The Ten Best Days of My Life by Adena Halpern Read Free Book Online Page B

blonde curls, the way her black strapless hugged her body. She was the main hottie of the Latin Casino.
    By the time he approached my mom in Bonwit Teller, Dad had become something of a mini-mogul, buying small properties here and there. He wasn’t rich at this point, but he was on his way. He had just moved his parents and two sisters into a bigger, two-bedroom apartment, in fact.
    Unfortunately, both of his parents died before I was born, so I never knew them. (Hey wait, don’t I get to meet them now? What’s up with that?)
    Anyway, here’s how they met. By the way, this is my favorite story ever. I think I had my mother tell me this story about fifty thousand times, so you’ll notice that I really know the particulars:
    It was December 1958, and it was one of those bitter cold days where anything that’s not covered, like your ears or your nose, is instantly freezing. My grandmother and my mother were doing some Christmas shopping. (Yes, I know, my whole family is Jewish, but what can I say? We always celebrated Christmas, too. Knowing my family, I chalk it up to embracing any excuse to get together and give presents and eat. Plus, my grandparents’ faith was really lax. My parents definitely followed their lead.) Anyway, by the time they got to Bonwit’s on Chestnut Street, they decided that anything they had to buy they’d buy there, because the thought of walking outside again still made my mom shiver every time she told me the story. The thing you also have to remember, it was different in those days. A department store was a destination and not just a store you popped into for some panty hose. My grandmother and mother always looked starry eyed when they told me about Bonwit’s. You’d start out with lunch and then work your way through the store. All the salesladies knew you by name and knew your taste, not like now when you have to hunt someone down to open up a dressing room. There were lots and lots of Christmas presents to buy that year. The people in my grandpop’s accounting firm, cousins, neighbors, and friends. Both my grandmother and my mother had been invited to so many Christmas parties that year, so buying some new dresses was also high on the list.
    My mom always says that had she not met my father that day, she still would have remembered it as being one of the most special days she ever had.
    â€œEverything about that day was magical,” she’d say with her eyes shining. “The store was full of people and everyone had the same problem of what to buy for who and, of course, what to buy for themselves, so there was a lot of chatter and comparing what other people were buying.” My mom forced my grandmother to buy a black-sequined chiffon dress with bell sleeves for New Year’s Eve. She always says, “I’ll never forget how beautiful she looked in that dress as she stood on the boxed step in front of the three-way mirror. The tailor worked around her, cinching in her waist and gathering the full crinolines underneath. ” My mom bought a maroon eyelet dress with a teardrop front and spaghetti straps. Then they went into the lingerie department and fitted that dress with more crinolines than you would have thought possible. She said she looked like a flower in full bloom, but not in a good way, which is when she’d always tell me a fact of life that, as much as I try to remember it, I always forget: moderation is the key.
    So, after lunch, they went down to the first floor where they decided on scarves for all of the secretaries in Grandpop’s office. My grandmother and mom were deliberating between a sky blue scarf or one with little orange polka dots for Miss DeMarco, Grandpop’s secretary at the time, when Mom heard this strong voice say, “Nothing could make you look more beautiful.”
    At this point she would always add this aside to the story: “Now, it wasn’t how handsome Daddy looked, even