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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 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 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 Democrat With his co-star 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 th e 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 Perrier to chill, 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 L and 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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35 Comments on What Made "me" Me

MAY
24
2007
And that is why they call them the good old days...never to return in todays society. The days when you could hitch a ride across the state and the people that pick you up invited you to party with them. Spend a night at their pad and feed you breakfast and then made you a lunch to take for the road.
9:20pm • #1
MAY
25
2007
4 Featured Posts

Chuck

I'm glad I wasn't one of those young people that hated to hear my grandparents say, "well in my day." or "When I was young."  I used to love those stories.

There is a lot about our society today I wouldn't want to give up, but I do miss the simplicity and the safety of the days gone by.  It was a splendid era and I'm afraid you're right, never to return.  A bit sad.

Thanks for your comments and taking the time to stop by. :)

12:47am • #2
167,951 Points 12 Featured Posts Outside Blog
Roberta what a great post!! how can you only have 1 comment?  after all the time you put into it..
6:30am • #3
4 Featured Posts

Matthew

On AR you never know what will tickle the fancy of the reader.  BUT I do appreciate you for stopping by, have a great weekend. :)

11:16am • #4
MAY
28
2007
294,021 Points 11 Featured Posts Outside Blog Attended Rain Camp

Yea, ooohhh  Roberta, what a good days eh ? do you remember many of them?   I just smile what a such great times I had, now I enjoy them, but are different, more responsability, etc :)

take care my friend ! and keep the good blog !

 

12:33pm • #5
4 Featured Posts

Ray

I not only remember those but many more.  I lived them.  Remember I have been around for a lot of years, and the changes I've seen are good, bad, and in between.  I choose to remember the good ones for the happiness they bring me, I choose to remember the bad ones so we can do something about them and the in between stay there.  :)

Have a great day my friend. :)

5:14pm • #6
SEP
14
2007
I found this poem and liked it so much that we used it in our "Memory Bood" for our 50th class reunion.  I didn't give the author credit as I didn't know who it was!  Guss "Unknown" will have to do.  It sums up my generation Perfictly!
Ron
1:19pm • #7
142,998 Points 1 Featured Post Outside Blog

Roberta lee

You once told me that I was still young but, after reading that it reminded me of Me Me!! Thanks, it brought me back to a time of simplar days when there wasn't as much crime and hatred in the world than there is today, you could hitch a ride and not have to worry, today you'd kill your kids if they even tried.

I remeber all those little stories that bought back a simle and even a tear of the days when I was young both you and Me Me.

6:16pm • #8
Roberta,  Sooooo good!  Thank you for this post - the good ole days!  It is amazing how much things have changed in such a short time.  Progress??  Great picture of you and your horse.  A lot of my good ole days were on the back of my horse.  Do you have much time for riding?
8:48pm • #9
4 Featured Posts

Gary

There is so much I could have added to The Land That Made "me" Me. Like......

Do YOU remember....

Candy cigarettes

5 cent telephone calls, 10 cents a cup coffee

3 cent stamps

19 cent gasoline

25 cents for a half gallon of milk

50 cents for a Saturday Matinee

Your girl friend would knit you socks or make you dice for your car

$1 for a car load to get into a drive in movie

black rotary phones

black and whit TVs's only

"round" TVs screens

no TVs only radio

That will get you started, now Gary let's see what you can come up with.  Remember you have to have been alive to list it....GAMES ON

 Cowgirl 

 







8:52pm • #10
4 Featured Posts

Pat

Thank you for commenting.  Yes for all that we have now that we didn't have then I somehow think we have given up something very precious....our innocents.  I challenged Gary to a game...want to join?  Let's have some fun.

No I don't have Sam now and I never get to ride.  One more thing lost..

 Cowgirl 





8:55pm • #11

Roberta,  You're on ..... I'll play! 

Remember "party lines" for our telephone?  There were several families on the same phone line and you had to lift the receiver and make sure no one else was using the phone before you could make a call.  You never listened in on someone else's phone calls (unless it was your older brother on the other phone trying to be cool with a girl  :)

Remember The Buddy Dean Show?  (Maybe that was just those of us near Baltimore, Maryland) This is the dance show that is featured in the movie Hairspray.

Leaving a few cents on top of your letter in the mailbox for the mailman to put a stamp on the letter.

(Roberta you will remember this - ) When hay wasn't $5 a bale.

Wearing rollers to bed so our hair was curled in the morning.  (Gary you may not have done this :)

The milkman would deliver milk, cheese, etc.

The bread man delivered bread, pastries, etc.

The Fuller Brush man 

 

9:06pm • #12
4 Featured Posts

Pat

You betch!!!  I remember all of those.

We Had a party line and ...do you remember "crank" telephones.  You had to turn the crank to get the operator, you couldn't dial...no numbers on the phone.

Do you remember when the prefix was a name....Parkridge 4464?

Nylon hose with the seam down the back, Gary your mom wore those I bet. And garter belts. And if you couldn't afford the nylons you use an eyebrow pencil and drew the line.

No pantie hose.

Cardboard tops in the milk bottles.

AND half a ton of hay was 3.00 Delivered!

 Cowgirl 

OK it's your turn  and Gary where are you?





10:06pm • #13
SEP
15
2007

Roberta, 

Schooldays:

Starting the day with the pledge of allegiance to the flag and a prayer

Behaving in school - respecting the teachers and classmates

I never knew anyone who went to the principal's office

Girls always wore dresses and skirts

 

 

10:12am • #14
OCT
01
2007
4 Featured Posts

Pat

Golly I'm sorry for not getting back sooner.  This just slipped through the crack somehow.

Using the words "gosh" and "golly" were almost swearing.

answering an adult, "Yes Mame or no Mame."

Having chores to do

.25 cents was a big allowance.

45 rpm records

little red and white recorder players.

 Cowgirl 





1:13am • #15
149,166 Points 7 Featured Posts Outside Blog
Charlie Chip man, fresh produce sold door to door. Water from the hose, riding bikes and carching grasshoppers. Climbing trees and skating rinks blaring disco tunes.  Pick up trucks lifted high, beach bonfires and fireflies.
12:13pm • #16
142,998 Points 1 Featured Post Outside Blog

Roberta

I remember going down to the pharmacy to buy milk in an outside machine with milk on one side and a block of ice on the other. When having a phone ment your family had money. When penny candy was a penny and for a dime you could reach in and pull out a fist full.

I remember when if you didn't offer your seat to a lady Dad kicked your butt when you got home if he was in a good mood, if he wasn't he did you right then and there.

I remember when thr priest faced the alter and did mass in Latin.

I remember when you went to public school you wore your shirt buttoned to the neck and when you came home from school you shined your shoes everyday and finished your homework.

I remember mom's home made cooking.

I remember taking the carpets out to beat them clean.

Roberta its now your turn, sorry I didn't check the follow up but now I did.

Oh, I forgot, I remember when the Russian's were bad people.

5:21pm • #17
OCT
03
2007
4 Featured Posts

Gary

I  remember.....

"D" day

ration books ...during WWll

air raid warrens

girls never wearing long pants to school

black out curtains so that the enemies flying over couldn't see the lights of the town. Yes, in the USA

glass gass pumps

wooden side-walks in the older towns

 

1:34pm • #18
4 Featured Posts

Michele

No cake mixes--all cakes were either home made or bought at a bakery

roller skates that went on your shoes to skate on the side walks

goulashes and rain coats

saddle shoes

angora sweters with socks to match

 

1:38pm • #19

Wow, you all remember alot. I can't remember what I remember. One shot at making your list.

Party lines with long short long for our house. Of course it was a signal for all the ladies on the line to tap in and listen.

Did you talk about operator that got you the other person.

 

8:06pm • #20
I guess I miss the good old days when we could go on a date to the local Drive-In, Play Pong on Atari, ride our bikes anywhere, anytime! Gilligans Island, Happy Days and eating anything I want and never gaining a pound. Ohhhh and renting a nice 3 bedroom home for $500 a month. 
11:27pm • #21
OCT
12
2007
4 Featured Posts

Larry

Oh I remember the  code ring on the phones.  I also remember the operator that you had to ask to het any number.

How about the type of phone that hung on the wall with a crank?  We had one!  Beat that one...LOL

 Cowgirl 





6:52pm • #22
4 Featured Posts

Jenna

lol lolOh you are so young.  While I was growing up Pong meant Ping Pong!  How about renting a nice furnished 3 bedroom home for $150.00

Some day old gals like me will be gone and all of these memories with us.  Such a wonderful innocent time in life.

Come on peeps...what else can you remember?

 Cowgirl 





6:56pm • #23
OCT
13
2007
142,998 Points 1 Featured Post Outside Blog

Michele

I still make my cakes from scratch and just about most things, I still do my own canning and remembered when people shared recipes on canning now, people don't know what your talking about.

I remember sharpening your pencil with a knife. I can remember when they rationed meats. I remember when a CD was money in a bank.

12:15pm • #24
4 Featured Posts

I remember ration books! Sugar, gasoline, coffee, all kinds of things were rationed for the war effort.

I remember silk stockings, until WW II.

And Gary I remember before CD's.

I remember swapping a half of a pig for a quarter of a beef with a neighbor.  Remember I was raised on a ranch.

I remember gathering eggs in the morning.

For breakfast we had fresh eggs, bacon and fresh milk.

 Cowgirl 





12:34pm • #25
142,998 Points 1 Featured Post Outside Blog

Roberta

I love fresh eggs and bacon with coffee, I have a local farmer who I sold some property to that swaps me fresh eggs for some of my home made desserts. And we trade our preserves and different veggies etc..

We have gone in on pigs together and lamb raising them for the slaughter.

12:39pm • #26
4 Featured Posts

Gary

Oh memories of days gone by.  Although even though I was raised on a ranch, I never got used to the slaughter.  My father did that and kept me away.  He felt that a girl shouldn't see that.  I know where meat comes from, but if I had to kill it I would be a vegetarian.  Sad huh?

One of these days I'll be knocking on your door for breakfast. :)

I remember school lunches being made fresh daily by moms that rotated each week.  The hardest class was the one just before lunch as the aromas wafted in from the kitchen.  I went to a 4 room school house.

 Cowgirl 





12:55pm • #27
OCT
14
2007
142,998 Points 1 Featured Post Outside Blog

Roberta

I would love it if you came for breakfast, I too went to a four room school house it is now a senior citizen center and board of Ed building. The cool thing was that if you were a bad kid you got to chop wood with the janitor who let you smoke cigarettes and once in a while sip from his flask.

8:02pm • #28
OCT
17
2007
4 Featured Posts

Gary

My husband (ex) took me back to the area I grew up in as a surprise.  The school was still there and the same size but they had torn down the wooden one and replaced it with a cinder block building.  I was so sad.  It just didn't seem to be the same.

If we were bad in school the teachers would send us to stand in the coat room. :)  I was there once or twice.  I liked to talk then too. :)

I remember harvest time

the smell of alfalfa being cut

see the plants coming up in the fields in the spring

and watching the horses and cows giving birth....just wonderful.

 Cowgirl 





5:37pm • #29
OCT
18
2007
142,998 Points 1 Featured Post Outside Blog

Wow

I wasn't that fortunate to see the Alfalfa grow unless I was watching the Little Rascals, there you not only got to see Alfalfa but Buckwheat too. :0 !

Have a nice day!

11:59am • #30
4 Featured Posts

Gary

Not only that but I used to sow sacks on the harvester during picking season.  This was done by machine and the beans were then put in sacks, again by machine and you would have to sow the tops of the sacks.  I used to love doing that, but my mother hated it because I came home do very dirty.  In those days little girls weren't supposed to get that dirty or do things that boy's did.  LOL  Good memories.

 Cowgirl 





3:26pm • #31
OCT
19
2007
142,998 Points 1 Featured Post Outside Blog

Roberta

We use to get hired to pick tomatoes for local farmers. if you worked hard all day you might get paid $15.00, That was real good money for a kid plus we got to take home some for our moms. At the end of the day we would have tomato fights with the ones that have been laying on the ground.

8:43am • #32
OCT
25
2007
4 Featured Posts

Gary

I would have loved to see you at the end of that tomato fight!  lol  My dad raised watermelons also and we used to get our fill of them.  You can't buy any now days that are as sweet as the ones that sweeten on the vine.  We'ed have seed spitting contests.  lol What a way to grow up.  Not many children have the opportunity that you and I have had.  Shame isn't it?

 Cowgirl 





1:08pm • #33
FEB
09
2008

I just got this in a email, read it, liked it. I was getting ready to copy it, to post it to myspace and I hit the blue highighted area and it brougt me here, so I guess I need to compliment you on a wonderful read. I so wish I had gleaned more from my grand parents and great grand parents but at the time it wasnt important or I didnt know to do so, But now I hate myself as I try to do some geneology there is a lot lost. So thank you, I remember alot of things I am turning 50 this year and wow the changes in 50 years!

Pam C
11:02am • #34
MAY
18
2008

I remeber Grandma using flour sacks to make up PJ's & robes. Walking to school in all kinds of weather.  Being made to eat all that was on our plate, cause the kids in Korea were going hungry. Doing dishes by hand, before we could go to the moves to see Dad's favorite, John Wayne.  Saturday afternoon movies for .25 untill I  got to be 12. Candy bars, especially "Clark Bars" for a .05

Chores before the sat movie. setting the table every night, taking turns drying or washing dishes.

Shopping in the Pittsburgh department stores for school clothes, which my younger sister had to like,cause she got them the next year. Always getting a wool coat for my birthday. Christmas was a big deal, leaving cookies for Santa, only to discover the note he left was in Dad's handwritting.  What a let down.

Jean
4:40pm • #35

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Roberta Lee-Norco Corona Riversid Homes For Sale

Norco, CA

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Century 21 Olde Tyme

Address: 1261 6th St, Norco, CA, 92860

Office Phone: (949) 275-5873

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Norco Official Horse Town Property where the Olde West meets today's modern world.


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