For Valentine’s Day 1971, I got a brand-new red and white Grand Prix with white leather interior and front bucket seats. You couldn't tell me a thing. My smile lasted a month, the most I had smiled in a long time.  Because of the amount of money Malik was bringing home, we were able to go to New York and “Shop on Fifth Avenue.”  I remember shopping in the shoe department of Bergdorf Goodman’s on Fifth Avenue and spotting Jackie Kennedy Onassis wearing a pair of flat shoes and pedal pushers, which today we call capris.  She was on the first floor in the shoe department buying shoes. As a young girl, I admired her because she was the wife of President Kennedy. I was especially impressed with what she wore and how she conducted herself so gracefully during her husband’s funeral.

I could not believe I was in the same store with her. I moved close to where she was sitting so I could see what kind of shoes she was buying and listen to what she was saying. Her voice was soft. I did not want her to see me staring, so I listened and looked in her direction only when she turned away to speak to the salesman. She asked the shoe salesman to bring out a pair of plain black pumps. He did, and she tried them on and told him to “back them up.” She did not pull out a credit card. Nor did she give him any money.  She signed her name on his receipt book and left.

 I was curious. What did “back them up” mean? I asked the salesman. Of course, he gave me a snotty look. He said it meant that he was to ship pairs of the same shoe in black, brown, and blue. I sat back down and thought, Wow! One day, I want to be wealthy and sophisticated too.

That day changed my thinking from just wanting to spend lots of money. I wanted to someday go into an exclusive store for what I wanted and just sign my name on the dotted line. No credit cards, no check, just a signature.

I guess that proves what my grandmother Leslie used to say: “A good name is better than gold.”  So I started thinking about how I was going to make my name good.