……………………Two wonderful people that are very dear to me, GLENN and CHARLES, came to my home for an overnight visit………..Both Glen and Charles worked for me at Anne Klein in the early 80s…….Charles was my one of my design assistants of which I had four…..a very close knit group. He came to me as a very young man…..a BOY really from the north east…..I think it was his first major job. He was and still is a very funny and sweet person…..You can just tell his personality from his smiling laughing face….That’s Charles at the lower left…After many years Charles left the company in pursuit of new adventures….I was sad to see him go….It was like sending your child off to college….leaving the safety of the nest….Glenn, came to me at 17 from the south, and he became in charge of ALL print development for both Anne Klein Couture and Anne Klein 11……..To say he was and is very talented would be a gross understatement. He has exquisite taste….they both do. I sort of felt like a father figure, because they were so young, and I believe I mentored them by them working closely with me. Whatever I knew I happily shared with both of them….Glenn even traveled with me to Europe, and went to the fabric fairs with me….The boys met at Anne Klein, and eventually fell in love, and became partners in life…..They have been together for over 30 YEARS!!!!, and have been married for 7…..HOLLY COW!!!! I still feel like their father after all of this time! They live in the Hamptons on Long Island, and they have an apartment in NYC….the best of both worlds!…….This overnight visit with me was long over due!….I asked them if there was someplace they wanted to go while they were in CT., but they said no….they would rather sit in my home with me, and for us to catch up and tell the many stories we all had…….It was actually a pretty cloudy, and chilly day and the wind was blowing hard. They just loved looking out the windows at the view and the waves crashing on the patios and sea wall below…….Since we couldn’t sit outside by the firepit….I lit the fireplace inside…..my first of the season……and we kept it going right through the afternoon until we all retired for the evening….I thought it was time to bring out some snacks!…Assorted cheeses, and crackers, cheese sticks……pate….and shrimp….and we washed it down with delicious Rose Prosecco….it hit the spot…..delicious!…The boys brought me some fun gifts, one of which was these plastic cups with “HARRIS WALZ 2024″ printed on them……They told me they got them in a store in the Hamptons. The owner of the store also had TRUMP VANCE cups……She posted daily in her store front window the tally of how many cups she was selling of each candidate…..I thought that was pretty funny, and spurred people on to come into the shop to buy cups….and BROWSE…..a clever ploy!……We talked and talked and talked and talked some more. I regaled them with stories which they loved…..Some, they were a sort of a part of just being at AK, and many they didn’t know…..As we were talking I got an Amazon delivery….It was the book I’ve been waiting for……a new version of…..”THE BATTLE OF VERSAILLES: The fashion Showdown of 1973”, by Mark Bozek…….It was an HISTORIC fashion show….which pitted the American Designers against the French designers….It was done for the preservation of Versailles itself, which was falling apart and in terrible condition……..The AMERICANS WON HANDS DOWN….I was told by a model named Carol Brandt [her maiden name] that there were pictures of Jac in the book….There is an iconic picture of Jac and Carol in Bill Blass…..Jac is wearing a long white dress with a white fox border, a white veiled hat and a walking stick….Jac…looking very HAUGHTY ….Jac had told me that Bill Blass had an 8 foot mounted poster of this picture of her behind his desk for the longest time!……..We enjoyed going through the pictures, me telling the stories that Jac had told me….She was a teenager!…..Then it was time to cook dinner……I had prepared the potatoes for roasting earlier in the day….pealing and cutting them up and keeping them in ice water, a trick I learned from Jac…..I cut up the yellow and red peppers earlier and kept them in a plastic bag in the frig……When it was time to cook I got out the HOT Italian sausage, cut it into bite size pieces, and put them in a bake pan with just a little olive oil. The peppers went into another pan with olive oil, salt , pepper and white balsamic vinegar. Since the potatoes take longer to cook….into the oven they went first….then 20 minutes later the peppers and sausage. While they were cooking I prepared the mixed salad….butter lettuce, white cap mushrooms cut up, mixed color cherry tomatoes, English cucumbers sliced thin, chopped walnuts, crumbled gorgonzola cheese, and a mustard dressing……After a certain time I combined the peppers and the sausage in one pan to finish cooking….after an hour of cooking time total it was time to eat…..It was already after 9pm!…..We talked….and ate until we were stuffed!!!!…..We all cleaned up and it took no time…..We sat by the fire listening to music…..Everyone knew there was a CHOCOLATE CHEESE CAKE waiting, but Charles bravely asked if I minded if we had the cheesecake the next day….It was already midnight, and he knew if he had that much chocolate at this late hour he would never sleep!…..We were all TIRED and truly stuffed from dinner, and I thought that was a great idea!…..so off to bed we all went!……………..TO BE CONTINUED!
