An envisioning. 2003, and one o'clock on a blustery March afternoon at the apartment on Roxelana Place, a few exits down the interstate from Cleveland Heights.
Oh to be here.
A small lunch with the end of the sharp cheddar cut into thin slices, eaten between the last two pieces of rye bread. Funny. Not much like it was back then, what with always being stuck trying to be skinny, but cheddar and rye. No, always loved, even back at school with the fire escape for a refrigerator in December with squirrel teeth-sized nibbles or in the June heat on a corner of the desk, sweating bit by bit until school broke for summer.
A half hour spent on the sofa reading Marie Claire and catching up on the new version of everything, as long as it is a New York everything. Nothing about to debut on Roxelana Way, but tired of looking at L. L. Bean boots and wool socks that would keep a climber of Mount Everest warm for life. Better boots with stiletto heels in bright purple made only for tripping from your escort's limousine to the front door of a Soho art gallery with all the sculptures done in gold and ten waiters passing out drinks.
But yet . . . fun but not like the olden days when it was a little more friendly . . . no . . . just about anywhere a grown up could go, their children with Shirley Temples in hand . . .
Even the teenage nieces smirking but Easter dinner soon and a surprise . . . a couple of those old in flight magazines from back when the airlines spent a lot of money on them to make them look like a real magazine, the kind you'd want to take home instead of something to throw in the trash at the gate . . . a few of the pages ripped out but some left . . . an actual bar up in the first class lounge with a real bartender and a shelf of fifths of something along with tiki bar fake green pineapple toppers to dress up the mai tais and a little paper umbrella too . . .
Both images are from an Airport Viewmaster set. Found by @viewmaster.bex on Instagram. via Instagram.
It does not say which airline or airlines but they must have been flying Boeing 747s many of which had bars in their first class upstairs lounges. BOAC, Qantas, Eastern and many other airlines flew 747s back in the 1970s. I myself flew Eastern and back and forth to the Lesser Antilles with my family for Christmas in the 1960s and 1970s but only Economy, so never saw the First Class lounge or its bar, if it had one. Probably did.