Showing posts with label fogeyana. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fogeyana. Show all posts
Saturday, December 1, 2007
Come Dancing
When I was 18 the State of Wisconsin allowed me to drink in bars and restaurants. (We also drank in cars and in farm fields.) In practice this meant my friends and I would go to Rusty's on Thursday nights and drink 25 cent taps of beer. Half of the senior class of MHS had hangovers on Friday morning. They had a dance floor upstairs and pool tables in the basement. We probably danced to the Kinks, but I don't remember that for sure.
Well, they're tearing down the Palais. The owner of an Illinois-based chain of Mobil gas stations and convenience stores made an offer the owners of the bar could not refuse.
If Rusty's has to go, I just wish it was to something besides a fucking Mobil station.
Enjoy the Kinks. Not their best work, but boy did I love that song back in the day.
Thursday, November 15, 2007
If My Friends Could See Me Now
At about noon today I was sitting in front of my stove watching the dial on my steam canner maintain 10lbs pressure for 30 minutes (beets) while starting the second of a pair of socks I'm knitting.
Nobody who knew me 20 years ago, hell, nobody who knew me 10 years ago would believe it.
Tuesday, November 6, 2007
Ersatz Children's Holidays
Plug in your fogey-scope here's my 'when I was a kid' diatribe.
There are three holidays from my childhood that have disappeared.
First:
The night that the TV channels put on their Saturday morning line-up preview. Friends would come over to watch. It was a big deal. Cartoons were only on Saturday mornings for about 4 hours, and new seasons started every year in September like clockwork. You can understand the obvious reasons this children's holiday is gone.
Second:
Similar to the first, the night that "Wizard of Oz" was shown on television. You got to see "Wizard of Oz" once a year, and it was stay home and watch it special. This holiday died with the advent of the betamax.
Third:
The day the JC Penney or Sears wish book arrived in the mail.
Hours were lost contemplating the treasures located within. I can still smell those books, feel the glossy paper in my fingers and hear the soft crinkly sound of pages turning. Ah, childhood longing. It was all there in those books. The closest we come now are Lillian Vernon catalogs or the Sunday Toys 'R' Us flyer. Lame by comparison.
(We were a Penney's family. My first lesson in diversity was that some families were Sears families. They were different, yes, but we had to accept that. Just like some people chose, inexplicably, to drive Fords.)
There are three holidays from my childhood that have disappeared.
First:
The night that the TV channels put on their Saturday morning line-up preview. Friends would come over to watch. It was a big deal. Cartoons were only on Saturday mornings for about 4 hours, and new seasons started every year in September like clockwork. You can understand the obvious reasons this children's holiday is gone.
Second:
Similar to the first, the night that "Wizard of Oz" was shown on television. You got to see "Wizard of Oz" once a year, and it was stay home and watch it special. This holiday died with the advent of the betamax.Third:
The day the JC Penney or Sears wish book arrived in the mail.
Hours were lost contemplating the treasures located within. I can still smell those books, feel the glossy paper in my fingers and hear the soft crinkly sound of pages turning. Ah, childhood longing. It was all there in those books. The closest we come now are Lillian Vernon catalogs or the Sunday Toys 'R' Us flyer. Lame by comparison.(We were a Penney's family. My first lesson in diversity was that some families were Sears families. They were different, yes, but we had to accept that. Just like some people chose, inexplicably, to drive Fords.)
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