Drive-In You Crazy

     I went to my first drive-in movie when I was 13.  I went with my best friend Brian and his sister Mary, nicknamed Murr, and Brian's mom (she did not have a nickname).
     Before we talk about all that, let me give you a little background.  I moved to Upland, Indiana from Roanoke, Indiana in 1970.  I was 12 years old that year and it was a great year for me, as I recall.  I played some little league baseball, went swimming at Lake Wawasee during summer vacation and we all went to Florida for Christmas vacation.  That was a good year.
     We moved to Upland that summer because my dad was going to be the new pastor at the United Methodist Church there.  I was going there to be the new 12 year old kid who had just moved from Roanoke.  I fulfilled my duties with ease as soon as I passed the town limit sign.
     Mom moved with us.  That seemed to work out well.  I also moved there with my older brother Steve, my older sister Mary, and my younger brother Mike.  Steve had introduced me to Three Dog Night and bought me my very first "record album."  It was "Cosmo's Factory" by Creedence Clearwater Revival.  (Brian would buy my second album: "Abbey Road.")  NOTE: Steve did enjoy some Three Dog Night, but I never smelled any "funny" smells coming from his room, re: "Mama Told Me Not to Come."
     Mary loved animals, and I remember the salamander she found (I bet you can guess its name), and the fact that it lost its tail at some point; probably while being pursued by one of our cats.  (Okay, okay, the Salamander's name was, um, Sally.)
     Mike was two years younger than me and we slept in the same room.  I had to persuade him to play catch with me by calling him a sissy.  Sometimes it worked; sometimes it didn't.
     One of the very first people I met that summer we moved was Brian Wolf and his cousin Kurt Fishtorn.  Brian was my age and Kurt was my sister Mary's age, 15.  Kurt came by to invite Mary to some small town summer thing, but declined.  Brian was just along for the ride.  In July Brian and Kurt invited me to watch the Major League Baseball All-Star game.  We went to Kurt's house and watched Pete Rose slam into Ray Fosse in extra innings to win the game and shorten Fosse's career.  The first one he meant to do; the second, I'm sure he didn't.  That's Charlie Hustle.
     One summer evening, when the sun still stays out until after 8 PM or so, Brian's mom took me and Brian and Murr to the drive-in.  The four of us got in for like 50 cents for the whole car. 
     Now, there are lots of places where you can park a car at a drive-in.  You get to choose.  You can park wherever you want.  You can park about half-way back, near the snack bar.  You can park all the way in the back row and do whatever people do in the very back row of the drive-in.  There are many places to park.  For some still unexplainable reason, we parked in the very front row of the theater.  Even with the little built-up pile of rock under the front wheels of the car we were still looking at maybe the bottom fourth of the screen, and...the playground equipment.  Yep, a swing set and a little slide for the kiddies.  You don't see the swing set from back by the snack bar or in the very back row.  Nope.
     My very first drive-in, ever, and if I had sat straight up in the back seat of Brian's mom's car I would only have seen 25% of the movie, so to speak.  Movies, I should say.  The special offer with the car full of people for 50 cents included four, count 'em, four movies.  Four.  I remember one in particular and have a vague recollection of one of the other movies.  Maybe we didn't stay for all four of those summertime drive-in flicks, in Indiana, on the front row of the drive-in.
     Brian and I had to scrunch way down in the back seat and crane our necks sideways for hours.  We watched four movies on three fourths of the screen.  It didn't really matter that much anyway.  We were 13 and found a way to make the entire experience a total blast: we mocked everything we were watching. 
     Like this.  The movie I remember the most was called My Side of the Mountain.  The long story short is that this kid got separated from his parents on their vacation to the mountains and he survived by living in a tree and by finding stuff to eat in the vicinity and did it all with excruciating unbelievability.  He made fire and talked with the animals and walked with the animals, oh wait, wrong film.  Anyway, we had so much fun making fun of that movie.  We were suppressing laughter the entire time and making stupid comments that only 13 year-olds can make. 
      One of the other movies was about racing or something.
     We had so much fun that we didn't really care that those movies were crappy.  It just gave us more to make fun of, and we made ourselves laugh.  I don't know if Brian's mom or Murr liked any of the four movies, but Brian and I had the best time we've ever had at a drive-in. 
    

    
    
    
   

Oh The Weather Outside is Frightful?

     It's winter time all over the world, unless you live in the Southern Hemisphere, which means that actually only about half of the world is in winter right now.  So much for research.  This doesn't even include the Poles where it's pretty much winter all the time, right?  I mean, if getting up to zero degrees is not winter in those places, then have at it.  I won't be checking the American Van Lines website to check on moving rates for that latitude, if you know what I mean...
     I live in California now.  I grew up in Indiana and lived there for some years after living in California the first time after college.  Here, this is easier.  A timeline for my states of living.
     1.  Indiana
     2.  California (after college)
     3.  Indiana (after leaving the Navy in California)
     4.  California (after living in Indiana...see #3)

     Okay, I hope that clears things up.
     Anyway, I hear people in California saying things like, "Wow, it's cold today."  Which means that it got down to the mid 40's.  "I'm freezing!"  This means that it actually got down to 32 degrees last night and now they have a coat on for the day.
     It kinda makes me chuckle. I mean, I grew up with Indiana winters.  Now THAT'S cold!  Disclaimer: No, I didn't grow up in Saskatchewan or Manitoba, one of those places where you have to have a heater for your car battery, but I have experienced below zero temperatures, ahem, before the wind chill was factored in.
     I lived in a place where we purposely put our tongues on frozen metal.  For fun.  I have walked on a frozen lake that had ice ten inches thick.  I once ran outside (yes, outside) with my dad on Christmas Eve day and the temperature was 69 below.  I am not kidding you.
     I guess it's just some Hoosier pride coming out.  We have to have something.  We don't have a mountain and we only have part of a Great Lake.  The name of our capitol city has got to be the dumbest, most unimaginative of the 50 states.  BUT, it does get really cold and we play outside in it, so we are tough and strong and some of us tough and strong people sit on frozen lakes for hours with a piece of fishing line sticking through a hole we bored into the ice.  My flannel shirt is just bursting at the buttons just thinking about how proud I am.
     So there you have it: Hoosiers are tough and Californians who say they are freezing are in denial.
     Merry Christmas!
     T
    

Just Sayin'...

Just making some observations today.  Going with perspiration instead of inspiration.

     I don't want to hear a radio commercial that has these sound effects:  Police siren.  Screeching tires.  I'm driving 70 MPH (in the 70 zone) and I hear one of these noises from my radio, but I don't know it's my radio.  Get the picture?  Now my heart rate is double what is was a second before and my car seat is wet (and it's not because I have the seat heater on in my 2003 Kia Rio).

     I love the people who have to be about six feet behind me (at 70 MPH again) even though there are four lanes of traffic in the big people highway where all the adults drive their internal combustion engine vehicles (some are hybrids) and some people know that when you stop a car at 70 and there is a dumb person six feet behind you, you will die.  Some people know this.  Some don't.  They are dumb.  Yes they are.

     I cannot resist a book sale at the library.  If I see the sign and the sale is going on right now, I will buy at least one book.  Wait, I will buy at least one bag or box of books.  Yesterday, for the first time in my life I paid for books by the inch.  When I put my stack of books on the table to pay for them, the lady sitting there pulled out a yardstick.  I never went to Catholic school, but I had this vision of red train tracks across my palms.  Hey, it wasn't that at all!  She was measuring my stack.  I paid a dollar per inch.  Yesterday it was $15.50 and today it was $21.50.  I was going to say "you do the math," but I won't.

     That is all the observations I have today.

     

     

Hello Blogspot World,

     I am in Santa Rosa, NM today.  I've been on my trip since Sunday.  Here's what has gone on.
     I have been travelling the same route I took to go to California in August.  The mileage is now 11 MPG because I am driving a ten-foot U-Haul and trailing my Kia behind.  The last time I went this way the Chevy HHR I was driving got 27 MPG.  You do the math.  The driving has been fine so far.  The trailer swerves a little more than I would want, but I haven't hit anything yet.  I did get a little close going through Oklahoma City where they were doing road work and they had concrete barriers up for miles.  Oh yeah, and then I went through a stretch where I knew exactly why they were doing road work.  After banging and bouncing along at 45 MPH I no longer have to go to the dentist for those two cavities.  The teeth just bounced right out of my head and are lying peacefully in the dust of Oklahoma.  Oklahoma is NOT OK.
     I almost ran out of gas yesterday.  I was talking to Ann Aldridge on the phone for about an hour while driving in Texas and didn't notice my gas gauge until I was done with the call.  I stopped at a rest stop (with a BIG star) and asked the guy how far the nearest gas was.  He told me it was 25 miles.  I got back out to the truck and started sweating.  No, it wasn't warm. 
     The first sign I saw told me it was 18 miles to Groom, TX.  I knew it would be close and the worst that could happen is that someone might have to drive me for a few miles.  I made it.  I was in Groom, TX, home of the largest cross in the world? US? Western Hemisphere?  Not sure.  I AM sure of this.  It is big.  I bought the cross magnet at the filling station.  I also bought a cool Texas pin (could serve as map of the state if in dire straits).  I've resolved to buy a pin in every state I go through.
     Last night, without looking for it, I ran across the hometown of Carrie Underwood of American Idol  fame.  The town is Checotah, OK and I can see why she wanted to get out of there.  I took a couple of photos of the "downtown" area and the sign that told me she was from there. 
     Ended up in Santa Rosa last night.  I didn't see any of the town because it was night, but it is 100% sunny today and I am ready to make the day's trip.  I am shooting for California today and Vallejo by Wednesday some time.
     NOTE: I picked the font color because I'm in the Southwest today.

     Happy Trails!

     Talk to you soon!