In The Land That Made Me...Me

I miss those old coke machines that you had to pull the bottles out of...there was always an opener built-into the machine or attached to the side. The glass bottles were so cold...perfect for grape Nehi or Orange Crush.

They were ideal and perfect. I remember a drink called Choc-o-la found them on vacation only in the southern States. DH remembers the price of a nickel. I remember the dime.

Now we worry about litter. Not then.

On long, hot, dusty road trips we'd we'd read the Burma Shave signs and stop for gas and a soda. My sister always got that chocolate stuff!

The motels and motor courts would have signs that said "Refrigerated Air!"

Pru, I am not surprised that the mind is sharp as a tack. Also, that you remember them days long ago that taught us wisdom as the parent drove on and the spouse argued whether to take the next exit or not.

Only if you lived in fantasy land was your picture real. In that real world: Ike was cheating on his wife with his secretary. Mamie was drunk out of her head 7 days a week.

Franklin D Roosevelt even though he couldn't walk, he could cheat on his wife. In hotels up north, if you were black they were mysteriously full even if the vacancy sign was turned on. If you were Jewish, don't try getting into Penn or Yale or into any job in the banking industry.

Not long before your time, teachers had to sign a contract that assured their employers of their celibacy! In the army, if you were black, you'd better be able to swing a mop or peel a potato.

Elvis was a womanizing, drug-abusing and paranoid souse who gained another pound with each record he sold. Frank Sinatra was a womanizing souse as well. If a star's name was Rock or Troy. or some other denotation of manliness, he was gay. Our Princess Grace has more fingerprints on her ass than the FBI had in its files.

Wonderful time when Joe McCarthy was seen as a hero and intellectual giants were seen as "commomists"by him and his ilk.

Kids in school were taught that if you ducked under the desk, put your head between your knees and kissed your sweet ass goodbye, you were safe from an atomic bomb.

Poverty was invisible. It didn't live in your neighborhood! Those girls in crinoline skirts played at being virgins and had early babies! The town drunks who were picked up for drunken driving were sent on their way by the cops with a stern lecture ... until he killed the cop's kid.

It was an era of blatant lies which the populace bought into to keep their small town image of their own goodness - which never existed - intact. All their daughters were virgins - even if they were knocked up; all their sons were war heroes ... even the ones who were shot in the back running away form the battle!

I think even though things are messier now, they are more in tune with reality. Stars do have STDs and they got them the same way our generation got them. Some ballplayers beat their wifes and cheat on them like some of them always did.

If you are black, you are more likely to be arrested and prosecuted for what a well-to-do white man is allowed to get away with.

Denial is still the first refuge of the arrogant and the ignorant.

The age gap is amazing! I had never heard the word ass when you were already saying it.

Lollipops and unicorns.

I used to say, I want to live a sheltered life.

Ah, those were the days. Innocence was bliss.

Now we focus on all the negative. Not me, I opt to remain positive. Well atleast I try damn it!