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“WHHEEEEeeeeeee!” (Students Rush Exit, Throwing Papers)

https://www.inquirer.com/health/coronavirus/coronavirus-new-jersey-schools-closed-gov-phil-murphy-announces-20200315.html

My 3rd grade fantasy — that some cataclysm like those I’d read about, the eruption of Vesuvius, or the Plague, or Frost Giants taking up residence in the sweet-gum grove — would close Lafayette Mills School in the spring so Kenny and I could go biking around the creepy abandoned Old Scots’ Burial Ground all day; or James and I could hunker under a thorny bush trying to smoke “grass” — yes, fresh green lawn rye ripped up in handsful and rolled in newspapers, lit, then inhaled; or Brad and I could go out into the soybean field at the end of the block, and dig a pit and find a human hand locked in a chained box, but not really; has come true for today’s tots.

As an adult, even without kids (especially without kids?) I am fully aware of how taxing and scary this kind of event must be for the parents.

Still — if I were a kid with a bike….

“Western Memorabilia,” at Your Local Thrift Store

2 Replies

How could I leave this chipped item of Valley history on the shelf? I’m an easy mark when I’ve got five bucks in my pocket. Who knew famous Brooks Whiskey of Frankfort, KY, commemorated the Overland Stage in 1969, with a batch of 12-year-old bourbon?

The fun of these things is in the artistic modeling, and I thought this stagecoach bottle had plenty of jump-and-bounce. Hand-painted fine ceramic; empty at purchase, alas. I love how the trunk on top, was the cork, and the strap holding it, is the bonding ticket. Most of the actual cork is still rattling around inside. When I was a kid I loved collecting models: Duesenbergs, Bugattis, locomotive trains, trucks, ships, biplanes, fighter jets, aircraft carriers, Spanish galleons, even a complex wooden Conestoga wagon with a working linen canopy, that turned into a lamp when assembled. This is my first stagecoach to play with. (Yippee!)