The Good Humor truck song. Music to the ears of every hungry child in the 60’s and 70’s.
I grew up in suburban New Jersey and every summer we had a special bowl filled with change by the back door. When you heard the first far away strains of that distinctive little ditty? You grabbed a handful and ran outside.
My preferred treat?
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The toasted almond bar.
To this day, I crave them… which is a tragedy.
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Sometimes life just isn’t fair. No more toasted almond goodness. Though I discovered I could buy this on eBay….
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But if my favorite treat isn’t available, why bother?
How about you…
What sound from your childhood don’t you hear anymore?
If you’re a long time reader you know my husband and I met and married in six days. He was on leave from the Marine Corps and came home to be with his family at Christmas. It was a hard time for him as the Beirut bombing was a few months before and he was deployed to the area at the time. On that horrible day he volunteered to help with the rescue efforts after a 12 hour night shift and no sleep. He took 5 bodies out of that building… some whole, some in pieces.
I’m sure all he wanted at that point was rest and relaxation. What he got was a wife.
We met. We fell in love. We got married six days later. And to be honest we would have done it sooner but we had to wait 2 days for the license.
Everyone thought we were crazy.
Some thought I was pregnant… which was even crazier.
But 39 years later here we are.
Our wedding took place at a Justice of the Peace office during a raging N’Or East blizzard. We were staying with his mother on the Island at the time and had to take a boat to the mainland in the storm. I wore a pink cashmere sweater and dove grey slacks with high heeled boots. There was no dress, no cake, no reception, no gifts. We had 3 witnesses. My mother, his mother and his step father. There was a champagne brunch at a lovely waterfront restaurant… period. We had to leave the next day and drive to North Carolina so he could report back to base.
I was never one of those young girls who dreamt of big fancy weddings. I’ve been to many of them that cost more than our first home, and you know what? Every single one of those couples is divorced. For me, the ceremony isn’t the important part. It’s the love and commitment that mean something.
We may not have an engraved sterling silver turkey baster or a drunken video of Uncle Ted giving a toast….. but we’re still in love and still happily married almost four decades later.
I’m an avid reader and start to twitch if my pile of unread material drops below a dozen.
I order so many books from Amazon I may be personally responsible for Jeff Bezos’s new yacht.
Our little local library can’t keep up with me and trying to buy books at thrift stores has me walking down the aisles shaking my head, ticking off titles and mumbling read it, read it, read it…..
I know the easy joke would be my husband! but while his years are steadily advancing… he’s not nearly as old as this fascinating carved crystal oddity passed down from my father.
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It’s a bit of a weirdo and though we’ve tried repeatedly over the years, we’ve never been able to positively identify it.
Heck, we even took it to Sotheby’s in NYC a decade ago and if their experts were stumped? It may just have to remain a mystery.
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My paternal grandfather was a world traveler in the late 1800’s and brought this back from Egypt. It hung in my grandparent’s house, my parent’s house and now it hangs in mine. The family lore said it was ancient Egyptian but Sothebys said no, the skull was not used iconographically back then. They did think it could be early Coptic, and as they are the direct descendants… I suppose that’s close enough.
( Historical context. Copts believe themselves to be the descendants of Egypt’s ancient Pharaonic people. They were first converted to Christianity with the arrival of St Mark in Egypt in 62 CE. Egypt became part of the Byzantine Empire in 395 CE, and the Egyptian Church was separated from the Christian community in 451. )
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The famous auction house said the metal work was added later and in its present form could have been used as a talisman for pirates.
How cool is that?
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We never even bothered to ask what it was worth… which in hindsight was rather stupid. But no matter, it’s part of my father’s history and would never be for sale.
Good grief, there are so many I don’t know where to start…
I shall try to limit myself to 5.
1. Avatar.
I don’t see the appeal, never did. And if you love it, please don’t try to change my mind. I don’t care how much money they spent on the “Let’s add water!” sequel, I’m not watching that either.
2. Dumb and Dumber.
The title says it all.
3. Twilight.
Do not get me started on this ridiculous teenage vampire crap. If you’re over 13 and enjoyed these badly written and acted films? We can no longer be friends.
4. I’ll probably piss some people off with this one, but Back To The Future. Marty McFly? Sorry, no to all 3.
5. With a slight exception for Deadpool (because it’s snarky) and maybe Venom (because let’s face it I’d watch Tom Hardy mop his kitchen floor) the never ending parade of super hero, Marvel, DC Universe, multi verse whatever movies. Enough already. Every time I want to go to a movie, they’re all that’s playing. It’s time to move on.
So how about you?
What popular movies do you dislike….
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Where there's only one step from the sublime to the ridiculous.
River's world..... 