10/26/08

More gifts from long-lost friends


Seems that this is my month to go back in time, drawn by threads of memory woven by those I love across the miles. The latest was a little box from my friend Carol Ann in Manhattan, my sidekick from my NY years, and before. We met as teenagers while working at the Williamstown Theater Festival in MA, and have been fast friends ever since.
Carol sent this sweet sweatshirt for QQ (who, as ever, looks good in bright colors!) It's a little big yet but I just measured her today and she's grown another 3/4 of an inch. By spring, I think it will fit just right! (And I will no longer be able to call her "Tiny Choo". I'll miss that.)

Ready for her closeup. I don't know what's with the tongue these days...I think she's just getting the hang of her new mouth. Whatever the reason, I'm not sure I've ever seen anything quite so cute as that miniature tongue.

Under the sweatshirt, a CD of new music, and several layers of bubble wrap (QQ's favorite part) lurked more treasures...the best of all!

At first glance, just two pretty antique bottles.

Carol is a set decorator (sorry, CA, I never can remember what is the proper technical term?) for stage and film, and she spends a lot of time in antique shops. In one near her hometown of Kingston, she found these. They were so photogenic, you'll notice, that I couldn't resist taking a few different shots of them.

Can you read it?
Larkin Soap Co., Buffalo, NY.
How cool is that?
M. and I have decided that "soap" was just a cover for bootleg whiskey. These were actually the first "airplane bottles" of Irish hooch. Heheh.

Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your perspective), I don't have any old and incriminating pictures of us from the '80s (and I hope that Carol doesn't either, because there is a great deal of incrimination to be had). If I seldom took pictures during college, I took almost none during our subsequent years in The City. I had a curious aversion to cameras at that point, which has saved me from the discovery of any embarrassing photos from that era of sartorial travesty. (Sorry, I just can't get behind the recent resurgence of '80s fashion...hope I'm not offending anyone. Actually, I don't care if I'm offending anyone. It's just so, so wrong.)
All I can find is this blurry picture of the two of us at my dad's retrospective show in Windham, NY a couple of years ago.

Much, much better is this photo of Carol with Kermit the frog, during her latest stint working on the next muppet movie. That's my girl!

5 comments:

Yoli said...

Love the sweater and those bottles are so pretty and a hoot!

I hate 80's fashion with a passion. I don't have a lot of pictures either, the ones I do have are a comedy.

Your friend has a cool job.

Susan Angstadt said...

Oh, Maia, I have some photos of you from the NYC years! I will have to scan them in and email them to you!

Vivian M said...

What, no pictures with leg warmers?

Mom-of-Bean said...

Just as a btw. Mile 2 of my Half-Marathon this weekend in Greenville South Carolina, took me past "Larkin's" A snazzy pub along the riverfront...I ruminated for a little bit on my ex-lastname, then moved on...soap is definitely a cover...

Heather said...

What great gifts!

On the '80s, I'm a firm believer that if you did a fad once, you shouldn't do it again.