Life at Work

Today at work we had this farewell party for a young woman who was our receptionist for 4 years, while getting herself through law school. Now, she's finally graduated and I recall so many people who have passed through my working life - some of whom I'm still in touch with since the mid-1970s, and some of whom I've sadly lost touch with. There was the time I worked at the State Tax Department at the World Trade Center for 4 years. My closest friend was Ethel, an African-American woman years older than I, with a bunch of kids. They called us the salt 'n peppa twins. White people used to mutter about me - She thinks she's black, and African-Americans used to say about Ethel "She think she white." I told them I was neither. I was beige. A nice neutral color. There was the time I worked at a New York City record company living the dreams of my dreams - free concerts, free backstage passes, parties, etc. I've lost touch with all my friends there who somehow ended up marrying Englishmen and ending up in London. We had some wild times at that place, as you can well imagine in the late 1970s. There was a friend I'm not in touch with anymore, who I had gone to school with since first grade - ok it's not work related but worth relating. She and I both came from very strictly religious families and we'd check in with each other what sin we had committed the week before - "My parents went to synagogue and I turned on the radio to listen to the Stones special" "I took the subway today to visit my friend in Queens" - all those things strictly forbidden on the Sabbath. She ended up somewhere in Los Angeles but is impossible to find. It's worth the while to keep up the friendships from way back and from the present. I hope this young lady, in whose honor I'm drinking some fine red wine, will still remember us when she's a high-falutin' lawyer.