20090829

MAY YOU LIVE IN INTERESTING TIMES


Today would have been my mother's 98th birthday. My mom passed away in December of 1991 and every year I mark her birthday with a little shrine of photos and candles to remember her. This year seems to be especially noteworthy because I recently got most of my personal effects back after having them in storage for nearly 15 years while I traveled the country. The unpacking of these mementos has brought a tide of happy memories and a tidal wave of sadness as well.

I hope you will forgive me the indulgence of memories and a moment of taking stock as I celebrate this birthday. My mother has been gone eighteen years, nearly half the amount of time I had her in my life. The shock of that has made me stop rushing through the days and take a look at my life of the past six decades and attempt to peer into the next decades that are, hopefully, coming up.

Adding to my personal emotional hurricane is one of the most unstable periods in our economic history and a number of deaths of prominent people; popular icons like Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett, and political figures, like Eunice Kennedy Shriver and Senator Ted Kennedy. There is something about all these events that seems to mark the end of something personal and historical at the same time. We have been slammed with too many changes, too much shocking news in the last year or so for it not to have some effect on the possibilities of our future. I can see the historical passage, the end of a nation's dream, and I relate to the loss of pop culture icons from my youth, but I'm not quite sure exactly what has passed into the shrouds of time and memory on a personal level.

I know something has because I feel the ending of another era in my life. The hairs on the back of my neck are waving in the wind and the part of me that fears change is screaming "something wicked this way comes" while the other, braver part of me looks eagerly to the challenge as I remember that if nothing ever changed there would be no butterflies!

Something about this summer, especially this last month of August, has tilted the world on it's axis a bit and I feel the winds of change again. I cannot explain it and I don't know exactly what "it" is but I know "it" is coming. There is no logic for this but I am old enough and experienced enough to know that I'm right. A passage has been crossed - at least for me personally - and the times they are a-changing.

There were times in the past when I was very much aware when my life has changed course. In 1991 there were a number of deaths of people that had touched my early life, Gene Roddenberry of Star Trek fame, Bill Graham who promoted so many of the rock legends of my youth, Dr. Seuss, and 2 of my closest friends, among many others. And then at the very end of that year on the 21st of December my mother died. For me this marked the end of my youth. That year I left my childhood behind forever and I knew it.

There was a very popular book some years back called Passages by Gail Sheehy that spoke to the major events in a person's life that mark the passage into a new stage. Though many life stages are predictable their timing is not and for each person the passage is different. I have also realized that many times in our lives we go through a passage without realization. We don't know we've moved through a passage until we wake up a few years later at a new address! Sometimes we pave the way for the move and sometimes we are just thrown into a new location, either way we have moved into another stage of our life. This has happened to me often, I can look backwards and realize how my life had changed, but I was not always aware of the actual moment it did because I was busy living my life. But this time, as in 1991, I am aware the world has changed in a way that will also change my life.

There is an old Chinese curse/blessing that states "may you live in interesting times." I have been the benefactor of that curse/blessing, as have most of us from the baby boom generation. We have seen our leaders assassinated before our very eyes, we have watched our loved ones perish in rice paddies and deserts half way across the world, we were part of the kingdom of modern day Camelot, we have seen man walk on the moon, and we became Stardust at the quintessential event of a generation. Technology has taken us to places where "no one has gone before", we have watched great nations fall, we have seen terrible atrocities against humanity, we have witnessed great heroism and we stood still in shock as great and horrendous tragedies befell our nation and it's people. Though we may not always have been aware of it at the time we have lived in "interesting times" and those times had their effect on us.

Today the realization that my mother would have been nearly a century old has made me pause and look back in a way I have not done before. Today I became acutely aware of the fact that I am now well over the half century mark and I have seen and experienced quite a few "interesting" times. I guess I'm wondering if this well used old body and this nearly sixty year old brain are up to the challenge of the changes coming. It's the first time in my life where I have had doubts whether I am up to the "brave new world" that I feel is coming at me at warp speed and I find myself wishing I had a time machine and could look into the future - just this once.

Oh, well 'if wishes were horses, beggars would ride' as my mom used to say. I guess I shall just have to gird my loins, take my Geritol and face the future with the same stubbornness, tenacity and sense of humor that has gotten me this far. I can thank my Mom for those qualities.

And Mom, Happy Birthday. I never go through a day without thinking of you and missing you still.

Change is the law of life and those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future ~ John F. Kennedy

20090827

13 FUN WEBSITES & GAMES FOR WASTING TIME

THIRTEEN SITES ON THE INTERNET WHERE I CAN REALLY WASTE A LOT OF TIME:
  1. MAKE A JACKSON POLLOCK PAINTING - click "Enter Jackson Pollock.Org and start dragging your mouse around - double click and you change color! You'll get something like the banner I did for this week's Thursday Thirteen. Go forth and be creative!
  2. CREATE YOUR OWN FLOWER - Everyone will love this, even those of you who say you can't draw a straight line can make a beautiful "flower" - I did the one below in about 2 minutes - have fun!
  3. ORIGAMI NOW - this is really cool. Videos that walk you through making origami sculpture. Very soothing and you get to keep what you do - bring some pretty paper!
  4. SUBSERVIENT CHICKEN - This is a real guy in a chicken suit - you type in a command and see what he/it does (pssst, don't tell anyone but I typed in "fart" "pee on the chair" and "send me a check for five million dollars" omg, roflmao - THEN I told it to "do Elvis" and "dance like a Rockette" hehehe, still laughing).
  5. SCREAMING BEANS - trust me, just keep clicking!
  6. BUBBLE WRAP- exactly what it says it is, a sheet of bubble wrap that you pop until your pooped. Fresh sheets of bubble wrap at no charge, lol!
  7. SOMEONE STOLE MY LETTERS! - OMG, you and other people are all moving these refrigerator magnet style letters around at the same time, hilarious! I kept messing with someone trying to spell "hello" hehehe.
  8. FALLING SAND - Weird but fun once you get the hang of it - tools are at the bottom of the window - the fun one is the one marked ??? - hehehe, don't do this at work!
  9. IDIOT TEST - fun - if you don't turn out to be an idiot, lol!
  10. HORSE QUARTET - click to activate and deactivate each equine singer. Great for kids and bored employees.
  11. STUFF ON MY CAT - I just became a cat owner so this was cute and entertaining.
  12. SAMOROST - if nothing else the music will relax you, hehe.
  13. TUMBLE THE TEDDY BEARS - simple, you knock 'em down they jump back up. Good for about 2 minutes unless you're under 5. . . .I spent 15 minutes there, lol!

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Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!

The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others’ comments. It’s easy, and fun!

20090826

RIP Senator Edward Kennedy - Farewell Camelot

IN MEMORY OF EDWARD MOORE "TED" KENNEDY
February 22, 1932 – August 25, 2009

I woke up this morning to the news that Senator Ted Kennedy had passed away. With his passing the last knight of America's Camelot has disappeared into the mists of Avalon and a dream of my generation ends.

Despite all the peccadilloes of the Kennedy Clan, those of us who grew up during the Kennedy political dynasty will always remember the energy, youth, exuberance, passion and hope this family brought to Capitol Hill.

In the years since the assassinations of JFK and RFK many things have come to light that have dimmed the glow of the Kennedy legend. The Kennedy armor has been tarnished with the passing of time and rumors of romances, Excalibur disappeared into the lake of Chappaquiddick and we lost our young Galahad, John-John, to the dragon of modern flight. In the last 27 years we have watched as the myth of our own Round Table has slowly been dismantled and our hopes of ever finding our Holy Grail have vanished into the morass of modern politics.

With the passing of the last Kennedy brother, it is the end of an era, the end of Camelot and I feel that loss very keenly this morning. I wish I was Merlin and could turn back time because magic has left the kingdom today.
Merlin's voice rang out. "We are at a great dawning. At this Round Table will sit the bravest knights in the world. And they will be brothers. They will travel through the land. They will fight for what is right and good. Many will die. But the fame of the knights of the Round Table will live on. Forever"
From "Knights of the Round Table" by Gwen Gross
Photos from Wikipedia - Public Domain

20090821

My High School Senior Prom - 1969? OMG!

Today's theme for Old School Friday is Prom. Interestingly enough this year is the 40th Anniversary of my high school graduation and no, I am NOT going to the reunion. But I will take a little journey back four decades to tell you a little about my Senior Prom.

I was "going steady" with an older guy - wow, he was already 21, lol. He was also into motorcycles and was rebuilding an old Harley 54 so I spent a lot of time with him in a garage. He did have a car too, a tricked out burgundy mustang that was my prom "chariot". Back in the sixties we did not indulge in the luxuries of limos, heck, we were lucky if we had a boyfriend who had a car of his own!

I had a beautiful, pure white dress with an empire bodice that was pearl beaded and studded with a few lovely crystals. I wore white satin shoes (you could get them at Thom McAnn) and an "updo" that was sprayed to within an inch of steel hardness, lol. My corsage was a simple white arm wrist orchid.

We went out to dinner at a local steakhouse and had Chateaubriand (fine dining to an 18 year old and something I haven't seen on a restaurant menu in 25 years, whatever happened to it?) Then off to the prom at the gym - nope, our school or prom committee did not spring for a fancy ballroom at an upscale hotel either. If they had I'm sure the prom tickets would have been a lot pricier than they were!

Honestly, I cannot really remember much more except for sitting at a big table with a bunch of other kids in frilly dresses and rented tuxes. I'm sure I had a good time but evidently not that memorable!

I'm sure you're wondering one thing because so many kids see this night as so special in their relationship. . . . and, no, I did not. Maybe that's why it wasn't so memorable, lol!

And yes, we did have our song which was played at the prom for a slow dance. As a result of parental disapproval of my dating a "biker" we felt a little like star-crossed lovers and our song was:



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20090820

Retro Lunch Counter and Diner Foods - Comfortable Calories

Woolworth 1 Pictures, Images and Photos
Photo from beyondbedlam @ Photobucket

Once upon a time, in the land of Boomer, there was a magical place that served up uncomplicated food to subjects unconcerned over health or calories. This fantastical place was a friendly neighborhood lunch counter or soda fountain that had stools you could twirl on, quarter fed jukeboxes, waitresses named "Flora" or "Ida" and some of the best food memories from the olden days. Alas, just like magic, these mystical meccas of munch-ables disappeared into the mists of time, replaced with mundane Mickey Dee style drive-ins serving the morose masses.

For my Thursday Thirteen this week I have compiled a list of my Thirteen Favorite Things I Ordered at the Corner Lunch Counter:
  1. Chocolate Malt - a real malt, not one of those anemic shakes you get at drive-up hamburger chains, with actual malt powder in it and thick enough that a spoon will stand up in it.
  2. Ice Cream Float or Ice Cream Soda- Floats are something you just don't see much anymore - except maybe a A & W - and they are so great on a hot summer day. These were made with flavored soda water and a scoop of ice cream, simple and refreshing. Some people called them a Brown Cow (probably because along with the ice cream - the cow part - most floats were made with Coke, root beer or Dr. Pepper)
  3. A Club Sandwich - this was one of my favorite menu items. Toasted white bread, crisp bacon, REAL turkey (not that pressed crap from a package), lettuce, tomato - triple-decker of course - and oozing with mayo!
  4. B-L-T - second only to it's big brother, the Club Sandwich, in my line-up
  5. Cherry Coke - nope, not those sad excuses in a can they're trying to shove down our throats these days, a real coke from a soda machine that mixes the soda water and coke syrup together right into the glass AND then they add cherry syrup - I loved them.
  6. French Fries - I loved ordering just french fries - no burger necessary, only ketchup!
  7. Grilled Cheese Sandwich - I used to love a grilled cheese sandwich made on that greasy grill at the lunch counter.
  8. Pie a la mode - my favorite was cherry with a big blob of vanilla ice cream but pumpkin with a ton of whipped cream would do in a pinch.
  9. Cheeseburger - A grilled burger with a slice of American cheese with ketchup, an onion slice (not reconstituted onion chips) and pickles. I'd never seen lettuce or mayo on a hamburger until I got to California! And NEVER serve me a hamburger with mustard!
  10. Egg Salad Sandwich - and it had to be on that white bread that we grew up on, like Wonder Bread.
  11. Meat Loaf and Mashed Potatoes - I didn't care about the vegetable, I wasn't going to eat it anyway, but this was a great old diner comfort food.
  12. Banana Split - This humongous, gooey concoction was a mecca of tastes and calories and I loved them. Only a kid can scarf this down without a thought. I do occasionally treat myself to one now but the guilt that accompanies it almost ruins the experience, lol.
  13. The Blue Plate Special - Just what it implies, it was the special of the day - most lunch counters featured a particular special for each day of the week so if you hated liver and onions maybe you stayed home on a Tuesday, lol.
So, there you have it - a little visit back to the Camelot of Cuisine in the 50s and 60s!

Happy Thursday!


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20090817

MAE WEST - Her Best Quotes on her 116th Birthday

Born Mary Jane West on this date in 1893, Mae West began her career as Baby Mae and did her fist stint on Vaudeville at age 14. Mae West was a 21st Century woman who was dealing with 19th Century mores - she was a woman before her time.

Why is she here on a baby boomer's blog? Well, because this was the very first "blond bombshell" we boomers were exposed to - I watched a lot of Mae West movies on the Saturday Matinee on the boob tube. She's here also because this is a pop culture blog and to this day Mae West is a giant pop culture icon! She is the original pop star who glittered half a century before Madonna and others ever graced a stage.

Ms. West was bawdy, brash and bold to a point that it landed her in jail for "corrupting the morals of youth" in 1927, spending 8 days in jail on a 10 day sentence. She was beautiful, intelligent and outspoken with a wicked wit, to this day Mae is quoted around the world on a daily basis - even though many people might not be aware of who they're quoting!

I thought I would share some of those truly funny and clever quotes with you on the anniversary of her birth. Enjoy and maybe now you'll know just who you're quoting when you repeat:
  • A hard man is good to find
  • A man in the house is worth two in the street.
  • A dame that knows the ropes isn't likely to get tied up.
  • Anything worth doing is worth doing slowly.
  • When choosing between two evils, I always like to try the one I've never tried before.
  • A man has one hundred dollars and you leave him with two dollars, that's subtraction.
  • An ounce of performance is worth pounds of promises.
  • Don't keep a man guessing too long - he's sure to find the answer somewhere else.
  • Cultivate your curves - they may be dangerous but they won't be avoided.
  • I've been in more laps than a napkin.
  • I've been things and seen places.
  • I'm a woman of very few words, but lots of action.
  • Don't marry a man to reform him - that's what reform schools are for.
  • Give a man a free hand and he'll run it all over you.
  • He who hesitates is a damned fool.
  • I speak two languages, Body and English.
  • I never worry about diets. The only carrots that interest me are the number you get in a diamond.
  • I didn't discover curves; I only uncovered them.
  • He's the kind of man a woman would have to marry to get rid of.
  • His mother should have thrown him out and kept the stork.
  • I like restraint, if it doesn't go too far.
  • A man's kiss is his signature.
  • A woman in love can't be reasonable - or she probably wouldn't be in love.
  • I believe in censorship. I made a fortune out of it.
  • I believe that it's better to be looked over than it is to be overlooked.
  • I generally avoid temptation unless I can't resist it.
  • Keep a diary, and someday it'll keep you.
  • It's not the men in my life that count, it's the life in my men.
  • It takes two to get one in trouble.
  • Look your best - who said love is blind?
  • It's not what I do, but the way I do it. It's not what I say, but the way I say it.
  • I like a man who's good, but not too good - for the good die young, and I hate a dead one.
  • It's hard to be funny when you have to be clean.
  • Love conquers all things except poverty and toothache.
  • Love isn't an emotion or an instinct - it's an art.
  • Marriage is a great institution, but I'm not ready for an institution.
  • One and one is two, and two and two is four, and five will get you ten if you know how to work it.
  • Opportunity knocks for every man, but you have to give a woman a ring.
  • Sex is emotion in motion.
  • She's the kind of girl who climbed the ladder of success wrong by wrong.
  • When women go wrong, men go right after them.
  • I used to be Snow White, but I drifted.
  • I'll try anything once, twice if I like it, three times to make sure.
  • You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.
  • To err is human, but it feels divine.
  • When I'm good I'm very, very good, but when I'm bad, I'm better.

And probably her most famous line, "why don't you come up sometime and see me", most often misquoted as "come up and see me sometime"

And a few more classics via video:

I'M NO ANGEL - "it's not the men in my life that counts, it's the life in my men"


Mae's 1957 Las Vegas Nightclub Act:


The "so bad it's good" Myra Breckinridge - look closely, that young guy opposite her is TOM SELLECK! Trust me - watch this to the end for her final line, hehehe:


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20090816

Elvis is Dead - Ladies and Gentlemen, Elvis has left the planet

Young Elvis Pop Art Tribute

Elvis died 32 years ago today. He would be 74 today had he not died of congestive heart failure on this date in 1977. I thought you might like to see some of the videos I found on Elvis from the coverage of his death, his last song ever sung and his last concert.

Though Elvis has been gone for over three decades his music and his kingdom live on. On this day, as we celebrate the 40th Anniversary of the original Woodstock, it is fitting that we take note of the passing of a musical legend who inspired so many of the performers who took the stage in the cow pasture in Bethel, New York. RIP Elvis - you paved the way.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Elvis has left the building.





THE LAST CONCERT, JUNE 26TH, 1977
Part One:


Part Two:


Part Three:


Part Four:


LAST LIVE SONG:


Where were you when Elvis died?

Elvis Has Left The Planet

GOODBYE AND THANK YOU, ELVIS. THANK YOU VERY MUCH.
LADIES & GENTLEMEN, ELVIS HAS LEFT THE PLANET.

20090811

WOODSTOCK 1969: We Were Stardust, We Were Golden


Something unusual happened on August 15th, 1969. Something that has become legend in American pop culture. Wrapped in the fantasies of four decades of baby boomer memories and shrouded by the mists of an entire generation of flower children, a simple music festival became a major part of American pop culture history.

Originally billed as "An Aquarian Exposition" and slated for the dates August 15th through the 17th, it turned into four days (ending on the 18th) of free music and free love that became the Music Camelot to peaceniks and hippies the world over. Thirty two bands and singers ended up performing on that stage in Max Yasgur's farm in Sullivan County, New York in what would become the greatest music event ever. We were stardust, we were golden, we were at Woodstock.

Nearly half a million people attended and I accidentally became one of them. The summer of 1969 had already been a memorable year for me, I graduated from high school and then I watched as Neil Armstrong walked on the moon. I did not consider myself a hippie, I was simply an eighteen year old girl living in "interesting times" and trying to grow up. I was having some difficulties with that and some issues with my parent's vision of my future when a couple of friends invited me to "drop out of all that establishment stress and go to this groovy concert we heard about in New York". With nothing better to do before starting college the next month and never having been to the Big Apple I said, "why not?", packed my duffel bag and hopped into their "Magic Bus" on August 11th, 1969.

All Aboard The Magic Bus
by PopArtDiva


It took us four and a half days to get there and we were late. By the time we arrived the "impromptu" concert was already packed with what looked like half the hippies in the country and they were stoned, dancing, painted up and decked out in feathers, beads, flowers and fringe or just plain naked as a jay bird. The visual experience itself was almost psychedelic and the smoky haze of thousands of joints brought another level of "alternate reality" to the impact. It had also rained and we were standing in mud that promised to suck the shoes off our feet, which is probably why most people were barefoot. Instead of seeing the Empire State Building and the Statue of Liberty I had landed smack dab in the middle of the biggest, muddiest, most epic party of modern history. I was scared to death and excited at the same time.

Wax nostalgic all you want about it, the fact of the matter was Woodstock was an outdoor concert, held on a rain soaked weekend, on a cow field that turned to mud, with no bathrooms, no food stands and no real emergency facilities that was filled with half a million stoned, cavorting teenagers whose only thoughts were sex, drugs and rock and roll. It also had the best line up of music legends ever assembled in one place at one time. It was a once in a lifetime event and it was phenomenal.

I'm not going to tell you Woodstock changed my life because it didn't. I'm not going to give you a blow by blow of my three and a half days in a hot and cold, muddy, upstate New York cow pasture. Except for the music I was kind of miserable but, as I look back forty years later, I am glad I went. I was a part of history and part of something magical, even though I couldn't see it at the time. I may not have enjoyed the marijuana hazed air, the mud, the lack of decent facilities or the lack of food and I might not have been able to see half the now famous acts (though I did shove my way up for Janis, Jimi, CCR and a few others) but I can say I was there when it happened.

No, Woodstock did not change my life, but it took a good chunk of the "midwestern" out of me. I was never a "merry prankster" or a hippy/flowerchild and attending Woodstock did not turn me into one. But I will tell you this, when I get to heaven and Jimi Hendrix asks me, "are you experienced?" I can answer "Yes."

"By the time we got to Woodstock we were half a million strong":


Some Interesting Woodstock facts and trivia:
  • Rolling Stone magazine listed it in their 50 moments that changed Rock and Roll History
  • Woodstock took place in Bethel, New York - not Woodstock.
  • Woodstock was not an "impromptu" event - it was planned and the men behind the magic were Michael Lang, John Roberts, Joel Rosenman, and Artie Kornfeld.
  • Woodstock was planned as a money making event and only became a "free concert" after the crowd grew too large for the originally anticipated and hoped for crowd of 200,000.
  • Some people actually paid for this "free concert" - nearly 186,000 tickets were pre sold for $18. The price at the gate was supposed to be $24.
  • The UAWMF purposely cut the fence and turned it into a free concert. You might want to click that acronym to find out exactly what UAWMF is - anyone else remember them?
  • The massive numbers showing up ended up closing down the New York State Thruway.
  • There were two recorded deaths (one from a purported heroin overdose and another from an occupied sleeping bag accidentally being run over by a tractor in a nearby hayfield) and two births at the event.
  • The concert was originally planned to take place in Mills Industrial Park. Can you imagine Crosby Stills and Nash singing a song entitled: Mills Industrial Park?
  • The original location was chosen partly in hopes of lulling Bob Dylan (who lived nearby in the actual town of Woodstock!) out of seclusion - it didn't work (see below)

The Woodstock Music Acts in order of their appearance:
Richie Havens
Sweetwater
The Incredible String Band
Bert Commer
Tim Hardon
Ravi Shankar
Melanie
Arlo Guthrie
Joan Baez
Quill
Keef Hartley Band
Country Joe McDonald
John Sebastian
Santana
Canned Heat
Mountain
Grateful Dead
Creedence Clearwater Revival
Janis Joplin and the Kozmic Blues Band
Sly & The Family Stone
The Who
Jefferson Airplane
Joe Cocker
Country Joe and the Fish
Ten Years After
The Band
Blood, Sweat & Tears
Johnny Winter
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
Paul Butterfield Blues Band
Sha Na Na
Jimi Hendrix

Those you might think were there but weren't:
The Doors
Led Zeppelin
Jethro Tull
The Byrds
Bob Dylan
The Moody Blues
Joni Mitchell

PEACE
Sign posts at The Haight
by PopArtDiva







20090807

My Funny Valentine - Chaka Khan and other retro junk

Before you get into my Old School Friday entry - click on my new logo and masthead design above and check out my new design for Pop Art Diva Dot Com's homepage and tell me if you like the new arrangement and look - is it easier to navigate, clearer to understand? I'd really appreciate your comments below!

Now back to OSF - Sorry I missed last week for Old Schoo Friday - but I'm back this week for Chaka Khan! And, of course, I had to find something that would represent my baby boomer roots and I found this lovely version of My Funny Valentine:


I also did a really run retro cartoon style illustration for The PopArtDiva Gift Gallery called School Dazed that will bring back a few memories for those of you who grew up in the fifties - remember the tin lunch boxes and thermoses we carried? How about Big Chief Tablets? You can read more on last Saturday's post and you can get it on tees, cups, tote bags and other stuff by clicking the image below:



I've also done several other new designs for my other five stores and the links are below if you want to check them out:


The PopArtDiva™ Gift Gallery

The Martini Diva™ Boutique

The Brat in the Hat RANTORIUM EMPORIUM™

Cocktail Napkin Wit & Wisdom

The Normal Challenged Artist™ Shoppe

TweetleBirdie - Twitter Stuff

There's some fun things there for kids if you're doing your back to school shopping - Especially the kids version of School Dazed: I ♥ School - enjoy and send me photos of you wearing the tees, aprons, hats & shoes!


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20090801

The First Day of School - Vintage Lunch Box, Big Chiefs & Nostalgia


A newsletter from Zazzle about upcoming holidays and events reminded me that school will be starting soon. Parents all over the country are probably out there running around malls, dragging along their grumpy kids who'd rather be elsewhere, trying to get those same grumbling rug rats ready for their first day of school.

It brought back some memories of being dragged through stores shopping for new clothes and school necessities by my Mom half a century ago. While the screaming, bored and pouting kids might be the same today I'll bet the supplies and clothes aren't!

What you see in the original cartoon illustration I created for the start of the school season are some of the supplies and things I dragged off to the first day of school - see anything familiar? Did you carry Big Chief tablets, a little box full of #2 yellow pencils, a box of Crayola crayons in one hand and a tin lunch box in the other? Those tin lunch boxes that we scratched up in cavalier fashion fifty years ago are now vintage - worth small fortunes! Mine featured Howdy Doody - yup, "hey kids, what time is it?" I also remember singing this song:
School days, school days
Dear old golden rule days
Readin' and 'ritin' and 'rithmetic
Taught to the tune of the hickory stick
You were my queen in calico
I was your bashful barefoot beau
And you wrote on my slate, "I love you, Joe"
When we were a couple of kids
I thought maybe your kids or your grand kids might get a kick out of going off to school with a tee shirt or hoodie with some of the same things you did so many decades ago. And you might enjoy a matching tee, hoodie, coffee mug or apron as a reminder of your first day of school.

SCHOOL DAZED - The Adult Version

I ♥ SCHOOL - The Kid Version



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