I was trying to put stuff away in my dressing room closet and tipped something over and that created a big mess, so, even though it was near midnight, I started re-organizing. What I didn’t want was a giant mess greeting me in the morning. I came across a box of costume jewelry I had lost track of and it contained pieces going back 50 years. Talk about retracing your life. Some of it I will clean and use. I got the box out and showed Sol, who was mesmerized. I gave her a copper pendant and bracelet that she admired. I found a small round gold watch, meant to be worn on a chain. The reverse side is a clear crystal and you can see the tiny works. We re-set it and it runs, so I am digging up a chain for it.

I wear a watch on my left wrist and I don’t usually wear bracelets because they have to be removed if I want to play the piano. So I have to decide if I will keep these interesting bracelets I have collected over the years or leave them for those who come after.

One of these bracelets is made up of coins from Germany. After cleaning it I was able to see that the coins were, whoa, 1938 10 pfennig Reichstad coins with a Swastika and an Eagle. I have no idea how I came to have it unless it was the spoils of war, since Jay traveled extensively during WWII. Well, I'm not going to wear it, and maybe a museum will want it. I'll do some research.

There were also some really beautiful earrings, but they were clasp earrings and I can’t wear them because they give me headaches. So either I get them converted for pierced ears, or they become part of my estate, or I give them away to people with sturdier ear lobes.

I also found a medallion, a troy ounce of silver with my name engraved on it,that was given to me, along with others at Harper & Row, by Stanley Kroll, whose book we had worked on. He was a very successful commodities trader and the book was about how he made a fortune trading in silver.

In the box was a key ring with an i.d. piece attached that my father had owned. It was a different time. Think of it – the key ring can be lost, with house keys on it – someone reads the i.d. – my dad’s name, address, city and state, his social security no. and his phone no., lets himself in and robs us blind. I kept it to remind myself of my dad, and because it was innocent and sweet of him to have something that made him so vulnerable without realizing it. Our phone no., the first phone any of us had ever had, was Chesapeake 9378. Later it was expanded to Chesapeake 3-9378. Some things you never forget. I also remember our first radio. My dad and his brothers brought home a cathedral shaped radio and spent all day trying to get it to work. They finally succeeded. It was thrilling to have a RADIO. I was maybe 9 at the time. We didn't have a TV until I was 19.

The key ring dates from about 1934 and I remember moving about that time from our flat at the end of the block to the Salvation Army temple and auditorium that also contained 8 flats for rent and was located in the middle of the block – nicer building, cleaner, built in cabinets, great landlord. From our old flat, one could look out the back porch, across the roof to the porch of our new flat. So at one point, I was moved as well. A workman handed me down to another, I got carried across the roof and was handed up over the railing to another fellow and deposited in our new place. I felt important. That kind of stuff really doesn’t happen anymore. As I grew older I became best friends with the daughter of the couple who were living in our old flat. I’d stand on our Salvation Army porch and call out to her over the roof – “G l o r i a a a a a a. And she’d come out and walk over on the side porch of her building and lean over the railing and we would talk. She’s gone now too. Nothing is forever.

xx, Teal