Oh, My God!!!!!!!!!!!!!! A Real Blast From The Past, Girls!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                             When I saw this photo, I gasped! " Howard Johnson's," I had forgotten, played such an important part in my life, I had blocked out how completely Middle Class my actual childhood was!

                                "Howard Johnson's" was, truly, "distinctly middle class."  It cleverly masqueraded itself with those orange roofs, the seemingly elegant--for an as yet unsophisticated kid-- motels, with a pool AND a slide, that made visiting these places, at one time, a treat.

                                 There was one on Route 18, near where we lived, in Highland Park, NJ.  In the early 60's, when we were trekking down to Linwood--a two hour trip--we would stop here for breakfast, where I would always get their pancakes!  I loved pancakes back then, and, God forgive me, I thought those at Howard Johnsons were better than my mother's!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                 As I got older, I adored their Orange Freezes.  A mixture of orange juice and orange sherbet, blended together, like a milk shake.  And topped with a big scoop of raspberry sherbet.  If it was possible for a kid to get high on this, I certainly did.  Once, while coming home from my Aunt Agnes and Uncle Tom's, in Vero Beach, Florida, we stopped at a "Howard Johnson's" in Virginia, where I, so hot and bothered, scarfed down two of these, consecutively!!!!!!!!  You should have seen the looks on my parents' faces.  And then mine, when I got a cold blitz rush to the head!  It was great!  Like being stoned!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                 By the time I was in high school, darlings, it became a social event!  Oh, my God, the Friday Fish Fry!!!!!!!!!!!  All you could eat, plus French fries and cole slaw--all for only $1.39!!!!!!!!!!  Can you believe it?  But that's how long ago, this was!

                                  We would always run into people we knew, there.  Like my aunt Katty's friend, Katherine Walsh, and her mother, always at the same table!  Everyone we knew, it seems went to the Friday fish fry!  It was practically a communal social event!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                   Now, back to Aunt Agnes, and Uncle Tom.  When they resided in Vero Beach, Florida, I always knew when we were almost there, as the turn off to their road was right alongside a "Howard Johnson's!"  So I came to associate the place with them, too!

                                   See the girl arching in the air, before splashing into the water?  That used to me; I would do things, like that!  Really!  And I loved going down the slide!  I thought they would kick me off by the time I reached 30!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                     Today, I wouldn't dare try any of this! Hell, I was lucky I survived my recent fall at the Strand Bookstore, unscathed!

                                      The past just doesn't last, darlings!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!