself... last night I was writing to a bunch of people from the Women's Exchange and telling one named Jane something about another named Joan... so wrote Dear Joan to her and had to write another note of apology... but jeeze... Jane and Joan and writing about another Joan... the mind boggles. I'm going to be in the Chicago area for the month of September, and now I am trying to reconnect with some of the people I know there.
Lordy I AM OLD... I think by now I must be the oldest one in my family. There are almost no Cartwrights (of my particular line... England was full of cartmakers with our name) left but me... none with the name. I tried to get Mark to change his name to match mine (no one cam spell his fathers, let alone pronounce it correctly) but he kept that dreadful name. He is so much like Daddy that I do wish he had the correct last name, but he is/was as stubborn as Daddy (and me... a real Cartwright). I miss family... the Cartwrights used to have big family reunions and get-togethers up in Port Austin, in Saginaw and all over Michigan... I do still miss those, as I miss sitting with Grandma Cartwright in the big old house, or out on the round-the-house veranda. That's the first place I started for when we went up to the cottage in Port Austin...off to Grandma Cartwright's house as fast as my little legs could run. Mark's middle name 'James' is for Grandpa Cartwright, not for his father. Had I had my way, he would have been called Walter James, but Whitney always says that I should be happy Jim's uncle was called Mark, as it is a lucky name. Well, Mark is a lucky man, he has a beautiful, very bright wife and four gorgeous children, so he must be.
One of the worst things about getting old is being forgotten... and tomorrow is the anniversary of one of my 'triumphs'... the start of my beloved Oak Park Women's Exchange and I am apparently being left out of it completely. I took a look at their fairly new website, where I am not mentioned at all, even in the history. It sort of implies that it was just begun through other women's exchanges. I named it that to honor those institutions... but didn't really have anything to do with them. So, perhaps one of my old friends to whom I wrote last night will think to mention how we began... I built it all in my 'spare time' while working as a copywriter all day... often wonder when I found the time, as that job was a killer. I guess when you are doing too much, you get so you can take on more work without thinking about it. It was fun, and Lori McCarthy was sure a help. There were a lot of hard working women in that Village and we managed to do a lot to make Oak Park a better, more interesting place. Bobbie Raymond was one of the best of the crowd. She and I both divorced our husbands while we were working on big projects... she on being the Housing Director for the Village, and I on the Exchange. I remember going to her house for a 'raspberry party" (she had planted raspberry bushes all the way around her yard, and presented each of us with a little 'hospital pills' type cup full of them as we arrived). When I got there she grabbed me and said, "Peggy, I REALLY admire you!!" I was taken aback... of course I felt the same way about her, but she was so enthusiastic. "Why on earth..." I said. She quickly replied, "You had the damned nerve to take back your maiden name... and EVERYBODY knows it and calls you by that now. I was afraid to do that, figuring no one would know who I was or what my new name was. You've sure got a helluva lot more GUTS than I do!" Well, I didn't, and told her so, but it made me feel good... I had managed to keep all I was doing going, have everyone remember the 'new' name and forget the old. They all knew the whole story, as my life was an open book for pretty obvious reasons... Bobbie could have done the same, she just got cold feet at the last minute. I guess I didn't think... was just too angry about everything. Funny the little things you don't think of at all... but others can admire you for. Well, we'll see about tomorrow, and perhaps I will be permanently forgotten by the new members of my lovely co-op. Of course they are struggling to keep it going... times are hard and I guess they think since they have kept it going it is theirs. (And Bobbie... you'll never know how much I admired you!)
Now that I look over what I have written, I kinda get the feeling that one of my dear old friends over in the East Bay would say... 'That's all crap,' I think he feels that way about most of what I write. Well, he's never read any of my 3-Day novels. I am staying in S.F. through Labour Day just to write one... then I shall get on the plane and head for Chi... at least I have one dear old friend who will be happy to see me, Connie Fillippelli... the saint who is taking me in and will not only teach me all the 'Mac' things I have neglected to learn, but also try to get me back on my feet, walking and in good shape. Which reminds me, I'd better make sure I have an appointment with my doctor before I leave. Call now, Peg.......
