And then they sent me to the yacht club...

...with a bag full of cash.

Nostalgia is a funny thing. A friend of mine is in the area and I drove to Newport Beach to take him to lunch. We tooled around and as sometimes (always) happens, I nervously filled the space between us with a running commentary on how I'd worked in a couple of upscale hair salons in Newport as a stylist's assistant. Roughly speaking, back in the late seventies and early eighties, a stylist's assistant was someone to whom you could say, "Honey, baby, sweetie, darling, go get me..." fill in the blank.

I was the only woman in the salon. The men I worked for were all straight, all womanizers, and all brutally plainspoken about what they wanted in a stylist's assistant. When they said jump, it was my job to ask, "How high?"

Today I realized how much fun I had during that brief period of my life. From the Palm Reader in the storefront next door where no one ever came to work after the first day when an immense, beautifully dressed man with hands the size of hams introduced himself to me and then left mysteriously, never to return, to the clients who thought it was a brilliant idea to get the stylists drunk while they were doing hair, there was never a day when I was bored.

Here's to all the the Jacks*, the Allens*, the Stewarts* and the Umbertos* (Names changed to protect the not so innocent.) Here's to high stakes backgammon and poker--although in retrospect, taking a bag full of cash to hotel room filled with strangers doesn't bear thinking about.

Here's to working for pirates, because that's what it felt like.

Here's to fielding angry girlfriends and angrier wives.

Here's to Candies mules and Qiana, and DuPont, and the brief way they married with disco to become one big happy, synthetic family.

Here's to all the things I didn't caught doing by either my mother or my pastor, thank heavens.

And here's to the very best Christmas party I ever went to and the Newport Beach boat parade, and for oh, so many reasons, here's to youth and stupidity, how can I miss one so much and be so glad I've gotten over the other.

This is DAY SIX

of the GREAT HOLIDAY ZAMFEST!
what's in it for you?

Welcome to the twelve days of ZAMfest All you have to do is comment to enter the daily drawing and I'll pull a new name from the hat each night to win an ebook from my backlist. The TWELFTH day will be Christmas, that's when I'll put the name of anyone who leaves me a comment on all twelve blogs, into a drawing and one very lucky person will win the grand prize-- a $50 dollar Amazon Gift Card. If you're new to the ZAMfest, it's not too late to go back and comment on earlier blogs. Good Luck!

DAY Five's winner is Crissy! I'll be contacting you to see which ebook you'd like!

In the meantime, how about a little nostalgia from a member of generation Jones, (Me)

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What was popular when you were young and stupid?

(Okay, I admit it, you were never, ever stupid.)