"I Wanna Go Home"

Posted Saturday, November 20, 2010, at 9:13 AM

......says I, with a coffee cup in my hand, staring through the glass doors at the gas station, while the rain is drizzling outside.

"Well, GO home"..........says one of the gals behind the counter........."You only live a few blocks from here!"

"See you ladies later" I said with a halfway grin as I went out and climbed back into the old Ford.

As I eased the clutch out on that old sedan that's been running now since it was new back in 1964, I knew I was the only one who could POSSIBLY know what I meant when I said "I wanna go home."

"Home" to me, is a whole TOWN full of cars like mine, black & white television and thirty cents a gallon for 104 Octane. "Betty Lou" wore a tight sweater, a poodle skirt and a ponytail, and to me was a whole lot prettier than they way they look and dress today. A lot of us guys had enough Brylcream in our hair to do a lube job on a Peterbilt. You could stand in any wind, and not a hair out of place! It was hot rod heaven, cruisin' the beach, dime tacos, surfin', "409's". old Ford Woodies and Wolfman Jack.

Today I walk out the door, "cruise" down for my buck & a quarter coffee, pay 3 bucks a gallon for 89 octane (plus lead substitute & octane boost), then wait for the parade of Hondas and Focuses to buzz by so I can pull out onto the strip. The Wolfman has been "replaced" by Paul J. & KBOI. There ain't even an "oldies" radio station around here anymore.

Forty years ago, it was a tough decision on what to watch on your old "black & white."..............Dragnet, Gunsmoke or Red Skelton. Today it's 3D, Blue ray, Plasma, 300+ Satellite programs, and if you have any morals, you STILL have to "surf" for the better part of an hour to find anything decent to watch. (and you have to PAY every month for tv now).

Going to Boise, everybody's in a rush to get nowhere........and if you ain't willing to CRUISE at 85 in the SLOW lane, some Kenworth is all over your back bumper....................seems like it anyway.

You really feel it at Christmas........I do anyway. It's all commercial now...........credit cards, online shopping, crowds, stress, malls, you can spend more on "entertainment toys" for the grandkids, than your dad made in a MONTH when YOU were a kid!

Women, beating each other up over the "Day after Thanksgiving sales." It's nuts out there anymore, and society as a whole, has lost track of what Christmas is all about.

I don't care at all for the crap that comes out of Hollywood today, but even I have to admit that the seasonal movie, "A Christmas Story" (with "Ralphie and the Red Ryder B-B gun), really strikes a "home chord" with me.

Time frame and all..........I can RELATE to that one!

When my daughter in Ohio tells me "Dad, ya really need to get caught up", I just lean back with the phone in one hand and an old nicked-up coffee cup in the other........and with honest conviction............reply "What for?"

I wanna go home.

You can't. You have to deal with 2010, like it or not (and believe me, I DON'T). I guess that's why my wife & I own classic cars---------you can still keep some of it with you.

I don't like it here, and haven't for a long time now, but at the same time, I've been VERY fortunate. I feel SO BLESSED, to have been able to live through a time in this country that will never come again. It pains me that my own kids and grandkids have to live and cope in the times we have now.

I grew up with Roy Rogers, Nehi Orange, 2-toned cars with fins, and we all "Liked Ike."

We're in the 21st Century now, and as far as I'm concerned, this is BULL----!! Our younger generation doesn't see it that way, but THIS is all they know, God help them.

I was reading another blog last night, when Jessie Miller was saying that Heaven would be "whatever we wanted it to be" well.....I sure hope so, because when MY time comes (as it will for everybody), I'd be more than willing to TURN DOWN those "mansions and streets of gold".......for just a strip of the old Coast Highway again and a '57 Chevy for my "eternal chariot" to cruise around in.

THEN I'll be HOME!

On my next post, I'm gonna share a very special era of my life...........growin' up as a kid.

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You know that is the charm of small town Idaho . I was raised in Mtn Home, black and white tv , 57 chevy and sock hop at east elementay on sat nites, pickin up bottles by the road on sunday after church , huntin' whistle pigs witha .22 pistol . crusin the Artic Circle and Hungry Onion and Red steer Drive In... God seemed to be right there with Rev Barker, Coombiya on thrusday nite and the " Game " on friday nite lites at green achres. Hunger Hut for lunch some days when gas was on short supply. Eddies funeral was the worst time of our lives . Cotton survied but would never be the same again. We prayed for peace and I got sent to Nam, heart disease and diabetes , ptsd and a bad back due to a hard landing in country . But I still believe Jesus died for my sins to forgive me that I might have life, love ,and peace everlasting at HOME . May God bless you all !

Paul

-- Posted by paperkite on Sun, Nov 21, 2010, at 9:57 AM
Dang! I wanted to be the first to comment on this blog....and I woulda been, had the comment all ready and ran into technical difficulties....

I LOVE this blog. I read it to a friend of mine as we were driving along.... and we both "got it" .... I was not in quite as early of the era as you were, ....mine started in 61. I've always thought of those as the Wonder Years. I remember being a little girl on base...and playing outside all day long, til we were burnt to a crisp, and cooled off in neighbors sprinklers.(and they didn't yell and threaten us with the law) Then at the end of the day, (and our folks weren't worrying about us) we went home to Mom's hug and home cooked dinner. I remember Mom saying "You smell like a sunny day". Then on some lucky days, we'd hear the IceCream truck musical notes coming up the street, and kids swarmed to get a Nutty Bar for a dime.

Some weekends, we'd pile into a car and go to Nampa to have a picnic with my Mom's folks. Sometimes they would splurge and get a Bucket from the Colonel, and we'd shuck corn in their back yard. I remember seeing the corn silk floating in the air. Then at almost dinner time, I'd go across the lane to get Great Grandparents from their house. (Which is now a historical site) and bring them to dinner one in each hand.

After dinner, I'd play carefully 'near' the coal that was used for heat. I was always genuinely surprised when my Mom could tell I'd been where I wasnt' supposed to be. (picture a freckle faced tow head with soot all over) Mom would send me to wash, and when she left, I'd sneak and swoop down the laundry chute into the wash tub.

Those were great times.

In my teens, I'd ride to town with my friend Christy Stoecker on our horses, bareback and barefooted. We'd ride thru the Red Steer Drive Thru. Sometimes they'd grumble, but they'd serve us usually with a grin.

I have so many memories of my Wonder Years, and Mtn. Home is part of most of them.

Like you I don't like it here as much as I'd like to like it here,.... though "here" is basically the same. I hate the politics, and the wrongs that are going on. I hate seeing kids being raised with no respect, by parents who also have no respect. I despise the "oh woe is me ...I don't have anything, and I am entitled to what ever YOU have, just because I exist" attitude. I believe folks need a hand up from time to time, but by gosh, I have to wait til pay day to afford to buy a few basics. I have to admit I get aggravated standing in line watching someone by expensive steak, while I'm just barely getting some veggies. (oops, didn't really mean to go here)

I'd like to see some basic values come back. Start with a little respect and consequences for your actions, type of thing.

I love Mtn. Home,

Thanks for reminding me!

I wanna go home too!

Jessie

-- Posted by jessiemiller on Sun, Nov 21, 2010, at 6:14 PM
I can remember before we had a tv and I listened to the radio shows at my Grandparents house on their big floor console. I listened to the "whistler" and there was another one that started out with a door squeaking, can't remember its name.

I can remember walking on top of snow banks to school on a cold winter morning in Northern Wisconsin. The snow back then was so very deep and when they plowed the roads they banked the sidewalks with snow and you couldn't see cars traveling down the roads unless you were on top of a snow bank.

I can remember warming up in the mornings before heading out the door for school in front of the coal stove that sat in the dinning room.

I can remember saving $10.00 worth the dimes in a dime bank that only opened up when you got it full of dimes, and then buying my first ever bike

which cost $10.00 from a neighbor lady's who daughter had grew up and left home.

You didn't speak back to your parents because you knew what you would get. Your parents disciplined you not the police. I can remember my brother coming home smelling like he had been smoking a cigarette, he got the belt taken to him.

Some old memories I wouldn't go back to but there are some good old memories still left in me. lol ! I would not want to go back to those days of freezing in the winter time. I was so cold by the time I got to school my legs would sting when I opened up the school house door and the warm heat hit them.

-- Posted by MsMarylin on Sun, Nov 21, 2010, at 6:55 PM
Joe's Where is that?

-- Posted by MsMarylin on Mon, Nov 22, 2010, at 10:42 AM
I didn't know they had breakfast.......Thanks for the tip

-- Posted by MsMarylin on Mon, Nov 22, 2010, at 12:24 PM

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