OF WINDY DAYS PAST

Deep from the 1950's photo album comes this black and white shot that proves two historical facts: The Flaming Bore has long been a cat lover AND a fashion maven.

Here I am, age 7, trying to feed Pik-Nik shoestring potatoes to my first of many cats, ol' Tom. He was strictly an outdoors variety and the only one we kids owned who had a normal name. The rest were totally far out there: Clorox, Purex, Clorox 2, Yahootie, Sherman (who was allowed inside after losing a leg), and, well, the rest escape me this morning--but there were lots of 'em.

The outfit I can recall better, however. Red deck shoes, white socks, capri pants with a light blue background and red and white polka dots, light blue blouse, and lord knows what that thing is on my head. Back in the '50s, no female was allowed outside on a windy day without a headscarf. It was some sort of Russian Baboushka Conspiracy.

I can hear Mama Bore screeching right now: "Nancy Beth, get a headscarf on before you go out that door, young lady!" I'm not sure if it was to prevent earaches or preserve the fancy ponytail-do that she'd just fixed for me. She usually spent a good 30 minutes each morning untangling my thick hair with Suave and settling down the "fly-aways" with Helene-Curtis Wave Set, a thick green toxic slop she bought in the beauty section of Bennett's Variety Store. I have to admit, though, that wave set WAS better than when she just patted my hair in place with her saliva-licked fingers. Oh, the torture I had to go through to look presentable!

So much for the history lesson. Tom and I wish everyone a good morning and we leave you with this weather warning: It's gonna be windy today so, for gosh sakes, put on your head scarf before you go outside!