I
have a few suggestions to anyone who is reading this: 1) whether 17 or
70 if you don't keep a diary start one right now  2) take pictures, take
pictures, take pictures 3) in your diaries put down everything that is
going on in detail and 4) on pictures put information with complete
names, exact dates and locations and happenings.

I
find reading my diaries 45-50 years later I have forgotten why, and who
to, I put entries and on pictures I forget people, places and things.
Alex was my roommate for almost 2 years and I can't/don't remember his
last name!!! With Joan and Addie (I remember Addie's last
name--Kaplan--but not Joan's!!!)  I remember wearing the red jacket,
that in 2 pictures were were in Miami Beach and I assume the other was
taken in their co-op.

There
are  many references in my diaries to events that I have a hard time as
to the 'why' of them or what happened. A good example are a few things
that happened to, with and about Bernie!

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Throughout
my life I accumulated 'families', people I cared for and people who
cared for me. From 1967-1969 my family consisted of Joan, Addie, Alex,
Ronnie, Bernie, Joe, Albyn, Joe the Greek, Charles, Perry, Flo, Dick
Hershey, Eleanor and a few others, not to forget Noel who I met on
Christmas Eve 1968, brought home to Bernie as a Christmas present and it
turned out he lived 2 floors above us! Over years some have died, in
fact most have died such as Ronnie, Bernie, Flo, Joe, Albyn or
'disappeared' but I have never forgotten any of  them.

I
was still in touch with my brother and his family going up to Suffern,
where they lived, like on May 5, 1968, and then 2 months went up July
21st for my nephew's Bar Mitzvah (OMG! He is almost 60 with a family of
his own--how did that happen?!?! LOL) or was it August 18?, but on an
everyday basis--with Flo, Perry, Joe the Greek, Joe and Albyn living in
Miami Beach--Ronnie, Joan, Addie, Alex and Bernie were the ones who made
up the core of my New York family.

Skipping
ahead a little when it came time for me to decide whether to move to
Memphis, and go into business with Bernie, Joan, Addie and Ronnie were
against it and when I decided to go they insisted I get in writing from
Bernie exactly what I would be getting from the business. I didn't
listen to them which caused me a lot of problems a few years later but
more about that when (IF!) I get to the 70s!

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I've
looked through my diary notes but I still can't determine if I met Joan
or Addie in one of my Weight Watchers classes, not that either was that fat, and then met the other but the three of us had a connection from
day 1. Addie was a fashion designer and a 'couckie' one while Joan was
the one in charge and reigned Addie in when she went to far. They owned a
co-op (or was it a condo?) on 7th Avenue near 14th Street which is near
the Village and we spent many weekends walking, and eating, down there.
During the first 6 months I have many entries regarding the 3 of us
doing things and, many times, Ronnie, Alex and/or Bernie joining us.
They had us over for dinner and we reciprocated. It was a good, close
friendship. I did the facebook, google searches but came up with nothing
about them.

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Bernie
was doing a lot of traveling for Weight Watchers plus he had many
weekends that he spent with his daughters so I had plenty of free time
to get into trouble and I did! To a certain degree we had an 'open
relationship' though more than he suspected or, I think, wanted to know.

The
first 'date' I had with Bernie I threw him out of a cab on Fifth Avenue
so our relationship had to go up from there and it did. On his
birthday, June 19, I had a party for him inviting Alex, Ronnie and his
'friend' to have dinner with us at Dan Dowd's and then went to the Latin
Quarter. It wasn't the first time I pulled this but I got drunk and
'disappeared' to the baths.

The
next day Bernie told me he was thinking of leaving Weight Watchers and
going into business with Irene and Florence-two ladies also associated
with WW. I vaguely remember his using this as a ploy to get a raise at
WW but instead he was offered a franchise with them and accepted without
discussing it with me but that would come later.

Bernie and I went to Miami Beach over the July 4th weekend where he met Flo who, privately, put thumbs down on him. On July 15, 1968, I quit working lunch at Miller's. July 26-28th came to New York to
see shows before they took their yearly trip to Europe and we went to
see the original production of "Boys In The Band" which was causing a
sensation and Augsut 1 I started work at Dan Dowd's .

I
don't know where, when or how I met Bernice and David Adelman--I think
they came to one of my classes--but all of a sudden they were wining and
dining me and my friends! Also on Sept. 8, 1968 I, and 5 others, went
to see Olga Guiloot and Celia Cruz at Lincoln Center which brought back
memories of Pepe who first introduced me to them.

And then 2 events happened in October that was to set me off on a different course 1 year later.

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(TO BE CONTINUED AND CONTINUED AND CONTINUED AND CONTINUED)