Friday, March 2, 2012

What Made Me Me

The following is a good way to determine how old you are. Anybody that can remember some of these may be approaching the top of the hill. 


  Author unknown 


What Made Me Me 

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 get a muffler, We washed our hair with 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 Rockey-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 Republican, 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 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 coed 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 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, 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, & gt;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
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1 comment:

Jimh. said...

Very telling! Very telling indeed!