Tony At 10: LONG AGO AND OH SO FAR AWAY; BLOG # 2057: NOV O4,2016

THE MESSAGE:

I received the following via email and do not know the identity of the author. It evoked some great memories of growing up in the 1950's. I was urged to share it with others and therefore decided to do so by utilizing my weekly blog.

The message is a wonderful metaphor of a totally different world. It references the USA in its poetry; however it can easily be applied to life in Canada as well. I have taken the liberty of edits and some different pictures.

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,

For Ike was in the White House

In that land where we were born,
Where navels were for oranges,

And Peyton Place was porn.

We longed for love and romance,

And waited for our Prince,
Eddie Fisher married Liz,

And no one's seen him since.

Elizabeth Taylor and Eddie Fisher married in 1959. Fisher was reluctant to admit that his wife was having an affair with Richard Burton

We danced to 'Little Darlin',

And sang to 'Stagger Lee'
And cried for Buddy Holly

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.

CHESTER, MISS KITTY AND MR DILLON of 'GUNSMOKE'

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 were not Led.

And Beatles lived in gardens then,

And Monkees lived in trees,
Madonna was Mary

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 were not grown in jars.

We hadn't seen enough of jets

To talk about the lag,
And microchips were what was left

At the bottom of the 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.

T-Birds came with portholes,

And side shows came with freaks,
And bathing suits came big enough

To cover both your cheeks.

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 35

And old was forty-three,
And ancient were our parents

In the Land That Made Me, Me.