Month: April 2020

One Month Down, One More To Go

Today makes a full four weeks of quarantine for us.

It’s the first Sunday in 13 years that I haven’t sung during the Easter service.

We miss going to the Strand and chatting up high-risk seniors on park benches.

“Your Town & Mine” by Eleanor Thomas

I haven’t filled my gas tank since Friday the 13th of last month, the last day of school, and our last orthodontist visit for the foreseeable future.

No Ross, no Lowe’s, no Hobby Lobby. We can’t even drop off used items to Goodwill.

And how we miss our restaurants! Will our favorite server, Victor, still have a job?

Who will keep our iced tea full come summer?

Meanwhile, kids are hating self-quarantine and distance learning.

They’d rather be at school, texting friends and ignoring their teachers, eating lunch off poorly-cleaned cafeteria tables and discussing lucrative employment opportunities in the 2020’s. Add cyberhacker to that list, boys–and marginal girls!

We long for the days of popping into the grocery store quickly, without 20 minutes of pre-planning, gloves, masks, sanitizer pump, and a towel to protect our car seats from the questionably COVID-covered grocery bags.

Even a trip to the corner Walgreen’s requires the same preparation. Oh, for the days of running inside quickly for their 2 for $1 Arizona green tea specials!

I could be in and out in under 5 minutes!

No more sitting in goat-powered Radio Flyers, eating Drumsticks with chocolate nubs at the bottom of the cones, and spilling the neighborhood tea while the pharmacist informs Mom that the prescription for Vicodin is not legit because the doctor forgot to use the new watermarked paper for narcotics.

We’ve all been there, right? Those were the days.

Why, there probably won’t even be play dates until May at the earliest! No more construction paper tepees and happy little trees.

Yes, it’s certainly been challenging, all this self-isolation and quarantine.

But this shall yet pass, and soon we will gather on the plains for campfire grub again.

Life will begin to bear a semblance of normalcy, although never exactly the same.

Until then, don’t let it get your gander up! That is, your dander. Happy quarantining!

Darkness Doesn’t Win

I firmly believe that much good will arise from the aftermath of this challenging pandemic. Darkness endures for a season, but light always wins in the end.

As a visual, I offer two local images from yesterday:

One, from a very brief but harrowing storm with 80 mph winds, which caused this strike of lightning right beside a friend of mine’s home. (The rain quickly doused it.)

photo by Mike Culligan

And this image from another friend of the sunset view off her porch afterward.

image by Lauren Taylor

Beauty will come from the ashes, friends.

lovethispic.com

Five Minutes After Social Distancing Is Lifted

This image of busy cash registers at the Evanston, Illinois Conrad Hilton bar was taken nearly 63 years ago to the date: April 8, 1957.

April 8th was the kickoff dinner of the second annual Soph Week, with an evening of frolic and festivities for students attending the “Hi-Guy, Hello-Girl” dance, where Jimmy Palmer’s band played swinging tunes. Here’s hoping we’ll all be in good form at the end of this trial, ready to sip and socialize.

Sales Of Spirits Soar But My Soul Longs Only For Thee

As Newsweek reported when this month began:

U.S. ALCOHOL SALES INCREASE 55 PERCENT IN ONE WEEK AMID CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC

Yes. I get that. I’ve had a few pints. But it’s not the pints I’m jonesing for.

What I want is Coke. A frosty Coke and then a refill of frosty Coke immediately afterward.

Both of their bottles.

1959 LIFE

Don’t I deserve to be “really refreshed?”

Coke is everywhere. It taunts me in the pages of my magazines and from the walls of the antique stores. Is that Jane Wyman? I don’t know. All I want is her Coke.

I don’t need two liters of Coke. That’s too big, and it loses carbonation the second you open it up.

giphy.com

Then again, it can’t be too small.

Now this one is just right.

He’ll Be In Mexico Before You Count Ten

Child Life, 3/26

Chicago, Chicago, that toddlin’ town, that toddlin’ town … ♪♫♪ No wonder they were toddling! Rolling on rubber was like skating on clouds with Chicago roller skates. This ad hails from my March 1926 issue of Child Life. You can bet they had a WAY better March than we just did. What do you make of this lantern-bearing imp?

The stock market was years away from crashing, so Easter was going to be LIT. Who wouldn’t want kraft toys of bunnies and ducks that ROLLED, just like those boss Chicago skates?

Or this disturbing gender-ambiguous amputee? What fun!

Little boys evidently wore ties when they colored and crafted. Mother, look, I dressed like Papa!

But when coloring was done, it was time to pull out the old Lanky Tinker (Tom Tinker’s cousin).

WorthPoint

Baby, You Can Check My Tires

Is it me, or does that look like a frosty pint of ale, instead of motor oil?

1959

The attendants were so thoughtful, giving lollipops to youngsters! This was before kids were diabetic, when Mom wore pearls and heels to fill ‘er up.

Pinterest

And Dad wasn’t left in the dark. Roy could talk shop and spill the tea. He was worse than a gossiping hen.

Makes you want to travel on the wide, open road, don’t it, folks? Well, maybe in late May…

Six To A Booth, Too Many

Yucca ’47

Even slim-hipped WWII vets can’t make three a comfortable proposition in this booth. Reaching for his Coke, he’d knock a bottle over. How is the fellow in the middle supposed to move? Can he breathe with his pal’s pipe smoke literally four inches from his face?

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