May 1955: my grandfather, Uncle Ed, Aunt Faye and my grandmother pose together during Ed & Faye’s wedding at my grandparent’s home in New Jersey.
I hardly knew my Aunt Faye; I’m not even sure how she was related to me. My mother’s mother’s sister-in-law? A daughter of my grandmother’s bevy of older sisters? I really cannot say. My sister keeps track; she knows all of the distant cousins. I’m hopeless when it comes to family connections.
Anyway, Aunt Faye was a character. She was a zaftig woman, funny, loud, and brash. I never saw her without her “face” on—cakey foundation, high arches of pencilled eyebrow, a sky’s worth of blue shadow. Her hair was platinum cotton candy. And she loved butterfly designs in jewelry and clothing. To put it a bit unkindly, the campiest drag queen would have admired of her style.
Yesterday I was thinking of her, remembering how she used to say she could “sleep fast.” Meaning she would stay up late (carousing, I presume) and get up early, ready for a new day. I don’t know how she did it, but I think I may have the same skill.
Really, I seem to do everything fast. Sleep, work, walk, talk, think. I’m living my life at 78 rpm. I wonder if that means I’ll get everything done early and die young. Or maybe I’ll just end up doing more than everyone else. Or perhaps I will slow down.
My experiences with Aunt Faye were confined to my childhood—intersections of our visits to my grandparents’ house. I don’t remember seeing her beyond the time I was ten, though she lived another 20 years or more past that so I’m sure I must have.
I wonder what Aunt Faye did with all of her extra time?
Posted by kuri at May 03, 2004 08:02 AMFaye was the only daughter of Grandmom’s oldest sister, Florence who was born in 1900. Aunt Faye relocated for a time to the midwest (Alton,Illinois at one point) and came back to NJ when she was quite ill. That’s proabaly why you don’t remember her after age 10.
She was memorable!
After relocating to Alton, Aunt Faye joined a notorious biker gand called the Devil Rays. Oh the amazing stories they still tell about Devil Ray Faye in biker bars…
She was memorable … and then some!
Posted by: UltraBob on May 4, 2004 12:19 PMI need to start writing down the family tree so I actually DO have all the knowledge that you think I possess about our lineage. Heh. I know some, but not all. As in, I had no idea Aunt Faye was Florence’s only daughter. *scribblesitdown*
Remember all the rings she wore? She had armor. And no, UB, none of them had skulls! ;-)
Posted by: Jenny on May 4, 2004 08:26 PM