On your mark...

I have a memory from early childhood, slowly disappearing now, of myself lying on the living room floor on a Saturday morning, watching television. I was born of the generation just prior to the passage of the apparent law that all televisions be equipped with remote control, so I would get up from the floor, turn the knob on the big Zenith, and slowly clunk through the channels.

Scooby Doo? Clunk. Plasti-Man? Clunk. The Bugs Bunny Road Runner Show? Clunk. A laborious process by today’s wireless standards, and inefficient to boot. No rapid fire channel surfing, no on-screen programming. Hell, there were only three channels and the local PBS station. If there wasn’t something on, I went outside. Most times, I went outside anyway, even if there was something on. The crudeness of 70's technology allowed me to be a boy, to escape the lobotomizing influences of the pop-culture pitch men.

Looking back now, I suspect mine was the last generation to know the unfettered wonder of simple childhood, and even then it was waning. Who knew that future generations would be far too sophisticated to wallow in the creek catching crawdads, because it was like, you know, not cool any more?

Creeks, ponds, woodlots, dogs, bass and books were my world. For me, the magic of the real and tangible always triumphed over the voodoo of the artificial and contrived. But even then, the social engineers of rampant consumerism were inundating me with commercials and cartoons showcasing the latest in Nerf toys, action figures and skateboards.

But I’ve never been the gregarious joining sort. I long ago hopped my own boxcar and started down tracks of my own making. Ignorance isn’t bliss. Awareness of what you cheerfully reject is, and I long ago rejected any notions of "normal."

This blog is simply a continuation of that journey. No real format or focus, just a rambling walk from subject to subject free from the meddling influence of editors, word-count limits and deadlines.

And while it may not always be the most interesting read in the world, at least the price is right...