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……………With my Birthday looming around the corner…..I thought it would be fun to post some birthday pictures of the past…….Jac and I lived in Darien Ct. at the time and we had a big pool in the backyard, so someone got me this giant Zebra float…..One of my absolute favorite cakes is a ICE BOX CAKE, which is nothing more than chocolate wafer cookies layered with fresh whipped cream. The cake in the picture was the closest store bought version Jac could find…..Even though my birthday is in July, and it’s not the best time of year to work with whipped cream [which Jac always told me], she would put the air conditioner on the coldest it would get and make my cake…..put it in the frig right away and the next day on my birthday I would eat the whole thing…..YUM>>>YUM>>>YUM…….I didn’t want the whipped cream to go bad…LOL…Maybe I’ll try one for my birthday this July!…..The wonderful lady I’m kissing is Rita Grossman. She was our trimmings buyer at Anne Klein and I adored her!!!! She was my Jewish momma……..During the season when Matzah were in the store, she would hide a box of Matzah in a cabinet just for me! She knew I loved them, and she knew if she left them on her desk everyone would help themselves! She always had a box on her desk as a decoy! Sometimes Rita would bring her young son Phillip to work. He was a sweet young boy. Now he’s all grown up and a face book friend! Rita retired and moved to Florida. I was very sad when Phillip told me she passed away. I can still hear her say….”Lou, I have a surprise for you in my cabinet” I gave Rita one of my “Head Shots”, at her request, which I signed to “my Rita”, and she used to have it on her desk. Whenever I think of Rita I smile……The picture of me and Susan, middle picture on the extreme right shows me holding a metal sign that Susan gave to me. It is printed with…….DEFENSE DE FUMER”…….It’s an inside joke…….Susan and I did “SMOKERS ENDERS” together…….THREE TIMES!!!!….We are still friends on face book and an occasional phone call…..Above, that photo is Connie Francis, my PR girl and right hand handing me that beautiful floral arrangement….She lives in Florida with her husband John, and they have a home in Vermont……At the bottom right is Hannah….Hannah was my fabric buyer for Anne Klein, and we traveled the world together!…….Where ever we traveled Hannah was stopped by customs. It was written on her passport “Place of Birth….Palestine”. At the time there was always trouble in the far east, as there is today…..nothing has changed. Customs in every foreign country would stop and interrogate her! She was a beautiful girl with dark features, and they just profiled her….She used to get really mad, and I would have to say, “Hannah, take a deep breath. They are just doing there job”, but it was still very unfair. She would say, “but Lou I’m  an American citizen!!, and Christian!!…..They assumed she was Muslim which was unfair in its’ self….We were very close. and though we haven’t seen each other in years….we are still in touch…The picture of the two handsome guys in the yellow ties is me and my oldest, and dear friend Maurice. I hired Maurice to design and run the Anne Klein 11 division. Maurice is now in his 80s!……We have known each other since I was 21!!!……54 years!!!!……I spoke to him on the 4th…….I can’t believe this July 23rd I will be three quarters of a century old……………Where did the time go!