What Made Me Me

aspeck

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Staff member
Joined
May 29, 2003
Messages
19,136
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,

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 Monkeys in a tree,

Madonna was a virgin

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 fancy-free,

And dorms were never co-ed

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

In the Land That Made Me Me.

Buicks came with portholes,

And side shows 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,

And Castro came to power

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

Or prime-time ads for condoms

In the Land That Made Me Me.

There were no golden arches,

No Perriers 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 was 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.
 

JB

Honorary Moderator Emeritus
Joined
Mar 25, 2001
Messages
45,907
Re: What Made Me Me

Charming, Aspeck. :) :)

A bit past my time and before my children's time, but it stirred memories.
 

Tyme2fish

Commander
Joined
Feb 19, 2002
Messages
2,481
Re: What Made Me Me

Nice poem. Unfortunately I can relate to the entire theme.
 

BoatBuoy

Rear Admiral
Joined
May 29, 2004
Messages
4,856
Re: What Made Me Me

Remember it all, although some came about after I was already Me.
 

Kenneth Brown

Captain
Joined
Feb 3, 2003
Messages
3,481
Re: What Made Me Me

Shut up ya old fart!



And people had respect for elders in the land that made me.
 

waterinthefuel

Commander
Joined
Nov 15, 2003
Messages
2,728
Re: What Made Me Me

It's funny, I'm only 27, but I grew up in a neighborhood where if you weren't outside playing within 30 minutes of school being out, one of your friends came looking for you. If you were punished they'd plead your case to see if they could get you outside for at least a little while. If they found out you were sick they'd spread the word and a half dozen or so little boys would come shuffling into your house, much to the delight of your mother, to play games with you or spend time with you.

I used to chase girls and play football until my parents would call me in the old fashion way, by yelling. And like the song says, we drank from a garden hose. Bottled water was water from the hose that you put in your coke bottle when you ran out of coke.

When I was about 14 I began to fly RC planes and distance myself from the group of kids I played with, as we all started going our seperate ways. To this day, I have fond memories of playing neighborhood football with so many kids that we almost had two full teams. I played basketball, but I was never a fan. I wanted rough and tumble. Oh yea.....our football was tackle. And we got hurt. And we healed and we got right back on the field. I was playing tackle football at 10 years old with college guys. They'd cream me and I'd get up for more. I couldn't throw worth a damn, but I could catch anything you threw in my direction.

In the neighborhood I live in now, the only time you see kids outside is at busstops. I had no idea that many kids lived in this neighborhood until I came home from work about 6 20 in the morning and saw bus stops packed.

To this day, I don't have a cell phone. I had one, and with a 50min/month plan, I used 3 min a month average. I may never get a cell phone. I still use the old phone for 911 emergencies, as it's free.
 

gonfishn

Commander
Joined
May 16, 2002
Messages
2,390
Re: What Made Me Me

Nice...This means your not fishing or sold your boat.
 
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