{"id":40344,"date":"2023-12-30T00:01:09","date_gmt":"2023-12-30T08:01:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/barbarafalconernewhall.com\/?p=40344"},"modified":"2026-06-05T13:01:05","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T13:01:05","slug":"here-comes-another-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/here-comes-another-year\/","title":{"rendered":"Here Comes Another Year!"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_40353\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-40353\" style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/2023\/12\/30\/here-comes-another-year\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"https:\/\/barbarafalconernewhall.com\/2023\/12\/30\/here-comes-another-year\/ noopener\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-40353 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/calendar-2024-resized-1.webp\" alt=\"here comes another year -- a-2024-calendar\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-40353\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Here comes another year. This time it&#8217;s 2024. <em>Photo by Barbara Newhall<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Watch out! Here comes another year.<\/p>\n<p>The years, they just keep on coming. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.goodreads.com\/quotes\/480561-tonight-s-december-thirty-first-something-is-about-to-burst-the-clock\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Ogden Nash<\/a> once put it this way:<\/p>\n<div class=\"quoteDetails fullLine\">\n<div class=\"quoteText\">\n<blockquote>\n<p class=\"quoteText\">The clock is crouching, dark and small,<br \/>\nLike a time bomb in the hall.<br \/>\nHark, it&#8217;s midnight, children dear.<br \/>\nDuck! Here comes another year!<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Some of us have collected up a lot of years. Eighty-two in my case.<\/p>\n<p>My Aunt Grace had even more years than that under her belt by the time she was done with this planet, 98 all told. I wrote this piece about her back in 2013, not long after she died. Her name was Grace, but I thought of her as my Aunt Glamorous.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: left;\">How to Be a Glamorous Gal at Age 98<\/h3>\n<footer class=\"entry-footer\">\n<div class=\"after-entry widget-area\">\n<section id=\"a2a_share_save_widget-3\" class=\"widget widget_a2a_share_save_widget\">\n<div class=\"widget-wrap\">\n<div class=\"entry-content\">\n<figure id=\"attachment_12731\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-12731\">\n<p><figure id=\"attachment_12731\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-12731\" style=\"width: 580px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/2023\/12\/30\/here-comes-another-year\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"https:\/\/barbarafalconernewhall.com\/2023\/12\/30\/here-comes-another-year\/ noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12731 size-full\" title=\"Main-Street-Scottville-MI-ca-1914\" src=\"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Scottville-MI-Main-Street-ca.-1914-580x366-1.jpg\" sizes=\"(max-width: 580px) 100vw, 580px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/barbarafalconernewhall.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/Scottville-MI-Main-Street-ca.-1914-580x366.jpg 580w, https:\/\/barbarafalconernewhall.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/Scottville-MI-Main-Street-ca.-1914-580x366-300x189.jpg 300w, https:\/\/barbarafalconernewhall.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/Scottville-MI-Main-Street-ca.-1914-580x366-500x315.jpg 500w\" alt=\"Main Street, Scottville, Michigan, from the south\" width=\"580\" height=\"366\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-12731\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">My Aunt Glamorous came from this small country town in the Midwest.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-12731\"><em>By Barbara Falconer Newhall &#8212; February 2, 2013<\/em><\/figure>\n<p>The last of my aunts and uncles\u00a0died two weeks ago\u00a0at the age of 98, but not before passing on some last minute womanly advice to me.<\/p>\n<p>My aunt \u2013 I think of her as my Aunt Glamorous \u2013 was tall, red-headed, blue-eyed, self-sufficient and cosmopolitan at a time and place when most women in her hometown wanted nothing more than to get married, have babies and put up green beans and blackberry jam.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_12732\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-12732\"><a href=\"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/2023\/12\/30\/here-comes-another-year\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"https:\/\/barbarafalconernewhall.com\/2023\/12\/30\/here-comes-another-year\/ noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-12732 size-large\" title=\"Barbara-Newhall's-Aunt-Glamorous\" src=\"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/grace-from-Falconer-Family-w-Grandma-Ruth-ca.-1960-2-196x580-1.webp\" alt=\"Glamorous red head born in 1914 who used Vaseline as facial moisturizer\" width=\"169\" height=\"500\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-12732\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Aunt Glamorous<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Aunt Glamorous was born in a small country town in the Midwest.\u00a0 Actually, she was born in a\u00a0<em>farmhouse<\/em>\u00a0a couple miles outside a small country town in the Midwest.<\/p>\n<p>My aunt was not long for the farm town life, however. She was made of shinier stuff. She was meant to be a woman of the world. She got herself a job in retailing, saved up a few thousand dollars and opened a dress shop half way across the state.<\/p>\n<p>By the time I was teenager, my Aunt Glamorous was making regular buying trips to New York\u2019s garment district, and my mother and I were making regular trips to her store to shop wholesale for dresses and girdles and gloves.<\/p>\n<p>My Aunt Glamorous had no children. But she had a wardrobe. She had shoes. She had handbags. She had cigarette lighters and big, clunky jewelry. She had gourmet cookbooks and good-looking husbands. And right up to the end of her life she had a soft, pink, girlish complexion.<\/p>\n<p>I learned a lot from my Aunt Glamorous over the years. Some of it was advice delivered directly to me in plain words. Other advice I inferred from the shrewd way she pursued her career and the equally shrewd way my twice-widowed aunt chose her husbands: Successful businessmen who admired her as much as they loved her.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ll share with you some of my aunt\u2019s pithier tips on how to be a sexy lady \u2014 or gal, as she would put it \u2014\u00a0 at any age.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Gal Wisdom from My Aunt Glamorous<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Put away those housewifey aprons with the rumply bibs that cover up one of a gal\u2019s finest assets \u2013 her bust. \u00a0When entertaining, forgo the apron altogether. You\u2019re not the maid. You\u2019re the hostess. Take yourself seriously.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Wear a\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/2009\/08\/21\/a-case-of-the-human-condition-mad-men-exposes-the-60s-girdle-but-how-will-she-get-it-off-in-time\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">girdle\u00a0<\/a>to hold up your nylons, not to rearrange your figure. You\u2019re a gorgeous gal. Believe it.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>A gal feels the same at 50 as she does at 25 \u2013 sexy and fun-loving. Don\u2019t get old until you have to. (My Aunt Glamorous did get old. She was pushing 100 when she died, but her eyes were still blue and her hair was still red, the latter thanks to a weekly visit from her hairdresser. She received guests \u2013 nieces and nephews who flew in from around the country \u2013 in sweeping caftans. If she used a cane, it was a pretty one that matched her outfit.)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>A surprising piece of beauty wisdom came to me via one of the caretakers who saw my aunt through the last days of her life. Apparently, decade after decade, while I was spending $10, $30 and most recently $60 on jar of face cream, my clear-skinned, red-headed aunt was using the same moisturizer she\u2019d used as a farm girl \u2013 Vaseline.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Another bit of womanly advice was delivered to me a few days before my Aunt Glamorous died. By then she couldn\u2019t say more than a few words, but she could smile. As I said good-bye for the last time, I made the excuse that it was time for me to get on a plane and head home;\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/2012\/03\/05\/married-35-years-a-case-of-the-human-condition\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">my husband<\/a>\u00a0would be missing me.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>At the mention of husbands, my aunt smiled her mischievous, woman-of-the-world smile. Husbands are the cat\u2019s pajamas, I could hear her saying. Pamper them. Love them.\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/2009\/05\/29\/a-case-of-the-human-condition-would-my-husband-like-to-add-my-name-to-his\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Flirt with them.<\/a>\u00a0They\u2019re worth it.<\/p>\n<p>My aunt fled the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cityofscottville.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">small town life<\/a> as a young woman. But as the decades added up, she made careful plans to return. As soon as the ground thawed, her body would be buried in a cemetery a couple miles outside a small country town in the Midwest.<\/p>\n<p><em>Note: My Aunt Glamorous was Grace Falconer Perlmutter Kleis. She was born near Scottville, Michigan, and had dress shops in Coldwater and Jackson, Michigan. She was married to Ephraim Perlmutter. After he died, she married Harold Kleis.<\/em><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_40351\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-40351\" style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/2023\/12\/30\/here-comes-another-year\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"https:\/\/barbarafalconernewhall.com\/2023\/12\/30\/here-comes-another-year\/ noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-40351 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/new-year-path-through-snow.webp\" alt=\"here comes another year path-through-snow\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-40351\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Here comes another year. It&#8217;s right around the bend. <em>Photo by Barbara Newhall<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n<\/footer>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Here comes another year. Some of us have accumulated a lot of them. My glamorous Aunt Grace had racked up 98 years by the time she left the planet.\u00a0 <a href=\"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/2023\/12\/30\/here-comes-another-year\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read more.<\/a><\/p>\n<footer class=\"entry-footer\">\n<div class=\"after-entry widget-area\">\n<section id=\"a2a_share_save_widget-3\" class=\"widget widget_a2a_share_save_widget\">\n<div class=\"widget-wrap\">\n<div class=\"entry-content\">\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":48871,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,30],"tags":[103,34,864,1015,1361,2809,82,2668],"class_list":["post-40344","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-a-case-of-the-human-condition","category-my-changing-family","tag-aging","tag-dont-miss","tag-glamorous-gal","tag-grace","tag-holidays","tag-new-year","tag-on-the-funny-side","tag-time"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40344","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40344"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40344\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48875,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40344\/revisions\/48875"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48871"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}