ROCKERS, you, me and your kids!

This morning I watched “Outnumbered’ and the guest was one of my favourite people, Gene Simmons. Yes he is a rocker, but what a smart one. When my son Jeff was ten, I took him and a few of his friends to see KISS perform in L.A. and I had as much fun as they did.

Jeff wanted to go so badly, he convinced me Paul Stanley was a Christian! I laughed to myself but even then I realized how brilliant they all had to be to paint their faces and hide their “identity”, they can still perform today like youngsters. And they are good.

Jeff and I used to dance around the stereo to ‘Christine 16’ and ‘Firehouse’, I was a fan of the Rolling Stones but KISS was better for the younger set.

My husband and I went to see ‘Credence Clearwater’ revisited in Rancho Mirage last weekend and memories of my little Jeffrey dancing to ‘Down on the Corner’ flooded my eyes with tears. Music is a powerful glue that can bind us together.

Gene Simmons is an Israeli, American, he is funny, engaging and very intelligent. He did a bit on how kids can succeed and also how women should make their own money, he was funny but what he said was true. He said the most important person in your life is your mother and you better know it. A psychiatrist friend of mine once told me, a child can survive a bad father, but a bad mother is most often a different story.

The prisons are filled with children who had bad parents, not all did but most. Gene said “No” is a word every parent should be familiar with. I totally agree, I believe you are not their friend, you are their guidance councillor!

I agree with Gene, but just once in a while it is really fun to be their friend and take them to see one of their favourite musicians. I took Jeff to see the Rolling Stones when he was 30 years old and he loved it. We wore black leather jackets, jeans and boots and we had a great time. It’s o.k. to be their friend once in a while….it’s good for you too, but being their parent will always be the most rewarding and beneficial role you ever play. A good conservative, strong reasoning parent who gives them boundaries, loves them unconditionally and talks to them regularly!

My book, THE ANGELS OF WARWICK, is all about family relationships…the ties that bind. Read it and meet some wonderful, quirky, marvellous people you will never forget and I hope you love them as much as I did!

snotty little observatons

We all have them. I ask God to put one hand over my heart and the other over my mouth when I know I am going to have one out loud! Sometimes the temptation is just to great!

Like when they say it was a near miss. What is that? Isn’t it a near hit? Or when you watch the news and they give you half the story. Sound bites they call them. It seems almost every time they interview the neighbors of a criminal, they have something nice to say about him. He cut his lawn. I never heard him beating up his wife. She never said anything to me.

I didn’t notice he tied up his dog and never fed him. Did you hear the dog cry at night? Why don’t they ask him that? Never a good question, the news people speculate on what happened, they never ask the questions we in the cheaper seats would like to hear. Wouldn’t it be nice if they did?

When you saw his wife with black eyes and broken limbs, did you ever think of calling the police? When you know the guy has a house full of guns and drinks like a fish, do you think something bad could happen? We don’t want to make trouble but we get more of it in spades by sticking our heads in the sand.

Our society should be PROACTIVE not REACTIVE. That’s what’s wrong with our government. You don’t need a Chrystal Ball to see the signs. Neighborhood Watch is a good thing. Go to a meeting, know who your neighbors are and be a little nosey! It may save someone’s life.

Secret Relative

When I was fifteen, my friend Ronnie came over to visit me with a Blue Car he called the Beast. it was a 1939 Dodge. He took me for a ride around the golf course where we both lived and stopped in front of his house. He said “How come you never visit your cousin? This is her car and she lives in that house. I told her I wanted to take you to the sophomore prom and she said I could use her car. She knows who you are.”

I was puzzled, so I asked, “What’s her name?”
“Margareta, she is your uncle Giovanni’s daughter and she’s real pretty too.”.
I knew I had an uncle Giovanni, he came to our house once at Christmas but he came alone. I thought he lived in Detroit, why did I think that? I didn’t know much about him and me who loved mystery, this was a Mystery!

Ronny didn’t know much either. I went home and grilled my mother on the subject. I was good at it too, my favorite T.V. program was Dragnet and I wanted just the facts Mam. My mother was so evasive, but she finally caved when I told her I was going to pester Daddy until he told me. Mom said she never got into the Rossi family feuds, Italians were argumentative and it was best to let things go and not take sides.

I didn’t want to take sides, I wanted to know how I could have a first cousin I had never heard of and she lived close by. Mom said, nobody liked Giovanni’s wife and they thought she was involved in some shady business, apparently his first wife Eula disappeared. What! I wanted to know everything but mom said someday she could tell me but not now. We moved to California three months later and my parents never did tell us anything.

I was young and just moved on but lately I’ve been wondering what really happened. When you have a big family there are lots of stories, some good, some bad but all entertaining. My sister Elaine in L.A. has been looking up relatives and she is on the hunt to find out what happened to Giovanni’s first wife. She has found cousins who paid investigators to find Eula, but they never did. I’m thinking this is another book.

California Girl

I always wanted to be a California girl.  I got sidetracked by love, but I managed to right myself and move permanently to California, my dream State.  Almost anybody who listened to the Beach Boys dreamed of being a California girl.

People envisioned the curvy blonde bombshell with the Sandra Dee looks and the Pink Thunderbird.  It seemed the West Coast was the place to be with all that sunshine and fun.  Hollywood glamour was everywhere, movies stars were emulated and their lifestyles envied.

When I was a kid growing up in Canada, I was in love with ELVIS.  My mother constantly knocked him, it didn’t matter…I loved him.  Once, I tried to call him.  The operator was so nice, she said “Oh, Honey, he doesn’t take personal calls, if you want to see him you will have to go to his shows or his movies.”

I begged my Dad to take me to see ‘Love Me Tender’ when I was thirteen.  I bought movie magazines and photo books of him with my allowance and then one day one of my friends told me I worshipped idols and I was going to go to Hell.  I didn’t think I worshipped him, I just wanted to marry him!

My friends thought I was ridiculous, they said he was an uneducated hillbilly (so judgmental) and after a while of being told how stupid I was, I gave up on Elvis.  He was never going to love me anyway.

But, ha, I got to see him in Las Vegas when I was twenty four and I  couldn’t swoon over him anymore because now I was a married woman with a child, but I will never forget a word of any of his songs and even though his movies were not very good, I will always like him more than I should admit.