A Wave of Nostalgia

One of the very best things about a vacation is eating out....it is also one of the worst things. On a recent time away we must have hit half the restaurants on the east coast. I'm pretty sure we ate our combined weight in sea food and deep fried critters, which we washed down with drinks bearing cutsey-pootsie names and horrendous price tags.  It's our vacation tradition.

It seems to me the thing restaurants in the Sunbelt share is the choice of background music. There are only two types; reggae and sixties music. If your head isn't bobbing to the beat of the steel drums you are destined to relive the 60's with the Beach Boys. The sixties music is so well enforced that you simply cannot escape it.  As we patiently waited for a table in one establishment a man was overcome by an overdose of "Help Me Rhonda...help, help me Rhonda...." and had to be taken away by ambulance.  It was a long vacation....I've seen things.  

The marketing gurus understand a large portion of the buying public in Florida remembers the 1960's, so the overwhelming devotion to nostalgia isn't confined to just the music.  In so many restaurants, chains and local, the walls are covered with, for lack of a better term, old stuff.  License plates, old tin containers, children's toys, album covers and an impressive number of '57 Chevy car parts seem to be popular decorating items.  There are also an inordinate number of life sized pirate statues, all strategically surrounded by speakers blaring one of only four 60's songs allotted to each restaurant.  This constant assault on the senses has made me wonder what people will be looking at, and listening to, on vacations years and years down the road...........

It's 2065 and we've finally arrived in Sun City, our favorite spot at the sea shore.  We've come in January to see the ocean before the heat converts it to its normal gelatinous state.  Industrial chemicals and waste have made the water unusable and impassable, except for huge transport vehicles that hover over surface. Nothing edible can be taken from the water, even during the liquid times of year.  Still, we are looking forward to enjoying the artificially produced "sea food".

Another reason our family unit likes to come to Sun City in January is for the races.  What fun it is during "Unsustainable Energy Race Week", when we get to see old cars, trucks and motor bikes from the turn of the century run on the track at Daytona.  During this week the vehicles that ran on combustible fuels are permitted to be shown and raced; it's fascinating to see how our great grandparents got from place to place.  Personally, we cannot comprehend being confined in such a small thing for hours on end!  Give me the transport tubes any day, even if your ears ring for an hour after you get where you're going.

Meals are a special treat for us when we visit the seaside.  We always chow down on lobster capsules, beef-like pastes and crunchy compressed vegetable wafers.  From time to time we invest in a bottle of delightful water....it's a splurge we only make on vacation.  Someone told me water is delightful when it's been chilled, so we will try that this year.

One of our favorite restaurants here in Sun City is "Surrogate Mother's Kitchen".

The cheery nostalgic decor features historical items that everyone can identify with.  In one area you'll see a large shelf displaying a collection of computer towers.  It’s surrounded by an artful grouping of hand held cell phones, the type used before chips were implanted.   Everyone loves to watch the wall of old computer screens, still in good working order after all these years.  They show a constant loop of things that have become extinct.  Green trees in the wild, clear water running from a metallic kitchen tap in a private home, old fashioned washing machines sloshing away and sail boats out on water that is truly liquid and seemingly clear.  It almost makes one wish for the good old days.  From time to time an old time car or delivery truck will lumber across a screen.....we laugh and laugh.

In the front lobby of the restaurant there is a sealed case of items made of paper!  In case you didn’t know, years ago people used paper for cleaning and eating.  They also drank various liquids from plastic bottles, and were allowed to throw this stuff away anywhere they chose!  What a strange and confusing world it must have been.  To explain these destructive rituals we've rented the ear bud lecture series for our singly permitted child, Jaka. When our child comes of age, and decides his/her sexual identity, it will be important to know about these things to insure the next generation won't make the same mistakes our ancestors did.

As our clinically reproduced imitation seafood is delivered by the service drone, we can't help but be swept back to a simpler life listening to old time music by Kanye West, Jay-Z and Lady Ga-Ga.  Now those were great singers and role models!  Enjoying the music, I experienced a moment of sadness as I remembered how our much loved leader, President Ga-Ga, died in office just five years ago.  Her passing, from injuries sustained during the filming of a political music video, was a national tragedy.  

This vacation trip has been such a wonderful time away from the grinding ten hour work week;  I think we may apply for a permit to return to this area again next year.  The excitement of Race Week and seeing the ocean actually move is truly worth the money.

                                              Life is Good