I asked my son what the main thing you wanted for Christmas was and you told me Doggy Poop then clarified “fake doggy poop.” That made me laugh, especially because I had fake doggy poop when I was a kid. How did I know about fake doggy poop you ask? Well, the only advertising that really reached kids when I was your age was on the Saturday morning cartoons and they wouldn’t advertise things like that. But in the back of a Magazine called Boys’ Life Magazine which could be found at the library there were all sorts of interesting things advertised in the back of it. It looked like this:
I not only had fake doggy poop but fake throw-up as well which was really gross. I’m now 41 years old and ‘maturity’ requires that I not find fake poop funny. But you know what? I never liked that ‘maturity’ stuff anyway so I’m going to get you your fake poop and laugh at your antics. I was a kid once and his voice inside me is very strong. He has a permanent and powerful place at the table in my brain where the decisions are made. Maturity…. bah. That is something the adults would tell you to be to kill whatever fun moment was being had.
And besides, what did adults know? I remember Mrs. Henderson (RIP) telling me not to spit because it was gross. But she smoked so everything is a matter of perspective isn’t it? I remember one time we were riding in her minivan in winter and she was smoking. This absolutely suffocated me so I cracked open up a window so I could breathe and she told me to close it because it was cold outside. She drove one of those minivan models that three other families also bought and looked something like this:
But going back to the advertisements in the back of Boys’ Life there was a lot of junk in there two. One thing that every boy wanted was the hovercraft. It ran on a vacuum cleaner motor. I remember the advertisement saying how cool it would be to fly around your home or your school! Yes, that would be cool! In fact it would be fun to fly anywhere!
Reading this with the discerning eye of a salesperson I see that sending $3.50 only buys you the “plans and photos!” What a rip off, what a joke. What kind of monster would do this to a kid? You take his money only to send him not only ‘plans and photos’ – the kid would be expecting the actual machine – but for something that isn’t going to work! The only thing it does is teach a very hard life lesson.
But if I could get anything from the back of this magazine I was a happy camper. Money was very tight back then so on the very rare occasion I was able to get something my happiness level went off the charts and I couldn’t wait for it to arrive.
Switching gears the time is 6:21 AM on Tuesday December 4th and the day is soon to begin. My mood is the usual anxious as I have to keep getting business and the revenue flowing. I have to stop and consciously remind myself to relax, to let the anxiety pass. All is well and life is good. As for energy I don’t have much and do not want to get out of bed to start the day. I work hard and then have to go to karate which is also hard. I’ve been in this down slump for a while now and hope to get my motivation and energy back. This is certainly all due to the new job and how much pressure comes with it. I have to take it in stride.
