IN MY ERA

Penny for Your Thoughts By: Nancy Whitaker

“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 n the Land That Made Me, Me

“We learned to gut a muffler, We washed our hair at 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 Rocky-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 Democrat 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.”

I ran into this poem and really liked it. There will be a Part 2 next week. Enjoy this poem and I will give you a Penny For Your Thoughts.