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You might remember my mother, Bonnie Blau, from the interview I did with her earlier this year.  We talked about the fact that she thinks she looks like Bruce Springsteen.  You can read that interview here.  As a follow up, here's an interview with my mother where I ask her about one of my favorite photos.  It's the only picture I have of me as a little kid with my mother.

Do you remember where this photo was taken?

It was taken by your dad in Watertown, Massachusetts.

What was that time of life like for you?

It was nice.  We lived in a nice place.  All our friends were the same age and had children the same age. And life was pretty simple.  We didn't have any money but life was simple because taking care of kids is simple.  And everyone was in the same situation so it was one of those nice situations.  If I needed someone to take care of you, someone would come over.  And the kids could go in and out and run outside.  Although you didn't go out much, you mostly stayed with me.  And when you went out you took off all your clothes.  You were bad.  You were good, but funny.  It was a nice time of life.  Everyone was equal.  There was one family the Dugans* that lived two houses down.  They were kind of out of place because he was an alcoholic and they had five kids. They were both older and they lived in the same garden apartment as us.  Her father was rich and he'd come by in his Cadillac.  He obviously didn't like her husband.  She had obviously failed him-being poor in a garden apartment and being ten years older than us.  Everyone was on their way up: graduate students, medical students, law students.  No one was in any fixed place-this was clearly a stopping off point.  Except for the Dugans.

Were you happy?

Yeah I was happy when that picture was taken.  I was just trying to relax and show my feelings of love.

Did you love my father?

Yeah, of course.  That was about the time he fell in love with me too.  He didn't love me the first three years of our marriage.  I didn't know that then, but he told me later.  All of a sudden he was telling me he loved me.  And later on he told me that he had just fallen in love with me.  We had been visiting my parents in Vermont and on the way back to that apartment he told me he had fallen in love with me.  That was nice of him (laughs) two kids later.

Was I an easy baby?

Oh my god, you were so easy.  You were funny.

Was my sister a pain-in-the-ass?

Yeah.  More or less (laughs).  She got up every night and cried for the first four years of her life.  She was difficult.  And she was sick.  There was asthma, and your father was obsessed with her sickness and her medicine.  He was obsessed because that was what he had as a kid.  And I wasn't sick as a kid, so I'd forget to give her medicine.  Or whatever.  She was in the hospital a couple times as a baby.  And of course we were both smoking.

Didn't the doctors tell you not to smoke?

No, they never told us not to smoke.  We probably smoked in their offices then.  You could smoke everywhere.  We could smoke in stores.  We could smoke in grocery stores.  That's when life was good (laughs).

Did it ever occur to you not to smoke?

No!  It didn't occur to me.  Not smoking didn't occur to anyone.  Everyone smoked.  And those who didn't, didn't think there was anything wrong with smoking.  But just about everybody smoked.

Did you like how you looked then?

Yeah, I thought about how I looked.  I chopped my hair myself.  You can see it's a chop job.  We didn't have money to go to a hair person.  But I didn't know anyone who went to a stylist.  Everyone cut their own hair.

What about the shades?

I always had shades.  I still like shades.  Sunglasses have always been important to me.  An important accessory. Probably my most important accessory.  My sunglasses now cost 350 dollars.  Gucci. That is an extravagance but I like sunglasses and I like good ones.  Although those, in the photo, were cheap but they were nice.  I like sunglasses better than purses or shoes.  I like sunglasses better than anything.  But I only ever have one pair at a time and I wear that pair for years.  I‘ve had this pair now for about four or five years.  When I first got them they were pre what was hot.  They were pre . . . what's the word I want?  They were before they were fashionable and Josh and Alex (my brother's boyfriend) thought they looked like blind people's sunglasses.  Now they think they're cool.  The sunglasses I had after the pair in the photo were black and white hound's tooth check ones.

Whose sunglasses am I sucking in the picture?

Yours.  You had sunglasses too.  You wanted them.  You liked sunglasses.  Aren't they kid sunglasses?  Yeah, I'm pretty sure they were yours.  Yeah, remember there's a picture or you sitting in the backyard and you're naked and you have your purse and your necklace and your sunglasses on (laughs).  You were a character.

I remember doing that.

Did you look at the kids playing and ask what are these barbarians doing?

Yes.  I thought kids were wild and out of control.  (My only friend the first few years of my life was the old widow who lived across the street from us.)

Yeah, yeah.  Well you had your purse, your sunglasses and your necklace.  You put your purse on and sat in your chair.  Even little Broana Maloney, the gentlest thing, you weren't interested in playing with her.  And you didn't want to play with Jessie Cox (a neighbor).  You just wanted to hang out with me.  That was okay with me.

Yeah, I remember wanting to hang out with you.

You do?  That's sweet.  You were so sweet.

Anything else you want to say?

No. I like that picture.  I don't like my haircut.  But I like the picture because you're so sweet in it, kinda spacing out, sitting in your mom's lap.  I like that picture.
 
*I changed the name.