Shazam! Hard to believe 75 years old.

Just found this info, to rain on our joyous juvenile parade:

"The machine used a liquid solvent containing methanol and isopropanol to dissolve and transfer the purple dye from a master sheet onto the paper. While nostalgic, those fumes were volatile organic compounds (VOCs). According to online consensus on forums like Quora, heavy exposure to the evaporating methanol and solvents could cause dizziness, lightheadedness, and headaches"

But far out man, it was groovy to sniff. Did you dig it? Nobody cared eh?

My uncle passed away and left me his reel to reel, which I’ve always wanted. Unfortunately, we are not sure where the reels are. Is there somewhere I can get reels nowadays?

Chicken Train
Runnin all day
Chicken Train
Runnin all day
Chicken Train
Runnin all day
Can't get on
Can't get off
Chicken Train take the chickens away

Neil Diamond wrote his own songs, and also music for others. He wasn't really my generation's music nor was he my parents. He wore rhinestones and marched to the beat of his own drummer. I really love him now that I'm older. Photo is from an album that arrived today, Hot August Nights.

Every time I see the old school version of Willy Wonka on tv I tell my kids that I remember it having a different ending. So we decided to do research to see if we could find out if there was an alternate ending that was filmed that I could have seen in theaters at the time.

Sooooo, it looks like my memory is completely made up. We’ve checked books, podcasts about the behind the scenes of movies etc. No scene was ever filmed that matches my childhood memory. 8 year old me maybe dreamed it? I could have sworn that the movie ended with Wonka and Charlie, in the glass elevator, crashing through the roof of Charlie’s home to tell his mother that he won the competition.

It’s a very weird feeling to think that this memory never happened. Has this happened to you? A childhood memory being proven false? It’s triggering for 63 year old me and makes me wonder if any of my other memories are faulty.

The call to adventure!

Anyone else develop social anxiety young, then watch the world make hiding easier and easier?

Mine started in my 20s. Back then I still had to go out — stores, church, people. There really wasn't a choice.

Then social media came along. I could keep up with everybody without actually being anywhere. It felt like being social, but I was home.

Then Covid hit and delivery exploded. Groceries, food, everything — right at the door. Now I almost never have to go inside anywhere.

Every step made life easier. Every step also made hiding easier.

Did that happen to anyone else? And do you think it ended up helping you, or hurting you?

I had several of these as a kid, there were cars, boats, clowns, planes, all kind of different themes. This boat was my favorite, worked great in the bath until it didn’t.

And just a nickel.

I was born in December of 1964 ... so truly on the "cusp" of the baby boom. I never felt like I could relate to any of the boomers I knew because most of them were 10 years or more older than me. And yet my experience growing up was very different from most GenX people that I know. (I vividly remember Apollo, Watergate, and the end of the Vietnam War, but my GenX wife does not.)

Still not sure I belong here because I am one of the youngest people here, so thanks for letting me participate ... and feel like I belong somewhere.

My two friends and I decided to hitchhike home because we were too tired to walk back to the house. I think we were around 10-12 years old. This guy pulls over in an old Ford truck and tells us to hop in the back and just knock on the window when we want him to stop.

We piled in the back and off he went. There was no other traffic on this 2-lane country road at the time. We saw my friend's house approaching so he banged on the window. Nothing. He banged on it again. The guy looked in the mirror and just smiled and kept driving. Now we are all screaming, "Stop! Stop! Stop!" but he speeds up.

He's now going about 45mph on a 30mph paved 2-lane road. My friend looks at me and says, "He's kidnapping us! Jump!" and he leaps out of the truck onto the shoulder and rolls into the grass. Then my next friend does the same thing.

Now it's just me in the truck and one of the kids has hurt his shoulder after he landed and is holding it while the other is screaming at me to jump but I am too scared.

The driver looks in the mirror, and his eyes are all wide and he slams on the brakes and stops. I jump out and as I am running back to my friends I look back and he is out of the truck yelling, "Why'd you jump out? I was going to stop!"

We ran all the way back to my friend's house and never hitchhiked again.

I’m getting bored of tv and scrolling. Does anyone have a good book recommendation? Right now I’m in the mood for a fictional novel. I don’t like horror, but I do like sci-fi or dystopian stories. I also like psychological thrillers and even crime novels. It really doesn’t matter the genre, I’m just looking for a good book to read! Any ideas?

Does anyone from Cleveland remember him? He was my dad’s brother and he died today. A TV weatherman, DJ, flew with the Air Force Reserve delivering supplies during the Berlin crisis. He and my aunt were in the movie Summer Rental