Posted on 03/10/2015 11:58:17 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
As kids our parents took us camping everywhere from Reelfoot Lake to the the Smokey Mountains, LBL(Land Between the Lakes in Kentucky-Tennessee, and way down in on Florida beaches and lots of other places.(including Disney World) Saw lots of Civil war battlefields along the way!
Not including the drive time, which seemed unbearable, we had lots of fun because our parents let us kids roam on our own(sometime unthinkable now!)
and we make made friends with other kids from across the nation. We had our own “tribe”, at least for a time. We enjoyed our National Parks and it was great to get away from the constant bombardment of rank commercialism(an ugly but necessary part of capitalism) and escape, if just for a time, and enjoy the great wild outdoors(and I am from a farming family and used to rural living!)
Best memories were going to caves like Mammoth Cave, Ruby Falls, and Dunbar and Ruskin Cave(when the last two were “unguided caves”) However, each were at one time, in private hands.(Ruby Cave still is, if my memory holds)
Not knocking commercialism in sports generally.( Nascar, almost from the start had commercial logos so no big whop there)(I used to watch till it got “political correct” and lost it's southern roots and can't stand the preening prima donnas they call “drivers” nowadays)
But in the selling of naming rights of stadiums to corporations, something special was lost. Local favor and history, not to mention honoring local heroes. Gillete Stadium, AT&T Stadium will never hold the imagination of sports fans as does Soldier Field, Candlestick Park, and Lambeau Field.
Nor the permanence. LP field, home of the Tennessee Titians in Nashville was the Adelphia Coliseum before the company went bankrupt. Before that, it was “The East Bank Stadium” Now it is simply as “The Coliseum”
Such is the chance of stadiums named after “current” businesses.
Separate from our National Parks, we can both agree with “Silent Cal” private enterprise outclasses stifling government overbearing to the betterment of a free people.
This current “president” and his tactics offer an “negative” Example One.
(Please pardon for my delayed response, health issues got I the way of a timely reply)
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