Flashback
When I can't think of anything to post, I'm just going to search the archives of this blog in its many forms to bring you the Best of my Blog. I'm not really sure how good these entries really are, but it's a lot easier than writing current posts....So, today, I leave you with a timeless post about a staple of my childhood.
So, I think every generation has that one small tiny cultural icon....something that spanned the country during our youth, something that no longer is really important in our life, but once played a huge factor in growing up. Would my life have been the same without this, yeah, probably.....but I wouldn't have had as much fun.
I'm talking, of course, about Oregon Trail, the computer game.
This game prepared me for life.
How many bullets to buy? How many Wagon Axles? Caulk the wagon and float across? Try to ford the river? Trust that indian to guide you across?
These are tough decisions....one wrong move, and you've lost 7 oxen. I learned about hunting, and that I can shoot 3 buffalo, and still only be able to carry 200 pounds back to my wagon. Oh no! Johnny has dyssentary! Lucy broke her arm! Alice was bitten by a snake! Frankie has Lupus! Georgie has congenital herpes! Allen has a weird itchy rash on his little guys!
And those wagon fires were a bitch.
Grueling pace was much too fast....you'd always have people sick, and that slow pace was too slow....you'd hit winter over by the Snake River....and we all know that spells trouble.
Didn't you always want to shoot the player that "got lost?" Come on, Robert.....get your act together, sit your fat ass in the wagon and shut up.
Then you had a big decision to make.....float down the river, avoiding the rocky obstacles, or pay the toll, and stay on land....
But in the end, it's all worth it....Yes....behold the wonders of the Willamette Valley.
Was I the only one who's traveling party always included Brad, Melody, Jake and Danny from Hey Dude?
Oh, Oregon Trail....from your humble start in Independence, Missouri, to your rewarding end in the Willamette Valley, you have touched my life more than you know!
p.s. You find an abandoned wagon. You get 12 bullets, 1 pair of clothes, 2 wagon tongues, and 1 wagon wheel.