I miss America when it was Decent and Good

Vanity | 9/4/2013 | Self

[Lady Jag]

Nuevo Progresso was just a mud road village when I went there. Very primitive and poor.

Matamoros wasn’t half bad. I told you about us getting lost on foot there one night, right? Can’t do that today and live.

Harlingen fond memories. Spent New Year’s eve under a palm tree in a hot tub and drinking champagne.

[Alamo-Girl]

LOLOL! Perfect!

[potlatch]

Yeah, Progresso had dirt streets when we first went, and if it rained and got muddy we sometimes threw our shoes away later, lol. But, it grew and had tons of stores with really nice stuff - my house is full of carved wood, talavera and silver stuff.

Matamoros was like a ‘maze’ and you could get lost inside it. The last visit to Progresso had Mexican Soldiers behind bales of hay, they were supposedly guarding the bridge to keep drug runners from trying to drive across. It was scary.

Glad you had some good times down there too, all things change......;(

[ntnychik]

Your words will mean the world to your brother. He has influenced many, and that good will continue in them.

I’m proud of my kids for separating out of the pop culture, and living wholesome lives, despite all the pressures to the contrary. We must all stand up for what’s good and true, and minimize the influence of those who are trying to call evil good, and good evil.

[potlatch]

Hi Nit! I know I owe you an email, I’m always behind but I got posting today and it ‘helped my mind’, lol.

Tomorrow is the day that my brother goes to the retreat and they will give each of them the letters that people sent. I know he’ll be very touched by all he gets.

Through this thread I thought of you often, especially the talk about losing brothers - as you did too. You raised good kids too. Those of us who know what ‘good families’ are, are the ones who know what our country is losing.

[jmacusa]

We're told that for better or worse change is the only constant in life. We can affect change or not but we are all certainly affected by it. I was reminded of this recently when I happened to be listening to Glenn Campbell's classic hit song ‘’Gentle On My Mind’’. I remember America when this beautiful song was new. It was a time of optimism , a ‘’can-do’’ spirit and innocence even and a nation that knew it's place in the world as the greatest country on Earth. It was a time of great music and movies like ‘’Its A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World’’ and ‘’The Russians Are Coming’’and great tv shows like ‘’Combat’’ and ‘’Get Smart’’and of great accomplishment, exemplified by our space program that culminated in landing men on the moon.
There were tragedies to be sure. The assassination of a president, a long, protracted and unpopular war in Vietnam and there was Watergate. The America of Glenn Campbell's heyday, the America of great music and art and proud achievement has vanished. I sometimes wish I were born today and have been spared the memory of how great America once was.

[onyx]

Wonderful memories. Thank you so much for reminding us.
God bless.

[sr4402]

School lunches have been lousy forever.

Your not aware that 'vomit' is what the kids are saying Michele Obama's lunches taste like. And in many schools you can't even bring a bag lunch in so they are stuck with such a low calorie diet that they're stomachs are growling by 2PM. The teachers are noting that this makes it harder to teach them.

No, school lunches were never great, but I remember bag lunches from Mom with Twinkies, Ho-Ho's that I always knew I was supposed to eat after the sandwich she had made for me.

That was the America I knew. The America where parents were free to give love their children in ways like that.

[GeronL]

I did like that thing the school called “pizza”... usually with ketchup applied to it.

[E.G.C.]

BTTT

[The Cajun]

Thanks for the ping, a very good read for this old man.

[NFHale]

“...bequeath that country to my children...”

That country is still here.

It’s SOME people that created the mess - and ARE the mess.

Live what you remember, behave as you remember, and help others to remember it as well. That society was CREATED and KEPT ALIVE because people wanted it to be so. It didn’t just happen. It was made to happen.

We all have a piece and part to play, so we do it to the best of our abilities.

Thanks...

[NFHale]

Re Dems:

Yes, I have no doubt some of them were just Dems and not outright socialist/communist scum. I remember Frank Rizzo in Philly, as a Democrat. He was a decent guy.

The internecine convulsions in the D party during the 60s seems, to my mind, to be the time when they were losing their soul to the radical left.

But it goes back to Wilson and his Progressives too...and FDR with Henry Wallace, openly socialist....

This has been a long time in the building.

[NFHale]

Thanks again...

Maybe in the future, I’ll do that.

[NFHale]

“...because that place is so far away now. ...”

It’s closer than you think, ma’am... YOU remember it; and others do too.

Teach people around you that things DON’T have to be crap, flash, and trash... We’re all examples of what COULD be versus what is, because we’re the PRODUCTS of that time and those people.

And thank you...

[Arrowhead1952]

Thanks Lady Jag. Growing up on a farm in the 50s and 60s, I could add a few paragraphs to that list.

[af_vet_rr]

I miss when the GOP actually stood for good things and wasn’t the rubber stamp for the Democrats, and when you could proudly claim to be a Republican.

[b9]

What a POST!!!

Makes my screen all blurry. “:’^{

[RedMDer]

And I wouldn’t trade that experience for the world. :)

[Lady Jag]

Man, you brought back some memories. There was one decent looking building in Progresso on the left as we entered town. It sold ceramics and baskets. There was little else bu else but sheds. There was a shed (for want of a better vocabulary) selling meat which they hung in the windowless window. Children wore knit hats, shredded coats and bare feet.

Must’ve been scary seeing armed police at the bridge in Matamoros.