What a Difference 60 Years Make

The first thing I want to do is thank you all for your good wishes. I actually wrote this on our anniversary, but Bobby Parisi who had stopped by, photograhed the article that Elaine Cohen, mother of Mike Cohen, wrote about us when it was our 55th Anniversary and he put it on facebook so I figured you had enough, but then again, once I wrote it… so here it is.

Sixty years ago I was getting ready for my wedding. There was a huge snow storm that day. I got dressed at the synagogue. Phil forgot his belt. He was as skinny as a rake back then and his uncle had to go to his house to pick us his belt, otherwise, his pants would be around his knees. It was a big wedding, but that was long ago.

One goes through a lot in sixty years It reminds me of something Albert Goshman once said when we took him to the Brown Derby. Anyone out there remember The Brown Derby? After the meal the waitress asked him if he enjoyed the food.

“Well,” he said, “there was a lot of it and some of it was good.”

“I’ll go a step further and say most of it was good.” I’m talking about our 60 years. It was only the past 40 years that we’re in the magic business. Frank Garcia was once sitting in our living room and said, “You’ll never become a millionaire in the magic business.” He was right, but then again we never expected to. You can’t measure everything in dollars and cents. Over the years we did a lot of traveling because of the magic business, through the States and Canada, many times with the children going to different magic conventions and taking them to all the tourist attractions on the way, Trout Haven, the  Corn Palace in South Dakota, New Orleans, Wisconson Dells, Baraboo (Circus Home and Museum), Rock City in Chatanooga, where I became parallized on a narrow suspension bridge over a deep canyon, holding the hand of my 6 year old son. I couldn’t move. I don’t know where Phil and the other kids were  but a man saw I was in distress and came to take my son away and then came back for me.

When we passed through White Pigeon, Michigan, Hank and Jackie Moorehouse insisted we stay overnight at their home. They knew we had to go out of our way to see them. Hank said, “No one ever just passes through White Pigeon.”

We made many good friends. Unfortunately, many have passed away. One of our well-wishers asked what our secret was. The first thing is, you have to live long enough!

When Phil was in his 30s he was a heavy smoker. With a “little” coaxing from me he quit cold turkey. I doubt that we would be celebrating this event if he hadn’t quit when he did.

Now we are enjoying the fruits of our labour.  Our four children are grown and on their own. Unfortunately two of them live far away so we don’t get to see them as often as we’d like to. Our eldest grandson lives in B.C.  But we are lucky that two of our children are here in Montreal, and our two young grandchildren are here and live about 15 minutes away, so I’m not complaining. Our younger grandson is having his Bar Mitzvah in February. Just yesterday he was a little kid and now he’s taller than me.

I studied Chaucer while at McGill. One line he said stayed with me. And I quote, “The life so short, the art so long to learn.” I’m still learning. Happy and healthy holidays to you all and thanks again for your good wishes.

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