WHAT MADE ME "ME"

The little brown house on the left is my Grandparents Goff's home where I was born and my mother raised. The big white house down the street, on the corner is where I grew up..........The place that made me "me'. I had wonderful parents and four siblings and it made it a house full of love. Mancos, Colo was a small town and everyone knew everyone. I graduated from high school in 1950, so this was my home in the 30's and 40's. As I look back I see the wonderful things that made me "me", and as they say: 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. Ike was in the White House in the land where we were born, Where navels were for oranges, and Peyton Place was porn. We learned to gut a muffler, we washed our hair at dawn, We spread our crinolines to dry in circles on the lawn. We longed for love and romance, and waited for our Prince, And Eddie Fisher married Liz, and no one's seen him since. We danced to "Little Dalin" and sang to "Stagger Lee" And cried for Buddy Holly in the Land That Made Me, "Me". Only girls wore earrings then, and 3 was one too many, And only boys wore flat-tops cuts, except for Jean McKinney. And only in our wildest dreams did we expect to see, A boy named George with Lipstick, 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. We had a Mr. Wizard, but not a Mr. T, And Opra couldn't talk yet, in the Land That Made Me, "Me". 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 a rock band that was Grateful to be Dead, And Airplanes weren't named Jefferson, and Zeppelins were not Lead. And Beatles lived in gardens then, and Monkeys 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. And pumping iron got wrinkles out, and 'gay' meant fancy-free, And dorms were never co-ed in the Land That Made Me, "Me." Hardware was a box of nails, and bytes came from a flea, And rocket ships were fiction and Coke came just in bottles and skirts below the knee, We had no Crest with Fluoride , no patterned pantyhose or Lipton herbal Tea......Not in the Land That Made me, "Me." There were no golden arches, no Perrier to chill, and fish were not called Wanda, and cats were not called Bill. And middle age was 35 and old was forty-three, And ancient were our parents in the Land That Made Me, "Me." So now I face a brave new world in slightly larger jeans, And wonder why they're using smaller print in all the magazines. And I tell my children's children of the way it used to be, Long ago and far away in the Land That Made Me, "Me."........ I am so grateful for the things that made me, "Me!"