That Backwards Yen
For some reason, I started craving an AstroPop while I was sitting on the desk today. Made me start making a running mental list of those things that remind me of my childhood -- pre-drivers liscense -- things that shoot me back into that space when I run across them, those images that are the stock of my memories from that time:
* The neighborhood ice cream truck, playing "Turkey in the Straw"
* The Schwann's delivery truck
* "The Six-Million-Dollar Man"
* Light pop songs like: "Sky Rockets in Flight" and "I Love a Rainy Night"
* The public swimming pool
* The smell of the basketball locker-room
* Haybale jumping in our fields
* Swimming in creeks and rivers
* Catching tadpoles in mason jars and riding our bigwheels through the creeks
* The smell of the oiled leather of a baseball glove
* Stripping tobacco until resin blacked your whole hand
* Late night tongue-in-cheek horror shows
* "The Waltons"
* Playing hide-and-seek in the barn loft
* Reading novels for plot and not style -- horror, mystery, and fantasy
* Digging potatoes
* Listening to my grandfather deliver sermons at Church of Christ revivals
* Catching my mother smoking a whole pack of cigarettes and putting them out in a pink cereal bowl (She was outspoken against smoking.)
* Roller rinks ("Jack and Diane" and "Angel in the Centerfold")
* Shooting my brother in the forehead with a B-B gun
* Talking to animals and plants like they could talk back
* Listening to request shows on the radio
* Staring at Wendell, the bearded tenor with the cap tan on his forehead; he drifted in and out of church and people said he "partied, drank"
* Hauling hay and eating home-made dinners on the tailgates of trucks
* Popping kids with combs
* Being the water- and towel-boy for my dad's basketball team; I was about waist-high, by the by
* The smell of alfalfa
* Singing along with the "jam box" on the front porch swing
* Sexually charged church camp
* Alfred Hitchcock magazine
OK: Now I'm tired and starting to check my pants to see if they turned into Toughskins ... :). Stopping. :)
* The neighborhood ice cream truck, playing "Turkey in the Straw"
* The Schwann's delivery truck
* "The Six-Million-Dollar Man"
* Light pop songs like: "Sky Rockets in Flight" and "I Love a Rainy Night"
* The public swimming pool
* The smell of the basketball locker-room
* Haybale jumping in our fields
* Swimming in creeks and rivers
* Catching tadpoles in mason jars and riding our bigwheels through the creeks
* The smell of the oiled leather of a baseball glove
* Stripping tobacco until resin blacked your whole hand
* Late night tongue-in-cheek horror shows
* "The Waltons"
* Playing hide-and-seek in the barn loft
* Reading novels for plot and not style -- horror, mystery, and fantasy
* Digging potatoes
* Listening to my grandfather deliver sermons at Church of Christ revivals
* Catching my mother smoking a whole pack of cigarettes and putting them out in a pink cereal bowl (She was outspoken against smoking.)
* Roller rinks ("Jack and Diane" and "Angel in the Centerfold")
* Shooting my brother in the forehead with a B-B gun
* Talking to animals and plants like they could talk back
* Listening to request shows on the radio
* Staring at Wendell, the bearded tenor with the cap tan on his forehead; he drifted in and out of church and people said he "partied, drank"
* Hauling hay and eating home-made dinners on the tailgates of trucks
* Popping kids with combs
* Being the water- and towel-boy for my dad's basketball team; I was about waist-high, by the by
* The smell of alfalfa
* Singing along with the "jam box" on the front porch swing
* Sexually charged church camp
* Alfred Hitchcock magazine
OK: Now I'm tired and starting to check my pants to see if they turned into Toughskins ... :). Stopping. :)