kate found a picture...

When Kate and I were little, we had several holiday activities our families did together, one of which was the annual children's Christmas party at the Olympic Club. We each got one holiday outfit per season and this event was like, number 3 on our December dancecard. The problem with this party, held in the chandelliered main dining room of the downtown in the City Clubhouse, was that one was forced to sit on Santa's lap where you were a given a gift from the girl's pile. To Santa's right was the boys pile and on his left, chick shit. Needless to say, the gifts for the girls who, at that time weren't allowed to become members of the club anyway, were pretty crappy. I always wondered who was in charge of going out and buying 300 random presents and figured it must be a guy.
I always seemed to get stuck with a music box, which I had absolutely no interest in and Kate and I spent the entire evening ordering 57 Shirley Temples, having a private conversation at our end of the table and trying to find out way back from the pool. Dinner and "Santa" was followed with all 9 of us checking out the store windows of Union Square and then riding the elevators at the St. Francis Hotel. For those of you who've never had the pleasure, the elevators at the St. Francis are round and glass and you kinda feel like Willie Wonka riding up 32 floors into the sky, terrified and giggling at the view before you. At the top, at least back then, was a very cool nightclub (this is when people still called them nightclubs) named Oz and all I remember about Oz, other than there was no way we were ever going to get in, was that it had fake fog coming out the front door, right where the elevators opened.
As far as I was concerned, Oz had to be the coolest place on earth and I swore to myself that when I was old enough, I'd be a regular. Oh, the times I was sure to have at Oz, most likely in a floor length, shoulder-padded, embellished gown and all the Shirley Temples I could handle. Alas, Kate and I never made it to the Emerald City. We really only ever made it back to the parking lot at the club where our mothers exchanged huge shopping bags of obligitory Christmas presents and Kate and I acknowledged that we'd see each other in a couple of days, either at the Payne's Party or the Father/Daughter Dance wearing the same dress and complaining about our crappy music boxes...