Greetings from the Dells! It occurs to me that I probably
like it here at kiddy Vegas more than my son. After all, this is our third year
here and he, at seven, still refuses to go on the big slides, no matter how
much I beg. I also have to talk him into going into the candy shoppes (don’t
you love how they spell stuff in touristy places?) as well as the arcade. What
is happening to youth of today? Who’s the child here?
As a kid, I begged my dad (no sense in begging Ma on this
one: “do you think I’m driving to the fucking valley?”) year after year to take
us to the big 3 in SOCAL: Disneyland, Magic Mountain, and Knott’s Berry Farm.
Failing those, the runner-up was “Busch Gartens,” (Anhiezher Busch, aka,
Budweiser), the famed beer factory with added amusement park to make it a
family affair. It was there at the tender age of 5, I took my first
(miraculously not last) sip of beer. Failing that, there was always the pony parking
lot farm smack in the middle of the city on the corner of Pico and Beverly
Glen, The Santa Monica Pier, and the arcade at Shakeys. As far as big outings,
we came to Minnesota every year and went to the Fair.
O’ course back then we had no malls, no cellphones, no
quick-fix stimulation the way we do now, though I’m sure my dad would have
argued differently. He loathed the way we flocked to the arcade, hoarded the
cotton candy, hurled our bodies around in space on obscene rides. Why couldn’t
we just be content to sit? Now I
feel like I am in some sort of satire with Jude; instead of begging him to come
in from the wilderness of outside, I have to bribe him to go out.
But, as we know, times they are-a-changing. I have faith
that the day will come when Jude will refuse to come inside, the same way he
refuses now to stop playing MineCraft on his dad’s phone. I oughta have some faith, after all,
for I’m not entirely innocent; I had my Matel’s electronic football. I played
Atari. But still, very little came before swimming with the waves at the beach,
or soccer, no matter how loudly they called. And they called at the top of
their lungs. All the parents did. You could count on it night after night,
especially during the summer, like a big city birdcall that ricocheted up and
down the dark-less streets. Yesterday's dread is today's nostalgia. God, I'm getting old.
Write with me?
What place of summer amusement did you go/do as a kid year
after year?
What did they call you in from as a kid?
Hi Rox! It's Rox over at Ma's computer... Just wanted to let you know that maybe one of the reasons Jude does not like a lot of typical mainstream adrenaline is because he does not watch typical mainstream TV... this occurs to me this morning as we prepare to leave the Dells and he binges on mainstream television with all sorts of yummy commercials selling adrenaline (the same adrenaline we watched and binged on as kids!)... Now he's ready to go play at the Spooky House! Something to ponder. Love, Mama Rox
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