Friday, April 30, 2010

 replacements.com


n test posting











again! i have a theme!
i just started to list some more in my e-bay store!

http://stores.ebay.com/littlemarymixup... they're all navy blue and names that we love....

vera bradley and coach.
http://www.verabradley.com/
http://www.coachoutletstore.org/ not only do i have handbags and accessories...like my department at s.f.a., saks in southampton, new york.
that was a summer of fun...for all. it was the year we graduated college. at the end of the spring semester that year, i asked my s.f.a. personnel manager if i could work at saks in southampton. the answer was yes.  i should have been more grateful to mr."devine" for that incredible life experience and crazy because he offered me the position of department manager of jewelry, handbags and accessories. heaven.  my heaven.  since age 16, my s.f.a. career had been varied...mostly, i was in the fine jewelry department.  hence, the  offer.  everyone hired for that store was usually from saks around the country...lots of young folks who were free to move to the seasonal store and earnest in their efforts to move on up the corporate retail ladder.  that store was a place to shine.....and get lots of sunshine and ocean and friends and beach days and wild nights and new friends and dates and oh...wait...it was hard work too.  if ever there was a dream place to work, it was our teeny, tiny saks fifth avenue at 10 main street, southampton, n.y. 11968!

mary b., my good ol' college friend asked if she could work there too...otherwise it was home to michigan...a long way from good friends and the new york life she had dreamed of....since her first time to see the rockettes at radio city music hall!http://www.radiocitychristmas.com/newyork/  that was when she decided she would be a rockette! well, we kicked up our heels quite a bit in southampton, not quite rockette kicks....but what a kick we had!
back in the old days...that's almost 30 years ago! wild!  the time that's gone by and the time we had! it was more fun than we could have imagined and we got paid for it!

now, that's my kind of career path!  as the department manager, i was off to the city s.f.a. with the other department managers in the store station wagon....to buy for our own little saks and our upscale customers...the rich and famous.  oh, the buying trips were fun. i hand selected the merchandise and i knew my customers well enough to deliver the perfect selection.  how cool was that? way cool...for me and mary b. and lots of our friends who came to visit....we had late nights at the best and late nights at the most rowdy

the college graduates were living the life. the life we thought we were destined to live!  woo hoo! we could get used to that! it was the 80's...we expected all of life to be that way!

it was that way for quite awhile....until the real world.  now, that was a different story. 

in the real world, there was no keg of beer in the men's department. there were no pretzels served. there were no beach days.  there were no parties every night...at least, for us while we were new in our career climb. sure there were late nights...how could we avoid it in n.y.c.? there were no lilly pulitzer http://www.lillypulitzer.com/dresses.  there were no jacques cohen espadrilles.
there were panty hose...a rude awakening after tan legs all summer.   there were power suits, pumps and pearls.  we were living life according to the 80's bible, "thepreppy handbook" and we had no idea.  we were dressing the code...beach and city attire and lifestyle.

the streets were much busier than main street, southampton, where the cars wave pedestrians across the street.  so civilized.
we lived for the yellow taxi cabs and subways instead of our bikes.http://www.amazon.com/Official-Preppy-Handbook-Jonathan-Roberts/dp/0894801406 

we were living the preppy handbook and we didn't know it. beach and city attire.

although once that summer, late for work, i ran out the door of our sweet little house and happened to see a southampton cab and i hailed it....a highlighted story of the summer.  hailing a cab in the city is one thing...but to even see a cab in southampton
was just the miracle i needed to get me to work on time even though we were just blocks away!

as we learned our way through the ins and outs of apartment living in the city, we were the recipients of some very fine transportation.  

one night, while trying to hail a cab, we found the perfect solution for our unsuccessful efforts.  we hailed a limo.  why not ride in style? we did.

surely there were nights where we were desperate enough to take the bus....after a long night of tripping the light fantastic...we decided to get off our fifth avenue bus at 57th street and mary b. tripped right across the sidewalk and landed under the windows at tiffany &co.
http://www.tiffany.com/  ...not a holly go lightly moment
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urQVzgEO_w8...when we examined her panty hose... we realizedthey looked more like spiderman's web.
moment!  we laughed so hard we could barely walk home.  we took a yellow cab the rest of the way.

there was a night when we were on our way to limelight and the taxi driver stopped to get cigarettes and left us waiting in the cab.  that concerned us...thinking he might be packing for a bigger trip than we had requested....we decided rather than be kidnapped and taken to a destination of his choice, we would get out of the cab and run for our lives.  we hid at the waldorf astoria hotel.
http://www.waldorfastoria.com/search/property-details.cfm?intPropertyId=16&WT.srch=1.  young 20 somethings shouldn't be left alone long enough to create such drama.  the man, who spoke no english, may have been addicted to cigarettes or maybe had to call his wife....but we convinced ourselves he was a kidnapper!

one outstanding and very late night, mary b., cate, nan and i were ready to make our way home from a favorite spot...while we were contemplating our options, an irish handsome cab driver...not handsome as in good looking and yellow cab....but an irishman driving a handsome cab....horse and buggy....offered us a ride home.  now that was and offer we couldn't refuse! we were delighted and hysterical.  we had hailed our first horse! the lilt of our driver's brogue and his irish blarney made the ride unforgettable. his offer was a practical one...he was en route to his horse stalls, near our 65th street address!  we were hysterical and rowdy but charming with our little leprechaun who appeared before us like the lucky charms fella.

i had a full moon event one fall evening as i dashed out of the 65th street apartment building and hailed a yellow cab to take me to the train.  it was a last minute invite.  i had to catch the last train to locust valley on long island, famous for their lock jaw....tighten your jaw and clench your teeth...say locust valley lock jaw...that's where i was headed.  it was like a hephern/tracy movie...as i jumped into the cab, i directed my driver,"to the train and make it snappy!"  he was a man who took his job seriously, he looked a little intense...a little disheveled like the cabbie on the old show"taxi".  the full moon should have warned me...i didn't have a clue. with a jerk, the jolt, not the cabbie...well, to be very honest, the cabbie too....we were burning rubber across the east side. we were approaching park avenue, when the police sirens and whirling lights began blaring behind us.  he had run a red light that caused havoc...with my schedule and the police.  i told my story to the officers. my cabbie told his.  i started to walk away but the cab driver called me back.  back in the car i jumped....only thinking of time...it was broadway showtime on a friday night...the traffic was outrageous.  it was my social mission of the utmost importance to a city girl on a friday night that created such turmoil!  it became apparent that my driver was nuts as he verbally attacked...my mission changed immediately...it was time to leave the looney behind.  i tossed him some money and ran after the next yellow cab.  the night got crazier, but my mission was completed successfully. locust valley my destination and friends that insisted on fun!

pretty much all of our 20's, we seemed to insist on fun.  i still insist on fun...just a bit different approach these days. i'll laugh if this time around, our lifestyle is in the new preppy handbook...wild, that someone took the original and ran with it.  actually, why didn't i think of that?  it sold millions and i'm sure all of the readers from the first time around will have to have something to read on the beach next summer.  all i want is one simple idea. just one. wouldn't that be fun. as my mom used to say to me....when time and time again i would harp, "i can do that!"...."well, why don't you?" hmmmm.

i finally caught on!