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Fantasy, old age or just a happy combination is what makes a fairytale these days, and as many other baby boomer, older women, we all grew up with Cinderella. Yes, Rogers and Hammerstein gave us the perfect dreaming and hopeful young woman, who touched on our dreams from her own little corner, as she too dreamed of helping a stranger, meeting a prince, and living happily ever after. What the heck, nice work if you can get it. That being said, as I’ve aged and discovered, that the body may go, the skin may sag, and sight may fade it is only imagination and hope, that gets stronger, while tying in with memories of life that went by way too fast. In my case, it was a time with my neighbor Kim (fiery redhead who had a tragic adult life ahead of her sadly) and I, who lived out our days, as Leslie Ann Warren, praying that Stuart Damien aka Prince Charming, would show up on our doorstep. We didn’t need stepsisters or a fairy godmother; it was just innocence, hoping to find that one person to make your dreams come true.

I was lucky you see, because we had the perfect arrangement, since back in my day, you could burn trash, and Kim‘s father had an old fireplace on the north side of their yard for that purpose.  However, as time went on, it was falling apart and being reclaimed by nature, but the ivy and dirt, along with crumbling stones, made it  perfect as our stage, and  we took turns sitting in our own little corner by the fireplace, dreaming what if…..  Adding to that, I had my father‘s old trustee bucket from the garage, which he used washing cars, or bringing water outside from the house, and my mother‘s gravy ladle, which ironically, I later learned, was from the memories of Hiawatha collection, by Williams and Rogers (no Hammerstein).

The irony in that odd discovery for me, was every morning Mom and I would read at breakfast, and often she would recite parts of the Longfellow poem to me, The Song of Hiawatha, my favorite being by the shores of Gitche Gumee, as it made me laugh when she said the almost silly words. My father had also nicknamed me, Pocahontas, although I never quite understood why, but took it endearingly.  So, putting those together, along with the old commercial of the Hamms Beer bear, with his tom tom drums in the background, highlighting the land of sky blue waters, which I loved from our black and white TV,  my memories all tied together beautifully from my own little corner of childhood. However, I digress…..back to the ladle.

In our version of Cinderella, I was in charge of the water bucket and the ladle.  I would sit in my front yard under the big elm tree that we had as I grew up, just hoping that a kind stranger would stop by (albeit a very attractive prince needing water) and I could say, “you are most kindly welcome”,  after refreshing him from his long journey. It’s amazing, that the memories of a child, hoping to find that soul mate, or other half to complete life, are still a dream today, over fifty years later, in a world of electronic and computerize reality. It also doesn’t matter what version of Cinderella is released in the movies or in text, it will forever be Stuart Damien, long before Alan Quartermaine on General Hospital, and Leslie Ann Warren long before she loved Pookie in Victor Victoria.

Shaking my head now, over how ridiculous that prince costume was, and how young she was, and compared to today’s standards, her teeth were crooked, and her voice was unsure.  But it didn’t matter, because it was the fantasy and imagination that filled in the blanks, and she was the most beautiful young woman we had ever seen! Looking back now, at musical bands and other stars of my era, they had everyday clothing, glasses, crooked teeth, and often sang songs, not acceptable today, or even understood. But at the time, it was perfect… it was what we needed, and it left wonderful memories. Now sadly, AI is rewriting and filling the blanks with pixels and images that never were there to begin with, and it is killing imagination with data center nightmares, and a version of perfection that doesn’t exist by any human standards.

So for today, in my world of quiet and memories, I’ll remember a time when a fairy godmother said “It’s Possible” and I will continue my dreams, remember Cinderella, and know I lived in the best of times, even if it was only one corner at a time.