Saturday 9: It’s So Nice to Be Nice (to Your Neighbor) – 1947
Unfamiliar with this week’s tune? See the video and watch it below!
1) In this song, Monica Lewis encourages us to greet our neighbors with a smile and a hello. Tell us about one of your neighbors.
I have some interesting neighbors. The guy next door has a story for everything, but I think he’s basically harmless. The neighbors directly across the street… that’s a whole other story. The guy is openly, obnoxiously, and sometimes confrontationally MAGA. His wife isn’t much less so. This I discovered one day when I went outside to collect the mail wearing a Los Jibbities T-shirt. Los Jibbities is a termed by a hilarious content creator, Dez the Lez, whom I follow. She’s Latin, and “los jibbities” came from her mother’s pronunciation of LGBT. The shirt has a rainbow with the words printed over it. The guy saw me and decided to spark up a conversation. He was fairly new to the neighborhood at the time, never so much as a “hello” before that moment. And he leads with a homophobic slur, referencing my shirt. I’m not the audience for that crap, as I’m a rainbow mama to two queer sons. I didn’t want to get into it, but I basically said that I didn’t want to get into that conversation. Big mistake. He leaned in hard, not only going full homophobic but transphobic and racist, too. It’s interesting to note… the guy isn’t white but a man of color. Not black but brown. So I was taken aback, to say the least. Now I don’t go outside if I see him, and if I have to, I take my phone.
2) She reminds us that it’s “nice to be nice.” Who has recently shown you kindness?
My hubby. I was feeling really down last night, and he made me feel better about it all.
3) Monica Lewis was born in Chicago, where her mother performed with the Chicago Opera Company. Have you ever been to the opera?
A few times. But even people who know me would be surprised by the fact that I love opera. I’m an eclectic chick, but I listen to the dark stuff the majority of the time. So opera seems weird for me, but I enjoy it.
4) Her family moved to New York City, where she attended college by day and worked at radio station WMCA in the evenings to help support her family. Which do you listen to more: the radio or podcasts?
Podcasts, absolutely. I listen to them every day, and the radio only rarely.
5) In the 1940s she appeared all around New York – in nightclubs, on Broadway, and on radio shows. It was then that she got her best-known and longest-running role: the voice of Chiquita Banana. For decades she was heard singing the jingle, “I’m Chiquita Banana and I’m here to say …” Do you have any bananas in your kitchen now?
Not a one.
6) Around 1950 she moved to Hollywood. She had recently divorced and wanted a fresh start. There she dated an actor who was also newly divorced: Ronald Reagan. Obviously she never had to ask, “Whatever became of him?” Who is the last former romance, classmate or coworker that you looked up on the internet?
A high school boyfriend a while back. I had a moment of curiousity.
7) In 1947, when this song was popular, actor Ted Danson was born. He’s best known as Sam Malone, the bartender at Cheers, “where everybody knows your name.” Is there a bar or restaurant where you are recognized on sight?
Nope. Not in a tourist area like this!
8) The 1947 Studebaker Champion was one of the first cars to have an adjustable driver’s seat designed to accommodate motorists of various heights. When you’re driving someone else’s car, do you usually adjust the seat?
Always. I’m 5’2″, 5’3″, so yeah!
9) Random question: When someone takes advantage of you, are you angrier at them for doing it, or at yourself for letting it happen?
Them for doing it. I’m not going to blame myself for trying to be a decent human being. The blame goes to the one taking advantage.
I’m sorry about your neighbor. That must be super awkward and tense. But a Mama Bear is gonna stick up for her cubs, isn’t she? BTW my late friend Henry, one of the dearest people you could ever meet, was an out-and-proud Puerto Rican. He told me how hard it was to find acceptance in his hometown, which played a part of why he chose to go to college on the mainland and ended up at Northwestern. If he hadn’t come to Chicagoland, I never would have met Henry and my life would have been emptier. But I feel bad that Henry was made to feel uncomfortable in the place he grew up in and loved, just because he was gay.
Your neighbor sounds like a real “prize”.
I live in a very red area of a blue state. I prefer to not know my neighbors’ politics.
I’m going to look up the Los Jibbites creator–that sounds funny!
I live in a red area, it can be absolutely traumatic dealing with people like that sometimes.