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First Round

My Pal Sandy

mi

last week that I actually
ost people
spoke to her again.
know Sandra
Calling to plug her Dec.
Bernhard
2 appearance with Cyndi
from her movies,
Lauper at the Michigan
albums and television
Theater in Ann Arbor, we
roles, including
mainly did what good
Roseanne.
friends do. We caught up
I know her as Sandy,
with
each other and
my best friend from
Harry Kirsbaum
talked
about family,
grades 1-3.1 haven't
Columnist
school friends and the
talked to her since Jack
old days.
Kennedy was president and
I asked her about her 7-year-old
Mercury astronaut John Glenn was
daughter, Cicely.
our newest national hero.
"She's adorable, so smart and
My hometown of Flint was a
fun and loving and a good girl."
bustling, ever-expanding city and
I asked her if she had a mouth
there was no limit to how great life
on her like her mom.
could be.
"She's very opinionated, she's
From 1960 to 1963, Sandy and I
very together, but she's a little more
attended the Mackin Road Units, a
row of four one-room schoolhous- sensitive than I am. And she's very
independent."
es just around the corner from my
Sandra hasn't
house and three
visited
Flint since a
blocks away from
family
reunion
Sandy's.
more than 10 years
We ruled the
ago. She was upset
playground dur-
at what she saw.
ing recess.
"I went with my
Imagine two
brothers to my
scrawny Jewish
house she said. "It
kids playing their
was
so broke down
version of Santa
I just freaked out,
and Rudolph on a
warm day in May,
and we all left."
I asked her
giving each other
about her study of
piggy-back rides
Kabbalah, and the
and singing
influence it left on Hollywood.
"Rudolph the Red-Nosed Rein-
"Growing up Jewish and being
deer:' and you'll understand why
we were pretty much left alone.
connected to those kind of emo-
We killed 'ern at Show and Tell in tions, it was something I was inter-
Miss Roloff's second-grade class.
ested in going deeper with',' she
Sandy told entertaining stories
said. "I didn't set out to introduce
about things that happened at
anybody to anything, I was just on
my own path."
home.
I tried my hand at entertaining,
We spoke about her upcoming
appearance in Ann Arbor, a 40-
although my attempt at a puppet
minute set including a couple of
show with the two dead crickets I
dug out of my pocket became the
songs with some observations of
last time I took to the stage until
the Bush administration, pop icons
high school.
and a personal travelogue.
When she left for Arizona, we
We could have spoken more, but
didn't stay in touch. We could bare- our time was coming to an end.
I'll look forward to seeing her
ly print whole words at that age,
and no one's parents made long
again and renewing a lifelong
distance calls back then unless it
friendship put on hold for 40
was an emergency.
years.
When she popped up on televi-
But first, I've got to find some
sion in the late 1970s on a show
crickets. ❑
called Make Me Laugh, I started to
follow her career, but it wasn't until Harry Kirsbaum's e-mail address is

hkirsbaum@thejewishnews.com.

CALL. FOR A DESIGN
APPOINTMENT
TODAY..

JAMES DESIGN S

PINE ...JEWELRY

...AND REMEMBER TO BRING
ALL YOUR OLD AND BUST

6659 Orchard Lake Rd. at Maple Rd. in the Old Orchard Mall

West Bloomfield I 248-626-44134

10:219D

November
24 2005
'