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| This Week with The Chicowitz: |
| Each week our Boomer-in-Charge, Hershel Chicowitz, has something to say about life, society, or what's going on... from the perspective of a baby boomer. This is what's on his mind the week of November 26: |
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One of the best parts of the holiday season is the music. Old classics, new favorites... music is a huge part of the season. There is one song, however, whose lyrics confound me. The song is "No Place Like Home for the Holidays." It's at the end of the second verse:
"From Pennsylvania folks are travellin'
Down the Dixie sunny shore,
From Atlantic to Pacific,
Gee the traffic is terrific!"
Terrific?? Terrific??!! What the heck are they talking about? Have you been near a mall recently? OK, so the writer had to come up with something to rhyme with "Pacific." But "terrific"? Please!!
OK, OK... I understand. The song was written in 1954 when there were about a third as many automobiles as there are today, and the word "mall" was not even in the dictionary. But still.... terrific?
I note that Garth Brooks made an adjustment in his recording of the song:
"The Atlantic to Pacific
Oh, the season is terrific"
But that's Garth Brooks, for cryin' out loud. - Not happening!
When I was growing up, Saturday meant burgers and fries for dinner. It was a Chicowitz family tradition... except that we called it "supper," not "dinner." "Dinner" was for the rich folks on the other side of the rapid transit tracks. They ate dinner; we had supper.
Anyway, Saturday also meant a trip to Heinen's, our community's favorite grocery store. Still located at the corner of Lee Road and Chagrin Boulevard in Shaker Heights, Ohio, Heinen's had the best ground beef money could buy - on either side of the rapid transit tracks.
My mother had all week to plan for Saturday night's supper. But for some reason, she found it necessary to be at Heinen's at 4 o'clock every Saturday afternoon - along with half of the rest of Shaker Heights. And before I was old enough to play in the street by myself, that meant that I, too, had to be in Heinen's at 4 o'clock every Saturday afternoon - an absolute nightmare for a hyperactive pre-teen! It was awful! First we had to play musical chairs around the tiny parking lot; then we had to stand in line to get to the meat counter; then we had to stand in line to check out; then we had to sit in line in the car to get out of the tiny parking lot. And every Saturday, on the way home, my mother swore up and down that she would never do that again. But every Saturday afternoon at about 3:30... well, you get the idea.
Unlike many of our family tradtions, the nasty habit of going to the grocery store at 4 o'clock on Saturday afternoon ended with my mother. If I don't have it in the 'frig by 3 p.m. Saturday, I am going without. Publix could offer free Snackin' Fries and ice cream... and a beer chaser... and they'd have to do it without me.
But I had not considered the day before Thanksgiving. So, last Wednesday at 4 o'clock in the afternoon... there I was, playing musical chairs in the parking lot at Publix. Gees... don't you people have anything better to do than clog up the grocery store when I am trying to buy my poor dog a bone... and stock the freezer with Snackin' Fries? It was awful!!
But then it hit me: these are the same folks who were afraid to go out of their front door two weeks ago for fear that Osama bin Laden was lurking in the bushes with a suitcase-size atom bomb. After some contemplation, I determined that this was actually a good thing.
The marketing folks are still predicting a disappointing shopping season. And maybe it is just that appetite that beats fear every time, but I have a hunch that the Big Chill is over. People are out there commercialitating again, proving that the terrorists have not won.
I sure hope so. I am planning on a wonderful holiday season, free from fear, free from that ugly little nuisance in the Middle East.
Party on, folks! 'Tis the season!
Gee, the traffic... is terrific!
Maybe.
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We're open to offerings from visitors to BBHQ. If you have something to say of interest to boomers, write it as well as you can in 800 - 1,000 words, and send it to us. We can't guarantee we'll publish it, but we'll surely consider it.
Hershel will have something else to say on December 3; mark your calendar
to
remind you to come back to BBHQ every Monday.If you like what we're doing here at BBHQ, please help us by buying stuff through our link to Amazon.com:
| The BBHQ Album of the Month is "Old Friends Live on Stage (Deluxe Edition) (2 CD/1 DVD)," by Simon & Garfunkel. If you were fortunate enough to see them in concert last year, I do not have to sell you. The concert was terrific! This album collection includes 55 songs, plus their new recording, "Citizen of the Planet," and one of the songs sung by the Everly Brothers during the concert. The DVD was recorded during their concert in Madison Square Garden in 2003. For any S&G fan, this is a must have! But then, you knew that already, didn't you? |
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The BBHQ Book of the Month is
"Vinyl Highway," by
Dee Dee Phelps. You remember her as Dee Dee, of Dick and Dee Dee.
Together, they took a decade long ride on the rock and roll roller
coaster. It was a heck of a ride! Dick Clark, Quincy Jones, the Beach
Boys, Glenn Campbell, Dionne Warwick, Bobby Vinton... Dick and Dee Dee
rubbed shoulders with all of them. This is her "behind the scenes" story.
It's pretty cool.
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