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3WW–gesture, immediate, treasure–Space Chick with the Electric Hair

November 10, 2010 By pia

3WW–Three words on a Wednesday

There are times in life we know something important is happening or about to happen in our immediate life: high school graduation; the first day of college; meeting the person we will love; etc.  But there are times that the unexpected happens and something, maybe small maybe large, happens we will treasure forever.

October 17, 1977 could have been just another day in my life.  I was taking grad classes at The New School in poli sci and wondering what I was going to do with a fairly useless Masters when a friend, David, asked me if I wanted to apply for a job in the company he was temping at.  He was convinced that the supervisors and co-workers were anti-Semitic and wanted my input.  I just wanted a job.  There was a recession that had begun in 73 and wasn’t going to end until 82.  For the first time we had stagflation and there were more college grads than there were “suitable” jobs for especially in New York and Boston, the only two cities I truly knew.

The interview was short and sweet as the job was supposed to last six weeks.  I would be coding documents on anyone or all of 40+ suits against AT&T, then the only real phone company.  The largest case was The Department of Justice who was suing AT&T for being a monopoly.  AT&T and its subsidiaries, especially Western Electric had factored out the coding to the company I would work for Aspen Systems.  If a Western Electric employee coded documents they were paid at least $25,000 a year plus benefits.  We were paid $5.00 an hour, no benefits.  But $5.00 an hour was enough to pay my rent with money left over.

And together David and I were going to uncover anti-Semitism.   The Viet Nam war was over; I needed a cause.  My college friends in Boston had scattered all over the globe.  It wasn’t that I was sick of my New York college friends, but I wanted more friends.  My best girl friend Shelby had gotten every girl she knew but me a job at her publishing  company.  It was a gesture that spoke volumes.  Our friendship had always been tempestuous.   Years before, for a brief moment during the Watergate hearings we had been roommates in Sea Cliff, LI.  She threw a crystal ashtray at me; I threw it back.

The ashtray had been a gift to me but she ended up with it.  Like Shelby it was very beautiful.  She probably thought she deserved it.  I didn’t speak to her for almost two years.  But like the cliff swallows of Capistrano, I seemed to unwittingly find my way back to Shelby.  I was sick of it.

At 27 I was already divorced.  The summer of 77 had been one of the craziest ever in New York and I was glad to be alive to talk about it.

My new temp job was downtown; across the street from Saint Paul’s.  Much later it would become famous for being a refuge for 9/11 workers.  Then it was the adjunct church to Trinity and a beautiful building to look at during work.

I loved training.  AT&T had a well deserved rep for being one of the best corporate trainers.  I was in a group of twelve; the next week we would join 228 other coders plus supervisors and managers in a large room on the fourth floor.  To get into the fourth floor we needed a card key, the second I had ever seen.  Our card keys had our picture on them along with identifying information.  I so wish I hadn’t lost as it was the one picture ID I truly loved.  I could and did look at that picture for hours.

Who was that girl?  I wish I known to treasure her; to respect both her body and her mind for it was a sharp one.  As usual I downplayed my accomplishments.  Excelling at training?  It was easy.  Too easy.  A trained parrot could read the documents and put the required info onto the document control sheets.

The Yankees won the 77 World Series that Wednesday.  They hadn’t won a world series since the early 60’s and had been given one ticker tape parade for a series they had lost.  This ticker tape parade would be the first one for a series they actually won.

I joined some coworkers and watched it from the main floor’s windows.  People kept smiling at me and saying hello.  This is a horrible admission but I expected people to be friendly, to want to know me.  I wouldn’t have known how to start a conversation if somebody didn’t begin one with me.  I wouldn’t have known that a guy wanted to date me if he didn’t blurt it out.

David was one of the few single straight men I didn’t date at Aspen. Six weeks turned into three years and then I worked for a spin off, with promotion after promotion.  I forgot to look for anti-Semites as I made friend after friend, and slowly extracted myself from Shelby and her world.

This sounded so good when I wrote it in my head yesterday.  The words were perfect for it so I can’t blame them.  This memoir is driving me bonkers.  I know so much is in my blog–needs much editing but first the HTML in the older posts needs cleaning and I’m going to have bite the bullet and pay way too much money.  I really love writing fiction but won’t let myself until this is finished.  I’m going to have my own NaMem__month!  I’m sorry that this doesn’t flow the way I would like it to.  Any suggestions are more than valued.

My book’s about an imperfect girl who lived in New York in the 70′s and 80′s and often felt that her life was one huge fairy tale.  She didn’t take the roads more traveled or the straight roads with the great pavements and wonderful lighting (interstates, I guess) but the windy curvy side roads that often lead you to someplace new and not necessarily great, or even more magnificent than you could imagine.  It’s also about a girl, the same one, who has an invisible disability but she didn’t know she was “disabled” until her late 30’s and didn’t know the name until three years ago.  By necessity it goes into childhood to show how the problems first manifested.

I don’t want to make this a “disability” memoir as while my life was affected by the disability I lived, worked and played in an “able” society, with the “able” society’s rules.  Perhaps this was unfair but I like to think it made me more interesting.  Hence the problems will usually be on the side, unstated and occasionally take center stage

Filed Under: 3WW, New York Stories, space chick with the electric hair Tagged With: 3WW, New York Stories, non verbal learning disorders

« Second coming of summer!
When I was eleven: Space Chick with the Electric Hair »

Comments

  1. EsotericWombat says

    November 10, 2010 at 3:22 pm

    I smirked at the reference to the Yankees going 17 years without a World Series win. The Red Sox went the first 19 years of my life without appearing in one =P

    If you allow the phrase, I’ve always read your blog as a freak power anthem, and I absolutely agree about focusing on the ways your challenges have made you more interesting.

  2. pia says

    November 10, 2010 at 3:27 pm

    Thanks Wombat. You have no idea what your comment did for me as I wondered about including the Yankees info–I had forgotten or it had seemed normal to me
    and
    I just love “freak power anthem” Love it!!!!!!
    I learned yesterday in my incredibly long and horrible walk that I might write about someday–I have very good balance, can jump over barriers and run through traffic in interstates. As these–and old school machinery were big parts of “why I’m disabled,” they hold no water anymore

  3. ThomG says

    November 10, 2010 at 3:54 pm

    I think you are being way too hard on yourself. This flows just fine, and I like the somewhat disjointed way it’s written, frenetic, like those days must have been. You’ve a gift for getting your memories across that it doesn’t feel like a memoir. Nor does it feel like a work about disability. It reads real. It reads as you.

  4. cooper says

    November 10, 2010 at 8:54 pm

    It flows quite well from my perspective.

    The words were perfect for it, so I can’t blame them….I mean that line….

    You really don’t have to clean up html. It’s hard to do that, I’ve tried. Just copy the post from the face page as is and repost it words only removing the old html.

  5. Doug says

    November 10, 2010 at 9:17 pm

    I agree with Cooper. I think it reads really well.

  6. Pixie says

    November 10, 2010 at 9:59 pm

    “…Who was that girl? I wish I known to treasure her; to respect both her body and her mind for it was a sharp one. As usual I downplayed my accomplishments…”

    Pia.

    <3

    Pia of courage. Pia of truth. Pia owner of a home in a place she felt like a square peg in a round hole in… Pia who is Pia. 100% and never faltering at being Pia!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    GODDAMNIT.

    Pia. <3

  7. Deborah says

    November 10, 2010 at 11:32 pm

    I think this reads so well, even in this small slice I got a real sense of you and your life and the time and would have liked to have read more … and glad you were managing to move away from Shelby! :o)

  8. Jae Rose says

    November 11, 2010 at 5:36 am

    It seems like you are already working things out..and if they come just write them down..I admire the honesty of your posts..I am always left wanting more..thanks for your visit..Jae

  9. Bone says

    November 11, 2010 at 8:35 am

    But $5.00 an hour was enough to pay my rent with money left over.

    Wow. That floored me. Figuratively.

    Loved the “Who was that girl?” lines. Just enough wistfulness but you didn’t dwell.

    And the “I forgot to look for anti-Semites” line. Just classic.

    You do such a wonderful job of telling a story while seamlessly mixing in some current events and other little details. I loved it all.

  10. pia says

    November 11, 2010 at 3:05 pm

    @ThomG
    Thanks Thom. Your suggestions or lack of them are invaluable. For some reason writing this made me very hyper and it was the time in my life I was most calm

  11. pia says

    November 11, 2010 at 3:07 pm

    @cooper
    Cooper–thanks. thanks for the HTML advice
    I was going to answer comments in another post just because you wrote about your grandmother and I love your family stories

  12. pia says

    November 11, 2010 at 3:08 pm

    @Doug
    Doug promise me we’ll meet around the virtual water cooler! And thanks

  13. pia says

    November 11, 2010 at 3:23 pm

    @Pixie
    Wow woman of a bazillion names. Make me sound like a saint when it’s closer to a sinner, I think

  14. pia says

    November 11, 2010 at 3:26 pm

    @Deborah
    Thanks Deborah, you will get to read a lot more. Be sick of it I think

  15. pia says

    November 11, 2010 at 3:27 pm

    @Jae Rose
    Jae Rose–honestly comes easily to me. It’s editing my truths that I find difficult. I suppose that’s good. Thanks!

  16. pia says

    November 11, 2010 at 3:29 pm

    @Bone
    Bone–I made $175 a week not excluding taxes or including OT–but that’s next as is my rent etc
    Thanks for being so encouraging, always

  17. Doug says

    November 12, 2010 at 12:04 pm

    @pia Not a problem, Pia. My blog ended. I’m still here.

  18. Sage says

    November 16, 2010 at 2:57 pm

    Nice story–you set it well in the late 70s… I wonder how AT&T is different from the Kafkaesque cable companies you talked about in your recent post (which I couldn’t reply to)? Right now, I’m having my own nightmare with AT&T at work…

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About Me

I live in the South, not South Florida, a few blocks from the ocean, and two blocks from the main street. It's called Main Street. Amazes me too.

I'm from New York. I mostly lived in the Mid-Upper East Side, and the heart of the Upper West Side. It amazes me when people talk about how scared they were of Times Square in the 1970's and 1980's.

As my mother said: "know the streets, look out and you'll be fine."

What was scary was the invasion of the crack dens into "good buildings in good 'hoods." And the greedy landlords who did everything they could to get good tenants out of buildings.

I'm a Long Island girl, and proud of it now.
Then I hated everything about the suburbs. Yet somehow I lived in a few great Long Island Sound towns after high school.

Go to archives "August 2004" if you want to begin with the first posts.

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