Skip to main content

Road Trips

I have a few observations from my recent road trip to St. Louis:


~     Billboard advertising, especially along the I94/I80 corridor consists mainly of advertisements for strip clubs, truck stops, casinos, personal injury/bankruptcy attorneys and McDonald's. 
     The strip clubs are often referred to as 'gentlemen's clubs' and I wonder why because I don't think the men glaring at nearly-naked young women and shoving dollar bills down the dancer's g-strings, are gentlemen. According to Webster's the definition of a gentleman is "a chivalrous, courteous, or honorable man".
      And truck stops are at nearly every exit along this corridor- some offer showers. Maybe to shower off after a visit to the 'gentlemen's club'? 
     Casinos - there  were billboards for three in Northern Indiana, six in the Chicago area and four in Michigan. I'm not very good at math, and used a calculator to check my addition, but that's 13 places to lose your money and 13 is not a lucky number! Some of the casinos offer alternatives to gambling that include spas and shopping- and some even present themselves as glamorous. One casino advertised senior days, another an opportunity to win a car every Wednesday in April (or something like that, I don't remember the details).
    Attorneys billboards were mainly personal injury or bankruptcy. I found the latter interesting when it was next to a billboard for a casino- a place where people lose a lot of money! Another attorney billboard advertised personal injury and divorce, it was located near one of the strip clubs. Interesting placement indeed!
   And then there are the McDonald's billboards. Again at nearly every exit there is a McDonald's. And that's why I found it interesting- if you're at nearly every exit why so many billboards? 

~  Exceptional drivers all along my drive to and from St. Louis. I'm not commenting on their driving ability so much as on their exception to the law that reads, "left lane for passing only". At one point on our way home Sunday, the only vehicles in the right lane were the trucks and the really slow drivers or us, trying to maneuver along a two-lane interstate. (And we weren't one of the slow drivers!)

~   Construction season has begun! The orange cones and signs are everywhere. And while that also means warm weather will soon be here in Michigan, it also means delays & detours.


Comments

It's not a popularity contest, but ...

Ten Year

When I was in junior high school, I staged a sit-in and learned about 'ten year'. This will come as a total surprise to most of you readers - I was not a perfectly well behaved child. I know, I know - you're shocked, amazed, in wonder how I could have turned out to be so well-behaved despite the oats sown in my youth.  And the sit-in is a perfect example of how I marched to the beat of my own drummer. Miss Brown was an English teacher - and not a very popular one. She would invoke the yardstick on wayward student's hands and scowl the moment we walked into the classroom. We weren't very kind to Miss Brown but then she wasn't very kind to us, either. Personally, the hardest part of having Miss Brown as an English teacher is that she nearly ruined my love of my favorite topic in school. It was the year we were to learn grammar (have I ever mentioned that as a writer I detest grammar?). I think some new way of teaching English was introduced and in all l...

Time Keeps on Ticking, Ticking Into the Future

Who does that song? The one with the lyrics - "Time keeps on ticking, ticking, ticking into the future"? It's the song that continues to play in mind today. I've attended the graduation open house of my son Matthew's dearest friend, Kyle, today. While there I saw the elementary school principal, a teacher or two and a boatload of friends. It made me realize that no matter how hard I try to maintain the status quo ~ life continues. Not only can I vividly recall my children as young children, I can recall many of their friends. It's  bittersweet this time passage thing because we, as parents and adults, can recall these graduating 'children' as children. At this open house, my daughter's first grade teacher recalled Delaney as a six year old lover of books and told tales out of school that brought back the memories of my daughter at that time in her life. Shortly after that conversation,  I watched her rehearsal for the concert/performance/f...

When you encounter a totally different reality

John and I arrived early for an appointment (for those of you that know my husband, you know that this is not infrequent! The story of arriving three hours early for a flight to Phoenix from Midway still gets repeated and laughed about when the 'kids' get together). We found a seat and the waiting room began to fill. We had chosen seats away from the TV where NBC's Today Show was playing, so we couldn't see what was on the screen. Another couple sat before the TV and provided commentary and as the time progressed provided a glimpse into a total different 'reality'. "Oh I can't even stand to look at him. He's so evil" "What is wrong with his hair?" "This administration will do down in history as the worst ever." "The federal government is taking over the states. There's going to be a civil war, just you wait." "They just let all those illegal aliens in and then they're going to give them weapons to take...