Walkin' my mind to an easy time.

 You can leave it all behind. Sail to Lahania. ..Eagles

 I saw a picture of Billy Carter on Facebook labeled 1976. It took me back. I graduated high school in 1976. The year of the Bicentennial! Everything was red,white and blue. Even high school marching bands used those colors no matter what the actual school colors were. It was such a huge world and America seemed to own it. 

You were the Apple of the public's eye as you cut the ribbon at the local mall...Styx

That attitude and arrogance would eventually bite us in the butt. However, that's a different story. This one concerns youth and sunshine and a world of possibilities.

School's out for Summer. School's out forever...Alice Cooper

But what a world! 18-19 years old. Girls in halter tops and Pony Miller's and a little smell of a doobie on a hot Southern evening. I was so optimistic about the world. Politics were rarely on my radar. 

Don't try and stop me. Cause I'm headed for that stormy weather soon...Queen

But 1976 was a long time ago. The world now seems much smaller. Now don't get me wrong. I'm not one of those old farts that think people were better back then. I saw enough cruelty, casual racism, meanness and insensitive acts to know better. But everybody for better or worse didn't have a microphone. 

In my solitude you haunt me with reveries of days gone by.... Billie Holiday

Back then we didn't have alerts beeping on a device in our pocket keeping us fired up 24 hours a day. I couldn't tell you a single football player my favorite team was recruiting. The only thing I really knew about the president was he had a similar accent to some of my old elementary school teachers and a brother who liked beer. I didn't know if Glen Frey and Don Henley got along but I knew an Eagles album would release soon. I didn't know or care what my favorite author thought about the weather or if a famous comedian had said something inappropriate 20 years ago.

Ooooh that smell. Can't you smell that smell...lynyrd Skynyrd.

I smell something awful. You're telling me. Why don't you take a bath sometime...Three Stooges

So I try from time to time to take a bath. I love technology but I cut it off once in a while. So I can just breathe. Somewhere a woke person is blaming me as an old white man for the misery of the World. Somewhere a right wing politician is yelling about the love of God while demonizing a family of brown people trying to find a better life. But in my moment of breathing I go deep inside.

Sometimes I find a still small voice saying "it's okay. This is just a dream." Sometimes I find compassion for the upper middle class millennial taking pot shots at my lower middle class Southern upbringing. Or understanding for the self righteous right wing hypocrite that has no idea what it feels like not to have money for the rent.

But other times I find the voice of an old friend who loved Rock and Roll and passed way to early. I can hear him and it makes me smile. (warning! Language alert)

Fuck em if they can't take a joke.