I cheat and have turned off unsubscribes. I try not to look closely enough to notice, but I did go through a very slow growth patch where I could notice the bumps in the graph when a few people dropped off every time I published something. Keep doing what you are doing! I hope people enjoy this essay, I did.
I also have fond memories of what air travel was like in the 1970s, I can just about remember it. I did one very long trip as a 10 year old (NZ to England via Singapore on the way over and LA on the way back). I was absolutely shattered by the 12 hour flight to Singapore, my 7 year old brother even more so. I would consider only travelling 12 hours before a couple of days stopover to be relaxing these days.
I've got a flight coming up which is 17hrs and 15 minutes soon.
I have turned them off also! I do look at the chart on the dashboard so I got to see the dropoff.For me the writing is still pretty selfish. I just want to enjoy it and get better.
I figure the worst part is the blood pooling unless you get up and walk a lot. A Kindle and some great books can solve a lot of problems I think. While we have some, we have lost a lot of direct service so it always seems a layover is part of a flight anywhere 17 hours in a can sounds tough.
This is one of your best essays. I love this memory. You brought it to life with color and verve. You described airline travel in 1974 perfectly. I loved pinning the wings to my shirt and the airplane food was tasty! At least to a kid. Looking forward to more memoir-sequel essays.
Thanks SO MUCH CK. I wrote this before I had a Substack -- another story. My maternal grandmother was a memorable character. Airline travel was amazingly different. People dressed up!!! My Mom has a surviving aunt who lived upstairs from my grandparents in the 1940s. Her stories relating her peculiarities make me laugh out of control. I remember the food as good also! However, I am not nostalgic. People of the era thought TV dinners were good even that apple cobbler that would give you a 2nd degree burn on the roof of your mouth!
Mark, You know when a stand up comedian tells a joke and only certain parts of the audience get the joke? One lady may be laughing hysterically down in front and another group laughs late and some don't laugh at all. I think Substack readers are like that and respond differently to the whole article or parts of the article. For Me I got a memory buzz from the TripTik now rendered useless by Waze App and Google maps. We would sit in front of the clerks desk at AAA as he put together the pieces of the map in a little spiral binder. And then, at the end, the clerk would take out a red circular rubber stamp and carefully mark the TripTik map "construction but passable" and " watch you speed". You were in awe of his knowledge of all the potholes and cops on highways in all 48 states ! This is part of what you paid $ 19 a year for in your AAA membership.
Paul!!! Thanks for commenting and giving me a big grin. I think in another Substack I got into a discussion about Trik-Tiks -- I think it might have been RuthTalksFood which I enjoy! I have the very same memory. Do you remember those city guides. There was someone writing 1-2 paragraphs about EVERY SINGLE TOWN in Iowa as you drove through! I constantly advise I am not nostalgic. I do admit to owning a couple of rubber stamps though!
A thoroughly enjoyable piece, Mark! Your grandmother sounds like a supreme character, with your mother having the patience of a saint to cope with four boys and an ailing but feisty parent. I love the picture you paint of the entire family, early daily flying experiences and your passion for Hank Aaron. I hope you write more in this vein.
I was also impressed with the list of books you’ve read in your history club! There are more than a few I’d like to read.
As for the poll, I couldn’t decide between “obsessed” and “like to eat” as both apply to me in almost equal measure. I picked obsessed because it’s probably most accurate.
Your unsubscribers are fools--the State Fair posts were gems!
Thanks Ruth! Grandma was unusual. I kept a journal off and on as a kid. My Mom was a model of moderation but a perfectionist around the edges. I think the experience she had growing up with her Mom colored her approach of what being a parent would be. Later in life when she would share her recollections of her mother, it was clear that Grandma was an enigma to her. My grandmother did not have an easy early life but it is instructive that challenges impact people differently.
Our Book Club is a wonderful group. It is now a pretty large membership. It was begun largely by one person determined to bring it to life. I was happy we survived the pandemic. I think the experience colored our organization. I cannot imagine it becoming a hybrid club. The value of the in-person meeting is a big part of the social experience. We meet tomorrow night. I have gone back to read some of the ones from the early years prior to joining. Each time I think of branching out, I realize how much I enjoy the group. I am now exploring a couple of virtual groups, one for fiction and one for Sci-Fi.
No more State Fair posts until next Labor Day I think. I am hoping next year two cousins from NY might come and enjoy the State Fair in MN. Perhaps we will do the same and visit the NYS Fair.
I would have liked to meet your mother and grandmother. Your writing does bring them to life though.
I know what you mean about an in-person group. Nothing beats talking face-to-face. Some folks have gotten used to remote meetings, but I hope that remains the exception.
My Mom was one of a kind. My grandmother was a difficult person. While I did not get into the excruciating detail, just picture her sitting in a chair with an oil slick stain on her housecoat. Yep, she really had put a big handful of three-bean salad in her pocket.
My book club meets tomorrow. I am sure we will have 20 people there. It is quite special. I highly doubt if I joined another in-person club it would have the same vibe. I would expect we will have between 35-50 books to choose and vote on for next year. A very active group.
I am not averse to the remote meetings necessarily. I host them to discuss with brothers and cousins about the imperatives of football weekly and another group that I did a climate awareness program monthly to stay connected. Durable connections are possible. I am hopeful someone from our meeting tomorrow will want to wander into the old downtown and have a drink. We will see.
Wow, I can picture your grandma with that oil slick on her pocket from the three-bean salad. It’s that kind of detail that makes a memoir memorable.
Twenty people is a great turnout for a book club--a lot of committed readers who are also sociable. It seems to me that’s a rare combination.
I agree you can form and maintain lasting relationships and friendships via remote meetings.it sounds like you’ve been successful in both remote and in-person varieties. I hope that drink in the old town comes to pass! 🍷
I've learned that you can't please all the people all the time. I get the most unsubscribes when I do "links" newsletters and yet those same "links" newsletters yield so many comments thanking me for one or more of the links. Go figure. I enjoyed the State Fair stories and also enjoy reading about how "things used to be." Keep up the good writing.
Thanks Gayla. I genuinely don't care about the unsubscribes. The instructive part is I enjoy what I write about and just want the readers to be getting something different they look forward to. I know I am steady in wanting to get my subscriptions just right ala Goldilocks. It is nice to have things you look forward to reading (like yours)
I'm puzzled about why someone would unsubscribe from your column because of your State fair piece; I enjoyed it very much! I like this experiment as well, I hope you publish more of these sorts of stories. Your grandmother sounds like quite the character. I'm looking forward to reading about her adventures in Florida!
Thanks Jeannine. Nice of you to say that. My Substack is still an experiment as I explore all sorts of topics (witnessed by the too many tabs on my HomePage). This was fun to write. Before I had a Substack my creative writing group (I was a rookie) each wrote a proposed story for Reminisce magazine. I wrote this largely as my VERY FIRST writing attempt (beyond patent applications and technical guidance). My group generally liked it. Some family members didn't want me to write it??? It has been sitting in cold storage for a long time. I finally decided it was time.
My grandmother was a very unusual character. As the years passed and I developed an interest in Genealogy I would interview people who could share firsthand memories of others. That coupled with conversations with Mom framed my grandmother much as I now remember her. She was a bit one-dimensional. It seems lots of what I remember of her centered on her obsessions about food.
Thanks for commenting C.L.. Memory is funny and often distorted. I think flying was a completely different experience in those days. One thing that people do forget was the frequency of accidents. Large-scale project management was nascent and airplanes used to crash with some frequency.. One of the themes I love to explore is the tendency of people to see the past as "the good old days". I am soundly in the camp that almost everything is better although traveling coach is a necessary evil nowadays.
The good thing about the polls is they are anonymous and always just meant to be fun. No matter what I arbitrarily choose as options, SOMETHING ELSE always seems to work :)
I cheat and have turned off unsubscribes. I try not to look closely enough to notice, but I did go through a very slow growth patch where I could notice the bumps in the graph when a few people dropped off every time I published something. Keep doing what you are doing! I hope people enjoy this essay, I did.
I also have fond memories of what air travel was like in the 1970s, I can just about remember it. I did one very long trip as a 10 year old (NZ to England via Singapore on the way over and LA on the way back). I was absolutely shattered by the 12 hour flight to Singapore, my 7 year old brother even more so. I would consider only travelling 12 hours before a couple of days stopover to be relaxing these days.
I've got a flight coming up which is 17hrs and 15 minutes soon.
I have turned them off also! I do look at the chart on the dashboard so I got to see the dropoff.For me the writing is still pretty selfish. I just want to enjoy it and get better.
I figure the worst part is the blood pooling unless you get up and walk a lot. A Kindle and some great books can solve a lot of problems I think. While we have some, we have lost a lot of direct service so it always seems a layover is part of a flight anywhere 17 hours in a can sounds tough.
This is one of your best essays. I love this memory. You brought it to life with color and verve. You described airline travel in 1974 perfectly. I loved pinning the wings to my shirt and the airplane food was tasty! At least to a kid. Looking forward to more memoir-sequel essays.
Thanks SO MUCH CK. I wrote this before I had a Substack -- another story. My maternal grandmother was a memorable character. Airline travel was amazingly different. People dressed up!!! My Mom has a surviving aunt who lived upstairs from my grandparents in the 1940s. Her stories relating her peculiarities make me laugh out of control. I remember the food as good also! However, I am not nostalgic. People of the era thought TV dinners were good even that apple cobbler that would give you a 2nd degree burn on the roof of your mouth!
Mark, You know when a stand up comedian tells a joke and only certain parts of the audience get the joke? One lady may be laughing hysterically down in front and another group laughs late and some don't laugh at all. I think Substack readers are like that and respond differently to the whole article or parts of the article. For Me I got a memory buzz from the TripTik now rendered useless by Waze App and Google maps. We would sit in front of the clerks desk at AAA as he put together the pieces of the map in a little spiral binder. And then, at the end, the clerk would take out a red circular rubber stamp and carefully mark the TripTik map "construction but passable" and " watch you speed". You were in awe of his knowledge of all the potholes and cops on highways in all 48 states ! This is part of what you paid $ 19 a year for in your AAA membership.
Paul!!! Thanks for commenting and giving me a big grin. I think in another Substack I got into a discussion about Trik-Tiks -- I think it might have been RuthTalksFood which I enjoy! I have the very same memory. Do you remember those city guides. There was someone writing 1-2 paragraphs about EVERY SINGLE TOWN in Iowa as you drove through! I constantly advise I am not nostalgic. I do admit to owning a couple of rubber stamps though!
A thoroughly enjoyable piece, Mark! Your grandmother sounds like a supreme character, with your mother having the patience of a saint to cope with four boys and an ailing but feisty parent. I love the picture you paint of the entire family, early daily flying experiences and your passion for Hank Aaron. I hope you write more in this vein.
I was also impressed with the list of books you’ve read in your history club! There are more than a few I’d like to read.
As for the poll, I couldn’t decide between “obsessed” and “like to eat” as both apply to me in almost equal measure. I picked obsessed because it’s probably most accurate.
Your unsubscribers are fools--the State Fair posts were gems!
Thanks Ruth! Grandma was unusual. I kept a journal off and on as a kid. My Mom was a model of moderation but a perfectionist around the edges. I think the experience she had growing up with her Mom colored her approach of what being a parent would be. Later in life when she would share her recollections of her mother, it was clear that Grandma was an enigma to her. My grandmother did not have an easy early life but it is instructive that challenges impact people differently.
Our Book Club is a wonderful group. It is now a pretty large membership. It was begun largely by one person determined to bring it to life. I was happy we survived the pandemic. I think the experience colored our organization. I cannot imagine it becoming a hybrid club. The value of the in-person meeting is a big part of the social experience. We meet tomorrow night. I have gone back to read some of the ones from the early years prior to joining. Each time I think of branching out, I realize how much I enjoy the group. I am now exploring a couple of virtual groups, one for fiction and one for Sci-Fi.
No more State Fair posts until next Labor Day I think. I am hoping next year two cousins from NY might come and enjoy the State Fair in MN. Perhaps we will do the same and visit the NYS Fair.
Thanks for your reply, Mark!
I would have liked to meet your mother and grandmother. Your writing does bring them to life though.
I know what you mean about an in-person group. Nothing beats talking face-to-face. Some folks have gotten used to remote meetings, but I hope that remains the exception.
My Mom was one of a kind. My grandmother was a difficult person. While I did not get into the excruciating detail, just picture her sitting in a chair with an oil slick stain on her housecoat. Yep, she really had put a big handful of three-bean salad in her pocket.
My book club meets tomorrow. I am sure we will have 20 people there. It is quite special. I highly doubt if I joined another in-person club it would have the same vibe. I would expect we will have between 35-50 books to choose and vote on for next year. A very active group.
I am not averse to the remote meetings necessarily. I host them to discuss with brothers and cousins about the imperatives of football weekly and another group that I did a climate awareness program monthly to stay connected. Durable connections are possible. I am hopeful someone from our meeting tomorrow will want to wander into the old downtown and have a drink. We will see.
Wow, I can picture your grandma with that oil slick on her pocket from the three-bean salad. It’s that kind of detail that makes a memoir memorable.
Twenty people is a great turnout for a book club--a lot of committed readers who are also sociable. It seems to me that’s a rare combination.
I agree you can form and maintain lasting relationships and friendships via remote meetings.it sounds like you’ve been successful in both remote and in-person varieties. I hope that drink in the old town comes to pass! 🍷
I've learned that you can't please all the people all the time. I get the most unsubscribes when I do "links" newsletters and yet those same "links" newsletters yield so many comments thanking me for one or more of the links. Go figure. I enjoyed the State Fair stories and also enjoy reading about how "things used to be." Keep up the good writing.
Thanks Gayla. I genuinely don't care about the unsubscribes. The instructive part is I enjoy what I write about and just want the readers to be getting something different they look forward to. I know I am steady in wanting to get my subscriptions just right ala Goldilocks. It is nice to have things you look forward to reading (like yours)
I'm puzzled about why someone would unsubscribe from your column because of your State fair piece; I enjoyed it very much! I like this experiment as well, I hope you publish more of these sorts of stories. Your grandmother sounds like quite the character. I'm looking forward to reading about her adventures in Florida!
Thanks Jeannine. Nice of you to say that. My Substack is still an experiment as I explore all sorts of topics (witnessed by the too many tabs on my HomePage). This was fun to write. Before I had a Substack my creative writing group (I was a rookie) each wrote a proposed story for Reminisce magazine. I wrote this largely as my VERY FIRST writing attempt (beyond patent applications and technical guidance). My group generally liked it. Some family members didn't want me to write it??? It has been sitting in cold storage for a long time. I finally decided it was time.
My grandmother was a very unusual character. As the years passed and I developed an interest in Genealogy I would interview people who could share firsthand memories of others. That coupled with conversations with Mom framed my grandmother much as I now remember her. She was a bit one-dimensional. It seems lots of what I remember of her centered on her obsessions about food.
I too loved flying in those days. Not anymore.
As to the poll: I really live between obsession and enjoyment, but there was no middle choice. I chose the one that seemed more rational.
Thanks for commenting C.L.. Memory is funny and often distorted. I think flying was a completely different experience in those days. One thing that people do forget was the frequency of accidents. Large-scale project management was nascent and airplanes used to crash with some frequency.. One of the themes I love to explore is the tendency of people to see the past as "the good old days". I am soundly in the camp that almost everything is better although traveling coach is a necessary evil nowadays.
The good thing about the polls is they are anonymous and always just meant to be fun. No matter what I arbitrarily choose as options, SOMETHING ELSE always seems to work :)