"Meow! My Groovy Life with Tiger Beat's Teen Idols" by Ann Moses

Googling articles about David Cassidy's sad passing this week, I stumbled on an article on CNN.com with a very familiar name in the byline -- albeit one I hadn't seen nor thought of in well over 40 years.

Ann Moses worked for Tiger Beat magazine (and eventually became its editor) in the late 1960s & early 1970s. In those pre-cable, pre-Internet years, monthly magazines like Tiger Beat, its sister publication Fave, and New York-based rival 16 Magazine, were the main connection that teen & pre-teen girls like me & my sister had to our idols.  Stuffed full of glossy photos and breezy stories with headlines like "Davy's Life Story!"and  "Shhh... 24 Hours with Dino, Desi & Billy," these publications fed us critical information such as David Cassidy's favourite colour and Bobby Sherman's thoughts on going steady. (Serious journalism this was not.)

"Meow!  My Groovy Life with Tiger Beat's Teen Idols" details Ann's years of hanging out with and writing about the biggest teen idols of the day, including Paul Revere & the Raiders, Dino Desi & Billy, the Monkees, Bobby Sherman (who wrote the foreword for the book), David Cassidy and the Osmonds. Still a teenager herself when she started working for Tiger Beat in 1966, Ann became a regular fixture on the sets of our favourite TV shows, such as "The Monkees," "The Partridge Family," and "Here Come the Brides," cooked chili for the Osmonds at her apartment, and was in the audience when Elvis made his famous comeback special in 1968. In her spare (!) time, she dabbled in somewhat more serious journalism with a regular column in England's New Musical Express (NME). 

In short, she was living our dream. :)  

Those were simpler, much more innocent times, when a handwritten note could get you backstage to interview the Dave Clark Five for your college newspaper, and when you could share a hotel bed with a member of Paul Revere and the Raiders & not even have him try to kiss you. As you might have suspected, though, most of the guys Ann wrote about were not quite as squeaky clean as they appeared to be in the pages of the magazine. Wives, live-in girlfriends and babies were kept hidden or very much in the background. David Cassidy's dog went by "Sheesh" in the pages of Tiger Beat, but his full name was actually "Hashish." "We were in the business of making dreams, not crushing them," Ann explains.  She smoked pot with members of the Raiders and later Peter Tork of the Monkees, lost her virginity to a former Mouseketeer, and had her heart broken by Maurice Gibb of the BeeGees -- on her 21st birthday, no less.   

The story ends with Ann's departure from Tiger Beat in 1972.  Even though she loved her job and was extremely well paid, she quit when she learned the (male) editor of Rona Barrett's Hollywood, another magazine from the same publisher, was making twice as much money as she was, even though (thanks to Ann's leadership) Tiger Beat was making far more money.  (The excuse, of course, being that he was married and had a family to support.)  Perhaps my one quibble about the book is that I'd have liked to learn more about her post-TB life. We do learn that she and her second husband adopted two sons, that she now lives in Arizona, and that she still gets together occasionally with Laudy Powell and Sharon Lee, two other TB-ers whose names I well remember. 

I downloaded this book from Amazon to the Kindle app on my phone last night and finished reading it this morning :) -- one of the speediest reads I've had in a long time. It's not a long nor complicated book, and it might not be quite as interesting to anyone who didn't live through those days, but it was a fun nostalgia trip for me, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. :) 

This was book #17 that I've read so far in 2017, bringing me to 71% of my 2017 Goodreads Reading Challenge goal of 24 books.  I am (still!) currently 4 books behind schedule to meet my goal. :p  ;)

"I woke up so sad this morning"

"I woke up so sad this morning." This headline on a Globe & Mail article summed it up nicely for me (and also cleverly twisted and incorporated a hit Partridge Family song to boot). 

I started crying last night when I heard that David Cassidy was dead at the far-too-young age of 67.

As my dear penpal of 40 years commented on my Facebook post, "That sound you hear all over the world is the little teenage corners of the hearts of millions of women in their 50's cracking a bit at todays news."

She & I first "met" in 1977 through our mutual love of the Bay City Rollers (!).  But before the BCR, before Donny Osmond -- and LONG before New Kids on the Block, or NSync, or Backstreet Boys, or One Direction, or Justin Bieber -- there was David Cassidy.

I was 9 in the fall of 1970 when "The Partridge Family" came on TV.  My sister & I were enthralled, with the show, the music, but most of all, with David Cassidy. That hair!  That smile!! Those dimples!! That whispery, seductive voice!  We couldn't wait for each weekly episode.

Around that same time, my parents bought us a cassette tape recorder, a fairly new gadget back then.  There were no such things as VCRs or PVRs back then, but we would prop the microphone up close to the TV speaker on a stool and tape episodes of the show, then listen to them later again and again, memorizing the dialogue & the songs.  (I think I can still recite passages from "Danny & the Mob" and "A Knight in Shining Armour," which guest starred Bobby Sherman, one of the other big teen idols of the day.)

My aunt & uncle gave us the first Partridge Family album that year for Christmas, and my sister & I pooled our allowance to buy the next couple of albums too, as well as umpteen issues of Tiger Beat, Fave & 16 Magazine. We shared a room back then, so we didn't have to argue over who got the posters. ;)  My mother wouldn't let us tape the onto our bedroom walls ("it will ruin the paint!!"), but the door was stained wood and less susceptible to tape marks -- and so we had a big poster taped up there. I kissed it every night before I went to bed -- at least until poor David's paper lips started to wear away from the moisture. ;)  I was convinced I was going to marry him. Never mind that he was 11 years older than me, or that he was in California & I was half a continent away in Manitoba.

"The Partridge Family" ended after four seasons, and David moved on to other things. So did I. But I still smiled whenever I heard about him or saw him on TV, or caught an old Partridge Family episode in reruns.  Even just a few weeks ago, I found myself humming some old Partridge Family songs in the shower. I'm sure it's been well over 40 years since I listened to one of their albums, but somehow, I still know all the words.

I suppose his death shouldn't have been such a shock. He'd announced that he was suffering from dementia earlier this year :(  and a few days ago, we heard that he was in critical condition in the hospital.  But coming on the heels of the deaths of so many of the other musical and cultural icons I grew up with (Glenn Frey of the Eagles, David Bowie, Prince, Kenny Shields of Streetheart, Tom Petty... and, earlier this week, Malcolm Young of AC/DC...), it was just one more blow, one more piece of my past gone. And his death was especially personal in a way those others weren't.  It was a shock to realize he was 67 -- how did the eternally youthful David Cassidy get to be 67??!!  (More to the point, how did I get to be 56??!)  Even so, 67 isn't really that old...

"The stuff we grow up on is formative. So when a star we grow up watching or listening to dies, a part of our foundation, even a teeny bit, gets chipped away," the Globe article concluded. "It's something we become more familiar with as we age, even if it's a feeling we don't ever really know how to deal with.

"And this is something, I'm afraid, there is no cure for."

#MicroblogMondays: Odds & ends

• Sorry for the downer of a previous post... albeit it did feel good to vent a little. ;)  What can I say, it's November...! 
• We got out of the house this weekend, which did wonders for my mood (even though the weather was crappy).  We went to an event at a nearby art gallery where I hold a membership, then into the pretty little village where it's located for treats at Starbucks. Then to BIL's house to play with Older Nephew's puppy (always a mood-booster!), and from there to the mall to walk around, shop & have dinner. 
• The mall had all its Christmas decorations up, and Santa was holding court. Now I'm starting to feel Christmasy!  
• Season finale of "Poldark" was on TV last night... including no fewer than three pledge breaks interrupting the show. Ugh. I love PBS & I know it depends on pledge breaks, but couldn't they put them before & after the show, especially when it's something that's SO anticipated??  

You can find more of this week's #MicroblogMondays posts here.  

Struggling

A childless-not-by-choice friend, in a similar line of work as me, recently messaged me for my opinion on a work-related matter. We talked about work and I mentioned that this was always our busiest & most stressful time of the year there -- and that I DO NOT MISS IT!!  ;)

And I don't.

But afterwards, I was thinking about how empty my life is sometimes, especially since I don't have work to fill my days anymore, and especially since we moved -- that whole "Is that all there is??" feeling. I don't miss the stress of work in the least -- but I miss the people (well, some of them... ;)  ) and the routines that filled my days. I miss being downtown, at least once in a while.  I don't miss our house (surprisingly), but I sometimes miss the old community.  It's not like I had lots of friends there  (because I didn't), but it was closer to my one good (retired) friend from work, and I was more likely to run into someone I knew casually there, KWIM? There was a comfort level there that I have yet to develop here. I could get dh to drive me 10 minutes to the GO station, or even just hop on a bus nearby & be downtown in the city in 40 minutes, if I wanted to go to the big mall there, or to an exhibit at the museum or art gallery or whatever. I was even steeling myself to try to start driving more again. I do love our condo, but I feel kind of trapped here sometimes, and a bit fish-out-of-water-ish. The traffic is NUTS, so driving is back on the backburner again, and while the transit is improving, it's not there yet.

I'm not often truly bored -- I do try to stay busy with writing on my blog & doing genealogy research & reading, etc., and dh gets restless if we go more than a day without getting out of the house, at least to Starbucks ;) -- but lately, I HAVE been bored & restless. I can go for days & days without having a meaningful conversation with another adult besides dh.

My own damned fault. I keep saying I'm going to find a yoga studio, find a book club to join. I've even considered returning to church -- for the social benefits, if not for the prospect of eternal salvation. ;)

But I haven't.

It's nice being closer to BIL & SIL & family here -- but they still have their own lives, they still work, and so they're busy. They have been really great about including us in stuff, especially re: our nephews' weddings (the one last year & the one coming up). I went out with SIL a few weeks ago to help her find a mother of the groom dress, and then we went shopping for one for me -- and it's so nice to feel included. But it's not my kid's wedding & never will be, and sometimes it's hard when I think about it that way.

I'm sure it's no coincidence that this melancholy feeling descended on me shortly after the recent time change, with the increasing darkness -- and coldness -- and the approach of the child-and-family-focused holidays. Or that Katie's due date came a few days later (the 14th). Or that my midlife/(peri)menopausal hormones seem to be acting up more than usual lately. (Damned hot flashes...)

Or maybe it's just because it's November. ;)

I'm sure this will pass. It usually does. The sun just broke through the clouds briefly, when I was typing that. :)  That really helps too. :)

Vent over. :)  (For now. ;)  )

#MicroblogMondays: Do you read the book first?

Is anyone else watching this season of "Poldark" on PBS Masterpiece Theatre (or have you seen it elsewhere that it's already been broadcast)?  Last night was this season's penultimate episode, i.e., the next-to last one. This coming Sunday will be the end, although filming on another season (the 4th) is now under way. (We'll probably have to wait until next fall before we see it here, though...!) 

I have been reading the comments on various Poldark-related social media posts in amusement/bemusement, as people vent about the events in latest episodes and speculate what's going to happen next. It's clear that not many people have actually read the books the show is based on (or seen the original 1970s TV adaptation) -- heck, I'm sure some people don't even realize there ARE books the show is based on -- & I fear some of them are going to be sadly disappointed when things don't go the way they hope or predict. 

(As you might guess, I've read the books -- all but the 12th/very last one. I started re-reading them when the new TV series began airing, and have reviewed them on this blog. You can find them, if you're interested, by typing "Poldark" into the search window on the right-hand side of this page.)

Whenever possible, I prefer to read the book(s) before I watch a TV show or movie -- which is why I still haven't watched Outlander or Alias Grace, to name a few. (Usually, the book version is better.)  Thank goodness for PVRs & Netflix... ;)  I was relieved when the recent movie adaptation of Jo Nesbo's "The Snowman" got lousy reviews, because it meant I could move the movie down on my "to see" list and thus didn't have to rush to read the book first. ;)  (So many books, so little time...)

What about you? Do you prefer to read the book first, or do you like to be surprised?  And are you watching "Poldark"?? 

You can find more of this week's #MicroblogMondays posts here.  

10 things I've learned after 10 years of blogging

...about living childless/free after loss & infertility.

(I recently celebrated my 10-year blogoversary, & posted about it here! )(I've been struggling with pg loss & infertility for almost 20 years now.... blogs didn't exist back then, but I did find support in other online forums. Some of these thoughts would also apply to my experiences there.)

• There are certainly trolls online -- but there are also some very nice people out there.  And some of them can wind up being your very good friends :) even though you've never met. 
• You will never make everyone happy, so you might as well blog to please yourself. 
• Your blog, your rules. :)  It's nice if you make it clear somewhere on your blog -- in your "About" section or at the top of your post -- what new readers can generally expect, but don't feel the need to apologize for writing about your pregnancy, your hard-won family, or anything else.
• There will be dry spells when you have no ideas and/or no motivation to write. They will pass. 
• Writing out your thoughts & feelings and organizing them into a cohesive, readable narrative (at least I hope it's cohesive & readable??) can definitely be therapeutic. 
• Comments are gifts.  (And gifts should be given, as well as received!)   
• Even if you're not blogging under your own name & take precautions to remain anonymous, there's always the chance that someone you know is going to find your blog. (For me, the older I get and the longer I blog, the less I worry about that.)(I'm still not telling people I know about the blog, though, lol...)  
• Leaving comments on WordPress when you blog on Blogger can be a real pain sometimes (even when you created a WordPress account specifically to make it easier to leave comments.).  :(  (If you blog on WordPress and you haven't heard from me lately, check your spam folder -- you may have comments from me languishing there...). 
• There are not as many active bloggers in the ALI community as there were when I first started blogging... but that does not mean that blogs are passe, or that the support is not there. Some of it has just moved on to different forums (on Facebook & Twitter, for example).  But if you're like me and find it difficult to contain your thoughts to 140 characters, you might want to consider blogging. ;)   
• As I recently told Different Shores in a comment, I never would have imagined 10 years ago that I would still be blogging, 10 years later... but somehow I keep finding things to write about (albeit not all infertility & loss related).  I will say that while there's still not a day that goes by that infertility, loss &/or childlessness don't pop up in some way, shape or form, there's a whole lot less angst that goes along with it. :)  And that's a good feeling! 

What have you learned from blogging (no matter how long you've been at it)?  

#MicroblogMondays: "Let's open up"

(Once again, not quite a "microblog" post...!)

I read an opinion piece in The New York Times this weekend that struck a chord with me.

In the opening paragraphs, two friends having dinner together are asked by the waitress if they would like wine. Instead of simply declining, one woman explains, "I'm celebrating 10 years of sobriety this weekend."  Being an addict is not something that most people will easily admit to -- but her honesty is rewarded:  Near the end of the meal, the entire staff converges on the table, bearing a dish of ice cream with a candle stuck in it, singing "Happy birthday."

The woman was Faith Zenoff, director of a nonprofit recovery centre, who says it took her years to be able to tell her story to friends and family members, let alone talk about it in public. But now:

...she's promoting an idea considered radical in addiction circles: that people in recovery could be open and even celebrated for managing the disease that is plaguing our nation. She and other advocates believe that people in recovery could play a vital role in ending the addiction epidemic, much as the protest group Act Up did in the AIDS crisis.

I have never been (& hopefully never will be) addicted to drugs or alcohol -- and I recognize the very real stigma that addicts live with. My own story is, admittedly much different.

But I know the (different, admittedly, but also very real) stigma that's attached to pregnancy loss, infertility & childlessness, and how difficult it is to share my story honestly and openly -- to watch as people react with shock and horror, and (worse) pity and (worse yet) platitudes -- to be excluded (sometimes deliberately, sometimes unwittingly) because I don't have children. And I think there's some lessons for us to take away from this article.

I have written before about the healing power that can be found telling our stories.  Telling our stories (even in abbreviated form) was a central focus of the support group we attended and later helped facilitate for a decade. It's also a major part of Alcoholics Anonymous, other 12-step groups and other kinds of support/self-help organizations.

But in most of these groups (online & in "real life"), we tell our stories to each other.  Certainly, there is healing and comfort to be found in sharing what we've been through, in the bonds we form, the knowledge that we're not alone, that we're not the only ones this has happened to, that others have experienced something similar.

But as the article points out, the anonymity and privacy of these groups don't help us in the world outside of them.  It doesn't help others understand the pain we've been through, the obstacles we have encountered (and sometimes overcome), or just how common it is to be dealing with these issues (i.e., the very real possibility these issues can and very likely will touch them directly too, at some point in their life). 

...I’ve seen the miracles these programs make possible. Anonymity creates a sense of safety that recovering addicts desperately need. Twelve-step programs save countless lives. There are many reasons not to tamper with them. 

But I’ve also met men and women who are 20, even 30, years sober. They’ve overcome adversity and often trauma to live lives of courage, resilience and grace... 

We need to hear more from them... why should they remain silent? “It’s like being a vegan but only being able to talk about it in a kitchen or a hospital,” Ms. Zenoff said, “or with another vegan.” [emphasis mine] 

The recovery movement is taking its cue from the gay rights and AIDS awareness movements of the 1990s:

At the onset of the AIDS epidemic, many Americans blamed gay men for bringing the fatal disease upon themselves. Unenlightened Americans today consider addiction a moral failing as well, one as likely to spur a trip to prison as to a treatment center. 

“The Act Up marches, the AIDS quilt and the posters made people more sympathetic, and made gay people seem more human,” said Daniel Royles, an AIDS historian at Florida International University. 

The activists shifted people’s understanding of the disease. After several years of pressure from people with AIDS and their supporters, to give one example, the federal Health Resources and Services Administration spending on AIDS programs increased more than thirteenfold in 1991, to $220.6 million from $16.5 million. 

The government hasn’t yet done the same for addiction, even though this treatable disease kills more Americans every year than AIDS at its 1995 peak.

I think about the statistics related to pregnancy loss, infertility and childlessness. One in eight couples experiences infertility.  Only about 30% of IVF cycles are successful -- meaning some 70% are not.  One in four women will lose a pregnancy at some point. In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates about 24,000 babies are stillborn every year.  If you do the math, that's about 66 stillbirths A DAY.

I remember someone once remarking that if a small plane crashed and killed 66 passengers every day of the year, it wouldn't be long before something was done to investigate and correct or at least alleviate the situation. 

And yet people are far more familiar with the tragedy of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, even though statistically, stillbirths claim the lives of 10 times more babies than SIDS -- for the simple reason that SIDS parents and organizations started speaking out & demanding answers as to why their newborn babies were dying, suddenly & without explanation.

"Despite the headlines, we’re still a nation in denial [about the extent of the addiction problem in America],"  the article says.

Jim Hood, Facing Addiction’s co-founder and chief executive, joked that addiction “is an illness that nobody is ever going to get, nobody ever has and nobody ever has had.” ...If Americans heard enough stories, would they clamor for more research funding and treatment beds then?

(Substitute "infertility" or "pregnancy loss" for "addiction" in the quote above...! Does this sound familiar?? Everybody believes that pregnancy loss & infertility is something that happens to other people, right?)

It's difficult to open up and to let the people around you know the truth about what you have endured -- to open yourself up to misunderstanding, hurtful comments and intrusive questions. I am certainly not a poster child in this regard. I will admit that I write/blog a good game; I'm less successful when it comes to practicing what I preach and moving outside of my comfort zone.

But I'm trying... :)

You can find more of this week's #MicroblogMondays posts here.