My mother’s best friend since the early 1970’s has always been Buzzy. No need for a last name now, though you’ll get one of her three if you keep reading! If you asked Buzzy why her friendship with my mother has lasted so long, she would probably say something like,
“She lived the longest!”
Buzzy is an artist with a remarkable depth of talent; glass, clay, ceramics, the brush and more. In the picture below there are one or two pieces you can see which she did not make but the rest are all Buzzy.
Growing up in White Plains in the 1970’s, on the seventh day while even God rested, my parents played golf with Buzzy and her husband Howard. It was a nice reward for my father who would have spent the six days leading up to golf, slinging metal deuces of Regal across a Bronx floor!
When the Lipton’s met the Furman’s over a round of golf, a love ensued. Particularly between the two women, Buzzy and my mother, Bobbie! I wish I had space to tell you the entire story of Buzzy and Bobbie but this blog is supposed to be about paint, not two old ladies! Here’s all you really need to know: When I told my mother that we had a little free time to finally break away from the family that has surrounded her since my father’s passing, she said “Take me to see Buzzy!”
Between selling my father’s car, writing thank you cards to those who donated to charities in my father’s name (thank you, he would have done the same for you), and delivering original death certificates to assorted people and governments who wouldn’t take my word for it that my father was dead, “ma” and I ate lunch, socially distant, on Buzzy’s deck!
On the seventh floor of a building on the inter-coastal: the 3000-mile-long stretch of inland waterway between the Atlantic and the coast of the United States, Buzzy has the right view! The view, the company and an ocean breeze made these the first moments I’ve felt comfortable in Florida in the weeks I’ve been here this summer.
The furnace of Florida brought still by the shade of a patio, an intercoastal breeze and a ghost from better days!
Later in the afternoon Buzzy started packing up a box of her art creations. When asked what she was up to, she told me they were for me…..to bring to her daughter Margie! Turns out that her daughter Margie (my car-mate during college touring season in 1980) lives about 90 minutes from Stamford and Buzzy trusts my rented Beemer to get the delicate glass and ceramic artwork to Margie’s door more than she trusts FedEx!
After stalking Margie on LinkedIn (you can stalk her here if you like stalking too)) it turns out that she’s (kinda-sorta) in our industry which I find cool for no reason at all! We’ve been texting ever since her mother reconnected us and Guy and I plan on meeting her and her husband (socially distant) in the coming weeks. To deliver the maternal care package and ask her what she’s been up to since the last time I saw her; in 1986!
I dropped a new podcast today, with Russell Brasher. Russell Brasher is the newest Benjamin Moore dealer in the country and I got a chance to sit and chat with him, a week before he opened the first of his three planned locations! Five-months behind schedule, Russell shared some of the challenges of opening a paint store while working around local Covid restrictions, the economic effects of the outbreak, e-commerce and the support her got from Benjamin Moore to open this store. I think you’ll enjoy hearing his story. You can listen here on my site by navigating to podcasts in the menu above, or in the regular places: Apple, Stitcher, Blubrry and Soundcloud! Like and subscribe (if you liked it and feel like subscribing)!
I thought I’d give you the day off from my droning on about paint and e-commerce, though I continue to think of both obsessively! I’ll be back on Monday with more from the world of paint.