Mom Knew Best: If I Didn't Laugh, I'd Cry

Regan Sachs Marilyn

Description

Inspired by her mother's optimistic outlook on life, Marilyn Regan Sachs has written a collection of vignettes about finding humor in the ever-changing times that swirled around her childhood, teenage, and adult years, including a short stint in the convent and a sixty-six-year marriage to her husband, Carl, affectionately called The Chameleon. Together, they raised four daughters and shared numerous adventures, many of which have ended up in the pages of Mom Knew Best: If I Didn't Laugh, I'd Cry.

Sujets

• Philosophie et théologie
• Memoir

Informations

• Publié par: Austin Macauley Publishers LLC
• Date de parution: 31 mars 2020
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781645753544
• Langue: English

Extrait

Mom Knew Best: If I Didn’t Laugh, I’d Cry
Marilyn Regan Sachs
Austin Macauley Publishers
2020-03-31
Mom Knew Best: If I Didn’t Laugh, I’d Cry About the Author Dedication Copyright Information © Acknowledgment 2018 Introduction 1934–1945 The Early Years 1949 Get Thee to a Nunnery 1951 For Better or for Worse 1957 My Hawaiian Diary 1967 Hawaii or Bust 1968–74 White-Knuckle Sailing 1981 Condominium Life 1982 Get Thee to a Shrink 1983 Over Qualified 1986 Camping Panache 1990 Is There Skiing After Sixty? 1992 Nirvana? 1995 Cast and Blast 1996 The Soloist 2000 What I Thought I Heard 2006 Looks Can Be Deceptive 2015 Leave My Wrinkles Alone 2017 Replacement Therapy The End? I Think Not
About the Author

11
Marilyn Regan Sachs has been published in Sea, Pasadena, and Catholic World.
Dedication
To my mom, who, in the midst of this chaotic world, brought peace and humor into our lives, and to my husband, Carl, The Chameleon, who turned sixty-six years of marriage into a wonderful adventure.
Copyright Information ©
Marilyn Regan Sachs (2020)
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher.
Any person who commits any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
Ordering Information:
Quantity sales: special discounts are available on quantity purchases by corporations, associations, and others. For details, contact the publisher at the address below.
Publisher’s Cataloging-in-Publication data
Sachs, Marilyn Regan
Mom Knew Best: If I Didn’t Laugh, I’d Cry
Austin Macauley is committed to publishing works of quality and integrity. In that spirit, we are proud to offer this book to our readers; however, the story, the experiences, and the words are the author’s alone and portrayed to the best of their recollection. In some cases, names and details have been changed to protect the privacy of the people involved.
ISBN 9781645753520 (Paperback)
ISBN 9781645753537 (Hardback)
ISBN 9781645753544 (ePub e-book)
Library of Congress Control Number: 2020903401
www.austinmacauley.com/us
First Published (2020)
Austin Macauley Publishers LLC
40 Wall Street, 28th Floor
New York, NY 10005
USA
[e-mail]
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Acknowledgment
I owe a huge thanks to my editor, Marla Miller, who turned these stories into a book. Her guidance was invaluable, and she stayed with me every step of the way.
2018

Introduction
I was born with the proverbial silver spoon in my mouth but as time went on, with age and dwindling income, it became slightly tarnished. So here I am at eighty-eighty years old with four daughters, seven grandchildren and seven great grandchildren, daily waking up to my usual habit of turning on the news filled with wars, rapes, murders, kidnappings, drive by shootings or car chases on freeways with ten police cars following in agonizingly slow pursuit. It’s like waking in the middle of a nightmare. My acronym for the NEWS? Not Even Worth Seeing.
Not long ago, I lay in bed thinking there has to be a modicum of happiness and laughter somewhere in the world. My thoughts turned to Mom, a woman filled with wisdom, compassion and understanding, a woman who found humor in the world around her.
When Mom became terminally ill, I visited daily. On one visit, I told her I was going through a tumultuous time. I felt as though my life was a jumble of disconnected strings. She smiled and said, “Everything that happens in your life is connected. Living is a series of vignettes. When our life draws to a close, they become our very own gospel, our individual story. The most important things to remember are the happy, fun-filled times. Then, when you are older, you will have a scrapbook filled with wonderful memories.” Two weeks later, she was gone.
Recently and after sixty-six years of marriage, I lost my husband, Carl. I married this handsome Air Force Captain, whom I had known for a few short months. Little did I know that my husband, whom I affectionately called ‘The Chameleon’ would take me on the greatest roller coaster ride of my life.
Carl was a bomber pilot flying B-17’s in World War II. After the war, he completed his college education. When I met Carl for the first time, he had just re-entered the Air Force. He was stationed in Seattle, and I was living in New York. He would fly into N.Y. on occasion.
Carl was smart and funny with endless energy and ideas. Although our visits were brief, he took me everywhere: museums, the theater and long drives in the country. I had dated other young men but something about Carl’s enthusiasm for life attracted me to him. Putting it bluntly, I fell in love.
After Carl’s fourth trip to New York, he asked me to marry him. We were riding a carriage through Central Park at midnight. He put his arms around me.
“I have an extra parachute in my plane, and I want you to come back to Seattle, and be my wife.”
In a whisper, I said, “Yes.” Unexpectedly, that small word opened up a wonderful world, I could not have imagined. Sometimes the word chameleon conjures up a cute little gecko, but in this case, it’s my husband’s mind that changes. Early in our marriage, he planned a lovely weekend trip to the desert. At three in the morning, he woke me up.
“Forget the desert. We leave for Europe in a week.” With that said, he rolled over and went back to sleep.
I sat up in bed trying to comprehend the meaning of this sudden change in plan. I tapped his shoulder. “What possesses you to change plans like this? You are just like my dad. You do it all the time, leaving me totally unprepared.”
He yawned, “I’ve seen Europe from the air, but now I want to tour it by car. When I die, I want the pages of my life filled to the brim.”
“At the rate you are going, there won’t be enough paper in the world to accommodate you.” It was then I realized that I married a man who tackled life head on, leaving me to ask on a daily basis, “What’s next?”
These past months, I’ve thought a lot about my growing up years, Mom’s sage advice and the wonderful adventures I shared with my husband, Carl. I have rummaged through the series of vignettes that constitutes my life and have cast aside stories of sadness, unfulfilled dreams, tragedies, and drawn upon the happy episodes that have truly made my life worth living.
When I told my dearest friend, Joann, that I was writing a book chronicling the good times of my life, she gave me a dubious look and said, “Marilyn, at your age, if you want to see it in print, you’d better hurry.”
1934–1945

The Early Years

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Mom and Dad’s temperaments were at opposite ends of the personality spectrum. Mom, quiet and serene, Dad, volatile, generous and forever making plans that changed constantly.
There were four of us: two brothers, my sister and the baby, me. Mom was the anchor who stabilized this gregarious ship. She set broad parameters for her children, and you knew better than to go beyond them. With any transgression you would be treated fairly but with silence. In an Irish family, so filled with stories and laughter, that is tantamount to a living hell.
During the Depression in the 1930s, Dad worked on the police force in New York. He was an extremely handsome man and had a gorgeous singing voice.
One night, he sang at a police function where a talent scout from Warner Brothers Studios in Hollywood heard him sing. The scout wanted him to come to Hollywood for a screen test.
My parents had just enough money in the bank to cover the round-trip train fare to California. At first, Dad said, “No, we have four kids and might need the money in an emergency.”
Mom who always walked through life’s challenges unafraid, looked at him. “You have a God given voice and this is an opportunity of a lifetime.