slatten49 Loc: Lake Whitney, Texas

Those were the good old days

Long ago and far away, in a land that time forgot,
Before the days of Dylan, or the dawn of Camelot.
There lived a race of innocents that trusted their neighbors a lot,
And they were you and me, long ago and far away
In the Land That Made Me …Me.

Oh, there was truth and goodness in that land where we were born,
Where navels were for oranges, and Peyton Place was porn.
For Ike was in the White House, and Hoss was on TV,
And God was in His heaven
In the Land That Made Me… Me.

We learned to gut a muffler, we washed our hair at dawn,
We spread our crinolines to dry in circles on the lawn.
And they could hear us coming all the way to Tennessee ,
All starched and sprayed and rumbling
In the Land That Made Me… Me.

We longed for love and romance, and waited for the prince,
And Eddie Fisher married Liz, and no one's seen him since.
We danced to "Little Darlin'",
And sang to "Stagger Lee" and cried for Buddy Holly
In the Land That Made Me… Me.

Only girls wore earrings then and three was one too many,
And only boys wore flat-top cuts, except for Jean McKinney.
And only in our wildest dreams did we expect to see
A boy named George, with lipstick
In the Land That Made Me… Me.

We fell for Frankie Avalon, Annette was oh, so nice,
And when they made a movie, they never made it twice.
We didn't have a Star Trek five, Or Psycho two and three,
Or Rocky-Rambo twenty
In the Land That Made Me… Me.

Miss Kitty had a heart of gold, and Chester had a limp,
And Reagan was a democrat whose co-star was a chimp.
We had a Mr. Wizard, But not a Mr. T, and Oprah couldn't talk, yet.
In the Land That Made Me… Me.

We had our share of heroes, we never thought they'd go,
At least not Bobby Darin, Or Marilyn Monroe.
For youth was still eternal, and life was yet to be,
And Elvis was forever,
In the Land That Made Me …Me.

We'd never seen the rock band that was Grateful to be Dead,
And Airplanes weren't named Jefferson, and Zeppelins weren't Led.
And Beatles lived in gardens then, and Monkees in a tree,
Madonna was a virgin and not so free.
In the Land That Made Me …Me.

We'd never heard of microwaves, or telephones in cars,
And babies might be bottle-fed, but they weren't grown in jars.
And pumping iron got wrinkles out, and "gay" meant happy fancy-free without a doubt,
In the Land That Made Me… Me.

We hadn't seen enough of jets to talk about the lag,
And microchips were what was left at the bottom of the bag.
And hardware was a box of nails, and bytes came from a flea,
And rocket ships were fiction that we were waiting to see.
In the Land That Made Me… Me.

Buick's came with portholes, and side show came with freaks,
And bathing suits came big enough to cover both your cheeks.
And Coke came just in bottles, and skirts came to the knee,
In the Land That Made Me… Me.

We had no Crest with fluoride, we had no Hill Street Blues,
We all wore superstructure bras designed by Howard Hughes.
We had no patterned pantyhose or Lipton herbal tea.
In the Land That Made Me… Me.

There were no golden arches, no Perrier's to chill,
And fish were not called Wanda, and cats were not called Bill.
And middle-aged was thirty-five and old was forty-three, and ancient were our parents.
In the Land That Made Me …Me.

But all things have a season, or so we've heard them say,
And now instead of Maybelline we swear by Retin-A.
And they send us invitations to join AARP, we've come a long way, baby,
From the Land That Made Me… Me.

So now we face a brave new world In slightly larger jeans,
And wonder why they're using smaller print in magazines.
And we tell our children's children of the way it used to be,
Long ago, and far away
In the Land That Made Me… Me.
-
-Author unknown

CarryOn

That was a fun trip down memory lane, Slatten. Thanks!

permafrost Loc: Minnesota

Wow, you found a dandy little gem with this so touching verse..

Thanks Slatts..

Tug484

I like that one.

bahmer

Amen and Amen thanks for the memories there Slatten.