Hello.  Well, its’ a week before Christmas and the one thing I am missing this year is my Mom.  Her name was Norma, she passed away in 2010 and just yesterday I decided to put a picture of her on the wall next to my work station so she can be my muse.  It’s a picture of her at a volunteer day celebration luncheon so she has a plate full of food in front of her.  She has on a white shirt with a collar, a pink sweater with a pink tie, strawberry blond hair and a nice smile.  It’s a full face picture so I can see her “beauty mole”.  I like the smile because it looks as though she is pleased with what I am doing in regard to this blog. If you care to browse further I have a pic of my mom in another post and a younger picture in my little photo section.

Three things my mom liked to do was volunteer work (Hollywood Bowl gift shop, library reading tutor), wear pink and decorate for the holidays.  By now her tree would be up and decorated, Christmas candy would be in a candy bowl (who does that anymore?) and, oh yeah, my favorite thing of all, there would be a huge reindeer head on her front door that played “Rudolph, the Red Nosed Reindeer” when you pushed the button.  And everybody pushed the button.  Until her last couple of years, she would also decorate the hallway near the elevator by putting up a small Christmas tree.  And of course, she cooked.  Mac and cheese.  Yams and pineapple and ham.   Usually, everybody in the family who could, came by on Christmas.  I miss that.

So, my mom is my muse, she is an inspiration and today we are visiting Christmas of 1942.  Mom was 19 and working for the City.  She hadn’t gotten married yet so she was still living at home.  I don’t know for sure but she was probably listening to songs like, “Flying Home” by Lionel Hampton or “White Christmas” by Bing Crosby, or she could have been listening to the Gilbert and Sullivan Operetta “H.M.S. Pinafore” because she was an aspiring opera star at the time.

My mom had met my father, Eddie Green, by now, though they were not married, so she may or may not have known that Eddie was performing that Christmas season on the popular Columbia network’s “Caravan” program.  The program was billed as an hour of fun and music with a veritable “blitz” (I think this was a nod to the war) on gloom.  Guests included Xavier Cougat’s Orchestra and Eddie Green, comedian.  I have an article from a Niagara Falls newspaper that says “It has been decided that the nation today, more than ever, needs laughter, and the “Caravan” is going to contribute as much of it as can be packed into an hour of radio time.”

As I have stated before my father, Eddie Green, was by that time a well-known radio personality appearing as “Eddie, the waiter” on the Old Time Radio program, “Duffy’s Tavern”.  From everything I have read, so far, most people thought Eddie was “side-splittingly” funny.

I think that, like in ’42, the world could use more laughter.  I know I could use a good laugh.  I have copies of most of the programs my father was on, but listening to them by myself is not as fun as it might be if I could listen to them with mom.  I have only received most of my recordings over the past three years, so mom, to my knowledge, never got a chance to hear them.

I can imagine though, going over to mom’s and pressing that button on the old reindeer head hanging on her door and dancing to the little tune that comes out and then going in and sharing my discoveries her, I think that would be a great Christmas present.  Wow, this was my longest post yet, thanks for hangin out with me.