Ben Called it Right! "It's" Auntie-Mame-Like

​“It reminds me of Auntie Mame” said my friend. Ben Phillips, a costume designer for television shows like Pan Am and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. “It” referred to the first chapters of my book. I entrusted Ben to read my first three chapters because I knew his opinion—he has to review scripts for a living-- would matter. And to me, it did.

I love research and try to read all books that people (so tell me what my writing reminds you of!!! PLEASE, COMMENT BELOW) tell me our story resembles. The 1955 NYT bestseller is also a broadway show and a movie. So I watched Patrick Dennis’, Auntie Mame the following morning. My 4 year old daughter was in school and my 1 year old son napped. I had the same vision for my book and now, so do others!!!

In my book, the chapters I imagined were important. But a large part of the writing at this initial stage was research and so because it is nonfiction I would go, did that really happen? And then delve into the internet and learn about something new. These words became questions I needed to know the answers to as they were the backstory. Easier said in my mind, these are the details that create the environment in which the book was set. These steps in the collaborative memoir writing process provided me a sense of a world that would eventually guide me toward completion.

So I researched all about Cleveland in the late 60’s early 70’s. I researched and fact checked all that I knew. I researched the transit system which was one of the earliest in the nation. I found out about Cleveland banking institutions, which had been entrusted as one of the few states to house a federal reserve institution. I learned about the synagogue Mitch attended. The process the institution went through during the 60’s to respond to the changing times and transform their congregation from conservative to reform. An integration of male and female worship services. What happens in my memory was that a congregation member jumped the Rabbi from behind while he was reading the torah. This era that I viewed as so prim and proper and Donna Reed-like was actually fueled by passion as a response to innovation.

I was hooked and wanted to share this setting with the reader. The age Mitch grew up during was one that was turbulent and explorative. It was rife with inventions that changed how people lived and I fell in love with it. The places they explored were changing as well. The JFK airport was another character. Namely the Saarinen terminal, the international terminal they flew out of. It was modern, sleek, and to some a wonder of the world. I learned about the clothes the flight attendants wore. Found images of skin tight Pucci flight suits and paper airline stewardess dresses. I found the same china that Mitch collected that airlines used for 1st class passengers back then. I even found an image of a two-story airplane with a social lounge up top that I had never seen other than during a dream when I was a four year old.

After a summer of transcribing and re-writing Mitch’s voice, I was excited to work on what I thought would be the first chapters of the book. Narratives by Mitch’s grandmother, that explained the intensity and dysfunction of their lives. As you know, we had a list of themes. We knew the story because it actually occurred. But we needed an en medias res moment. One that would catch the attention of a reader and create an undenying forward force where they would want to read more.