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We were just covering for you!! Honest!
posted by
majroj
on June 17, 2004 at 10:29 AM
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shavonne, you were the only one to recognize my master criminal status.
Sure, I hear that they have great computers in the Federal Prisons and I could still blog, no? Maybe, write the great American novel, undistracted by housework and family babysitting needs.
posted by
benzinha
on June 13, 2004 at 9:37 AM
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If your confession is true, should I call the FBI? This was a pleasure to read.
posted by
Shavonne
on June 13, 2004 at 4:36 AM
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fer sure, fer sure, double the generational point of view !!
posted by
benzinha
on June 13, 2004 at 12:13 AM
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Comedy club, indeed.
That's so funny you say that...we really could hang out. People tell me that all the time, but I could never do it on demand. I couldn't handle writing jokes or putting myself in front of an audience. But, it is good to find those little impromptu moments. I think my sense of humor is what has saved my life with all that's happened. I can always make jokes about my circumstances. That is most definitely a blessing.
But, if we change our minds....we could do a double billing! :)
posted by
Temple
on June 12, 2004 at 11:15 PM
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Temple, thanks, once again, for your thought-filled comments. I wish that
you had been there, too. I actually got a long monologue going, stand up comedy. I spoke for about six minutes without stopping and had them wiping away tears by the end, before the very end and my serious comments. I needed to laugh that day and so, I created my own, using them as my impromptu audience.
The store owner, my old girlfriend of almost twnety years, told me to go down to the comedy club here in town and do it all again. Of course, I never could, can't handle large audiences and prefer smaller intimate ones. I do like to make people laugh about themselves or ME......and reach for that during my few rare moments away from my worktable and when out in public.
What you say is true. Each generation must learn for itself, what it values and what to chase and what to avoid. It cannot be taught, but must be experienced first hand.
posted by
benzinha
on June 12, 2004 at 10:36 PM
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Progress and freedom always bring side effects that we don't think of.
I always wonder, if we knew that X would happen...or things would look like this...would we still have done the things we have done? I usually answer in the affirmative (now listen to me, sounding like Billy). It's the yin to the yang. Along with all the growth and freedoms and accomplishments in any area, comes the dark side where there is exploitation or a loss of integrity and compassion. I don't blame you, or the flappers, or rappers or anyone. I think it's in our human nature to want to grow and make better and invent and change. It's the nature of life. I think at some point, we will realize that all the progress in the world is not worth some of what we've given up to get it. Maybe then we will learn to accept the progress without losing our humanity. What scares me is what has to happen for us to come to that awareness.
I wished I could have been there when you were talking about all of this. I would have appreciated it, and probably written a post about it. Lovely storytelling, as always, Abuelita.
posted by
Temple
on June 12, 2004 at 10:12 PM
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Talion, that's the telling phrase "had he come up with us" he would have
sone so and so. But, he didn't and couldn't and so, what you fellows do and have done is 'way' beyond what he could have even imagined doing....especially when I hear about what's going on in the night clubs of today. I can't make myself go and check them out anymore, because I'd just grab kids and tell them what not to do.....and who wants to go through that !?!?
Each generation ups the ante and I like to do some social, science fiction thinking periodically, wondering just What the next generation will do to 'rebel' against their parents' teachings.
posted by
benzinha
on June 12, 2004 at 9:32 PM
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nomaj, remember this, we were 'comfort stations' and would have comforted
you after that 'almost getting arrested scare. The previous generaton would have patted your hand and handed you a beer. We would have shotgunned some smoke into your mouth and then handed you to the 'gal' who felt the most sympathy for you !!
My grandmother is rolling over in her grave as I write this. Mom doesn't really know about all this, either, tho' I'm sure that she guesses at most of it.
posted by
benzinha
on June 12, 2004 at 9:27 PM
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Benzinha
My grandfather died years before I was born, but from the stories I hear from my folks, I doubt I would've even gotten my ears pierced if he was still with us. My father-in-law is over eighty years old. From the things my wife has told me and things he's told me when it was just the two of us, I believe had he come up in my generation, he would have earrings and even a few tattoos, but in his time, that was taboo. I never wear the earrings when we go to Birmingham to visit, or any other time when I know he'll be around.
posted by
Talion
on June 12, 2004 at 8:36 AM
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Yeah, you guys,er,gals would spring me
then throw me into the desert with no shoes at daybreak to teach me not to be a pig.
posted by
majroj
on June 12, 2004 at 8:25 AM
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well, Talion and attax, thinking it all over, can I blame it on the
flappers of my aunties' generation, those who bound their breasts to flatten them and who raised up their hemlines and on Prohibition, which made law breakers of almost the entire nation and caused the formation of organized crime? How far back should I go to lay the blame?
We were all more 'taliban' in our behaviors generations ago, staid and covered up with clothing and more socially rigid. Each generation is horrified, I believe, by the next which follows and looks forward to 'resting in peace' before the Apocalypse comes, which they believe cannot be far off.
My grandmother called bikini underwear 'rags' and told us that we in the sixties, were dressed like the most brazen whores that she had ever seen walk this earth. She feared that the end was near and said, "Take me now, Lord, before this nation sinks into total dissipation !" What, heaven help us, would she think if she had lived to see Petey's video?
I think that my thoughts explain what most old people think, that each generation, given the opportunity to improve the planet and the life of its creatures, represents continuous degeneration instead. The good lessons, learned and taught, are forgotten or twisted into something else and not always improved upon by the next. The Pleasure Principle leads us into Temptation and we embrace it brazenly. It makes us old people sad and quiet and ready to rest forever in the ground. It just hasn't made me quiet, as yet.
I can tell you that there was a feeling of 'love' that moved through my generation, that colored our days and our actions and which made us truly feel a part of one another, when saying the word "Brother" was meant as just that, no matter who you said it to. We used it like the Russians used the word "Comrade". We were, for just a few years 'one', knew it, felt it, lived it, shared it, spread it around. Then we forgot it, that 'oneness' and broke into groups and movements of separate 'racial pride' or became more politically separated and it began to fall apart. I was there and I remember when I was one with everyone, absolutely everyone of my generation.
Imagine what your great grandfather would have thought of your two earrings, Talion......or his father. Pirate and reprobate, probably, or that unspeakable word, homosexual. What is normal now, changes day to day as 'now' progresses into its future.
posted by
benzinha
on June 12, 2004 at 1:19 AM
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de pollo
Glad we weren't responsible.
posted by
attax
on June 12, 2004 at 12:00 AM
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Benzinha
You picturing me with earrings doesn't come close to me picturing you watching Petey Pablo video. The "young" generation today has more of a disgust for themselves rather than for the injustices of society. That's why we see all of the problems you so vividly described. You must not forget the great things that your generation accomplished. First and foremost, your generation taught us that the status quo is not always right. A women can and should be in tune with her own sexuality and not simply resign herself to being a sex toy for a man. Women did not have to stay in loveless and/or abusive marriages because they have what it takes to make it own their own. Your generation taught us that racism was wrong and it should not be tolerated in any shape, form, or fashion. War is not always the answer. Your generation also taught us that we can actually do something to invoke change. Never feel guilty for what you accomplished. Never had your head down in shame for what you did. Feel sorrow for the next and subsequent generations that failed to live up to the standards you set, but don't blame yourself. It's our fault, not yours.
posted by
Talion
on June 11, 2004 at 11:17 PM
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shavonne, I thank you for stopping by, healing nicely and well then?
I am so glad to hear it !
posted by
benzinha
on June 11, 2004 at 10:40 PM
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maj, if you had been hanging out with us, we would have talked the cops
into releasing you into our custody, which we managed to pull of a few times in those days. The police were actually, in my town, more understanding and open minded and personable. Not quite the picture nowadays, but life has changed for them, too.
Abuelitas did get away with mucho back in the daze.
posted by
benzinha
on June 11, 2004 at 10:38 PM
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LadyK, I'm just jealous of the phrase "awesome rack" or even spectacular,
as I have only had fabulous racks while pregnant.....I held my stomach in longer than is humanly possible, just to let the 'rack' stick out more and be all mine, mine for as many months as possible, then flattened my tummy ASAP after each birth to maintain that same admirable chest for a few months more. Thought about nursing each baby until they were ten years old, just to keep the 'rack' going.
Sigh..........
posted by
benzinha
on June 11, 2004 at 10:30 PM
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Great post. Very discriptive. I like that.
Thanks for wishing me well during my surgery. I'm feeling great.
posted by
Shavonne
on June 11, 2004 at 3:17 PM
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Oh, hush you!
(naw).
Abuelitas can get away with that stuff. Me, I'd be in a patrol car, and I don't mean the front seat.
posted by
majroj
on June 10, 2004 at 4:43 PM
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THIS IS SO GREAT
awesomely, awesomely done-- so very touching....
but as we all know, there ain't no spectacular rack like the rack I got ;)
posted by
LadyKenobi
on June 10, 2004 at 3:00 PM
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