Tuesday, December 26, 2006

And how was your Christmas

So today is the day after XMas, or as I like to call it, day after the day of the Village Nursing Home visit-- Manhattan West Village version.

It's not often one gets to the West Village for much of anything-- well, "one," meaning Me, Myself, and I.

Call it a transportation problem, or getting too caught up into life/work/issues problem, but it was just a fabulous day in all.

Never did I expect to meet Roz and Anne-- two very great septugenarians I bonded with over the New York Times and L'Occitane lotion set (respectively).

Roz had the best smile ever-- had recently come out of a medically induced coma-- and really was a great person to talk with. She was content reading the "'Times" from front to back-- and we talked of her growing up Jewish and part Italian. (Crown Heights, Brooklyn representing)

Anne reminds me of Gwyneth Paltrow's mother Blythe-- if she had just come out of surgery, and was about 20 years older.

A fantastically elegant, intelligent, cultured, blessed with beautiful genetics, 78-year-old resident of LeRoy Street, we bonded over our common hatred of club-goers who gather at the base of her lovely townhouse, smoking cigs, yelling and shouting while she opens her window yelling down at them, "Keep it quiet down there! A woman needs her sleep!"

I've always identified with the older generation more than my own, and this was a chance for me to do some bonding with them once again.

Still better yet was Charlie, a 90-year-old former bodybuilder in a wheelchair who was just too cute for words; (born and raised on Orchard Street in 1917); as was the get-down grandma dancing her ass off to the blues guitarist in the main hall. The best part was when she got out and backed that trunk up, getting DOWN, and then, not content to be a wallflower, a lady in a wheelchair backed herself up from the dinner table and rolled over to join in. She shaked her moneymaker from waist-up.

No one ever said you need legs to join in on Xmas day dance festivities.

Best part about a Manhattan nursing home-- it's just like Manhattan and NYC-- so many different races, backgrounds, education levels, and personalities. It just was a breath of fresh air.
I just hope the diabetic patients did not end up with all the sugar treats-- Bad planning on the volunteer staff's part.

In the meanwhile, Grandma Lambert (see above legendary photo with her Sea Captain B.F.) got down in her own St. Pete, Florida, 'home with mama Lambert to the tunes of Marvin Gaye.

(see this example)


You just can't keep a Lambert woman down.

Ol's

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