Fish Out Of Water

     Page Thirteen.
     Age nineteen saw me get my first job as a hairdresser. It was '81. Through connections I ended up working at a salon named Salon: Alpha-Omega. It was located in Rocky River, a far west side Cleveland suburb with a predominately well-to-do population. It's a very white, conservative and rigid community. It's also quite beautiful. I've always lived in Cleveland Heights, still do. CH is an inner ring east side community with a long history of Judaism and heavy racial integration. River has some stunning homes and property which juxtapose Lake Erie. CH has many neighborhoods with 5000 plus square foot homes, many reach 10,000. Both cities were developed during the Jazz Age. Culturally, they have nothing in common. Alpha-Omega was getting ready to open up a new east side salon in CH and hired me to work in the new location, once I was through with my apprenticeship, that is.
     I grew up in an old world home. My father came over on the boat and my mother had somewhat conservative beliefs. I grew up in a middle class environment but under no circumstances was it one which might be described as "Prosperous-Jewish-Consumerist," if you know what I mean. Retail therapy didn't exist, nor household bells and whistles. My particular Cleveland Heights neighborhood was very modest. It was just normal working people. Many of the upper-middle class Jewish families who settled in Cleveland Heights during the forties and fifties moved farther east to Beachwood in the sixties.
     Alpha-Omega catered to Cleveland's elite. The owners didn't care if it was rich west-siders or rich east-siders, just so long as they were in the social register. I started in July of '81 and the new salon opened in November of '81. (I took the bus to River everyday: two hours commute.) At the time of the new location's opening we were considered by Clairol International to be one of the three best salons in Cleveland with the other two in Beachwood. We were for the rich Wasps and Cleveland Heights and neighboring Shaker Heights had busloads of 'em.
     In spring of '82 I moved in with The Van Myms: ubber Wasps. Their family name is well known to American History buffs, general movers and shakers and various other blue bloods. I was the live-in nanny to people who were related to names which are American household words, in fact I met some of those people. Mrs. Van Mym, Amanda, told me that she recognized me from the salon when we first met. The VM's had one of those large houses in one of those extraordinary neighborhoods. Our next door neighbors had to have had 7000 square feet of 1925 ultra-luxury. We weren't far behind.
     I had to acclimate to living with and servicing great wealth. It was weird. Home and work were filled with people who I'd only read about. That's an element to both of those industries that receives far too little attention. Sociologically, I was fascinated. Talk about "Gorillas In The Mist?" This was the REAL DEAL. I truly was an outsider, but the level of kindness shown me, in both arenas was generally so great that I didn't feel as alienated as I realize today I was. They were saints actually. Admittedly, my basic personality is colorful enough and gracious enough that it carried me. Though I was so young and naive I could've made PeeWee Herman look like the host of Masterpiece Theater.
     As the years would progress, I would be grateful for so much of what I learned in those environments. Many of my vocational and avocational endeavors over the years have brought me into contact with people similar to those whom I met in the early-mid '80's. In fact, many people have mentioned to me that I behave like someone who's been around (and not in the bad way.) And they've been saying that since the '80's. They wouldn't believe how much of my apparently cultured background is really post-childhood.