All the local TV weather forecasters predicted boo koo snow today beginning at 9am-ish, thus, I drove to get breakfast early, knowing I'd be in for the remainder of the day.
So here I am. Here we are. Stuck. We ain't got it as bad as Seattle (19" the last few days), but, I just peeked, it's 1:15pm and the snow is already a third of the way up the wheels of my car. I was reminded of Deliverance, and with apologies to Ned Beatty, "You ain't goin' no damn where!"...
Stuck. At. Home. This. Home. But, one day to be The Home.
One day, The Silent Generation will be mostly gone, only to be replaced in Homes across the land by beatniks, freaks, rebels, hippies, anarchists, counterculture dudes/dudettes, yuppies.
Ruh roh.
We do hereby promise to..........
Protest, eh, simply for the sake of protest. For instance, liver and onion night in the dining hall - we can meet in the activity room, walk out in unison chanting "Hell no we won't go!"..........
And whilst we're in the activity room, we grab every bingo ball, Yahtzee shaker, knitting needle, rug hook, sewing kit, crochet thingy, shuffleboard stick and RUN with them to the dumpster out back. Then,
We march to the Nursing Home Activity Director behind a leader we've picked, harmoniously singing "People try to put us down........talkin' bout my generation"........ and we request a very large laundry basket full of Frisbees. And another for yard darts. And a HUGE box fulla (already inflated) Beach Balls, a hunnerd paint by numbers lava lamps, and 40 yoga mats. Oh, and ya got 30 days to build a Frisbee golf course out back, thanks.
We gather up all the duds our sons, daughters, etc., have packed for us to wear.. then we all jump in Willie's car.. (Willie is onea the few that can still drive... when it's icy out, we all sing "Willie go round in circles").. We run by Goodwill, dump the duds our kids bought us, then go and buy the most yummy, colorful, bellbottom blues, flowery fineries we can buy... to return to fill up our drawers. No bras allowed, and socks will only be worn on Sundays (and to sock hops.)
It's Saturday, and the Landscaping crew only works Monday thru Friday, so we jot a note of "I'm sorry" on their door, then proceed to the gardens outside, for everyone to pick, and "be sure to wear a flower in your hair."
All across the nation...such a strange vibration... people in motion.. There's a whole generation... with a new explanation.. people in motion.. people in motion.......... to,
The Music Director's Office. "Hi, we're the new residents and we're here to grab and burn every Benny Goodman, Duke Ellington, Glen Miller, Count Basie tape, record, CD you got." Upon further review:
Sock hops.. Ok damnit, call 'em sock shuffles if you like. We've brought you some music... we'd like:
On Mondays, we wanna hear Dylan, Seeger, Guthrie, Baez, Peter Paul and Mary kinda stuff...
British Invasion on Tuesday nights.......
(Wednesdays, we'll just gather in the Activity room to smoke pot so we'll pick our own music there, thanks)
Thursday, Motown baby.. LOUD
Friday is any/every one that played at Woodstock.. you know, Richie Havens, Rani Shankar, Country Joe, Santana, Canned Heat, Gratefule Dead, Sly, The Who to name a few...
Saturday nights, we want you to provide a driver for The Home Bus (if it'll still start) to take us all the the "Wish You Were Beer" bar.
Sunday, we'll rest. Instrumental music only please.
Oops, forgot. Back the Director's office. "Sir (or Ma'am, dependent on your Home) if you will remember, we're kinda known for... ahem.. the sexual revolution, free love..make love not war... SO.. That present 10pm bed check you got every night? Toss that sucker and change it to 10am, that'll give us time to... well.. we'll be back in our own rooms."
"Oh, and that barber shop/beauty salon on the first floor? You can close that sucker up, that's gonna be the tie-die room.. besides, who need haircuts? Also, the gals are tremendously adept at braids, Afros, flowery 'do's.."
"And... you've got a lot of really nice pictures on the walls.. you know, rivers, streams, country roads, yada.. we'd likeya to take down at least half of 'em though.. and replace 'em with pics of Martin Luther King, Mahatma Gandhi, Malcolm X, Mother Teresa.. .and Jimi, we gotta have one of Jimi."
Stuck. At. Home. This. Home. But, one day to be The Home.
Maybe it won't be so bad after all.
By Henry O'Leary Gibson,
Love, Victurd
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