Marlene Risin Levitt

Posted on: Jul 13, 2020 at 12:49 PM

My granddaughter sent me a gift called Storyworth. I send in my thoughts or stories that I want my children, grandkids, to know about me. At the end of the year, they put together a hard-covered book for the family. I am posting the last writing I sent in about our generation. Let me know if you identify with it.....


GROWING UP IN THE 1940’s AND 1950’s

World War II began a year after I was born and ended when I was seven. This was a significant factor in my early childhood. There was no television in those days and everything we knew about the war we learned through the newspapers, radio, and the short Newsreels at the movies. In the Newsreels, we watched our airplanes as they bombed innocent people, enemy planes getting shot down, graphic bodies displayed, and prisoners being taken. The newsreels were my introduction to world reality. After those horrific clips were seen, I escaped through the fantasies of each beloved movie played on the large screen. I then danced like Ginger Rogers and Debbie Reynolds. I was beautiful like Elizabeth Taylor and Ava Gardner. I cried over Lassie and laughed over Abbott and Costello.

I watched the Newsreels as the mushroomed atom bomb destroyed Hiroshima.

And then one Sunday, when I was seven, my family and I were having dinner at our favorite Chinese restaurant. The radio blasted out the ending of World War II and everyone in the restaurant stood up and cheered. But I didn’t cheer. I cried for all the people who were murdered, and later played out my mixed up feelings on my beloved piano.

After the WWII ended in 1945, we began hearing about Communism, and then the Cold War was born. Americans were terribly frightened that Communism would take over the United States. This was the state of our country as I entered high school during the Korean War. All this is what formed my generation’s thinking about the world, and hostility was born against those who made it happen. Thus, the 1960’s…..

Posted on: Jul 05, 2020 at 9:50 PM

Still playing guitar and singing, which is really saving me through this crazy time we’re going through! What is everyone out there doing? I’d love to hear from you!

Welcome to another Grandmother/Pianist/Californian!

Hi Gerald - Another Californian here - in San Diego. Welcome to the website!

Posted on: Apr 14, 2020 at 10:28 AM

Alan - wishing you the very best health and happiness throughout your life. Happy Birthday to you, dear friend. Virtual hugs!!!

Posted on: Apr 07, 2020 at 2:41 PM

A little something that some of us might remember...

THE SCARIEST DAY OF MY LIFE

by Marlene Levitt

Being six has its drawbacks. You might be shorter than everyone else, your voice might be higher, you’re certainly not as strong as your older brother, and shadows might take on a world of their own. But there’s one thing for sure that is definitely not a drawback, and that is bravery, which sometimes emerges at the strangest moments.

It was 1944 and my big brother, Bert, was assigned the task of taking me to Hampton school each day and picking me up. Every morning, I’d walk the ten blocks to school trying to catch up to him, for Bert would rather take two baths than walk next to me. I’d glance at myself as I moved along in front of the windows of Mr. Lloyd's Beauty Shop and the candy store. Then Bert would wait for me at the crossing light and, holding onto my jacket, would push me across Livernois, one of Detroit’s widest and most traveled streets. Once that job was done, the space between us would stretch even wider. Occasionally, he would glance back to see that I was still there, but I know that he just couldn’t wait for this torture to end.

As we reached the school, he waited by the entrance that I would use to get to my class. The elementary school held Kindergarten through eighth grade, the lower grades being on the north end of the school. As soon as I crossed his path, he’d dash away to the south entrance, gloriously happy to be rid of me. I always felt a certain sadness that this was so, but he still remained my hero in spite of it all.

I remember the three o’clock bell ringing that certain day as I was glancing out the window as the sky darkened. Hattie was sitting in front of me with her perfect nails and hair and told Bluma, the dark curly-haired girl next to her, that it was raining. I picked up my book, put on my raincoat, and walked down the hall to the vestibule of the north entrance to wait for my big brother.

Cars skirted the curbs and each child dashed through the rain to be picked up. Hattie’s mother drove up with her big black Cadillac and she reached over and opened the door for her daughter.

I waited and waited and waited.

The cars dwindled down to three, then two, then the last car took off and I stood there with my heart beating as loudly as the drums in Jack Armstrong’s theme song.

I don’t know how long I stood there waiting that day, or what made me reach the decision that I did, but I finally wiped my tears and set out towards home. As I reached Livernois with its noisy, splashing cars, I was shocked to see that the crossing guard had left. I stood at the corner in the pouring rain trying to decide what to do. And when the light suddenly turned green, I clutched my notebook, and walked across that street with my head held so high that I caught all the raindrops inside of my nose and had to sneeze. But I did it, I really did it, and when I passed the candy store and Mr. Lloyd's once more, I noticed in the windows that I was very definitely taller than I had been that morning.

Marlene Levitt

Posted on: Apr 02, 2020 at 11:52 PM

Stepping Back - A Time for Reflection
Marlene Levitt

Lately, I find myself taking a step back from life and re-evaluating the past several years of mayhem.

Before this horrible Coronavirus literally stopped us in our tracks, the world seemed permanently divided, unable to ever mend, fractured beyond repair. And now, suddenly, for the first time in our lifetime, we have all become one people, one cause, united to work together against an invisible force.

We have lived through horrific wars, assassinations and recent political battles, and we have still not realized our so-called goal of peace.

And now, so much has changed. I find new ways to spend my hours alone inside my castle. I take on new projects, share new recipes, look at my empty calendar and forget what day it is. I have finally slowed down. And with each new horrible statistic flashing on my tv screen, I cry bitter tears for the dead and hold my precious life tighter and tighter.

It’s as if everything had gotten so out of hand that something universal had to happen to put it back together again, give us all a new perspective, show us what is of paramount importance. We had truly forgotten how to remember.

But when this is all over, and it will be over someday, and when lives return to the routines we once knew, will we then remember not to forget?

Posted on: Feb 21, 2020 at 6:00 PM

I did an open mic recently, singing “Landslide” by Stevie Nicks (Fleetwood Mac). Hope you enjoy it, friends!

Remembering David from Hampton Elementary through Mumford High.    Wonderful years spent with great friends.   David was a sweetheart and we will all miss him...

Posted on: Jul 13, 2019 at 3:01 PM

Enjoy my latest television production on "Cinema Society of San Diego."


https://youtu.be/O-vLnKvGxWs

Posted on: Jul 06, 2019 at 3:16 PM

Posted on: Jun 30, 2019 at 4:04 PM

Marlene and Great-Granddaughter Lola - June 2019
So much fun!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Alan, here's to our old friends, Dave and Chucky. We all started out together at Hampton Kindergarten and experienced growing up right through high school. We were lucky to have known them.... marlene

Posted on: May 25, 2019 at 9:58 PM

Four generations!!