May 28, 2019

Yesteryear
One year ago today: May 28, 2018, Lost in Davenport.
Five years ago today: May 28, 2014, telling me about real life.
Nine years ago today: May 28, 2010, a lack of organized standards.
Random years ago today: May 28, 2016, my first public yodel.

           Corvettes, not being my favorite car, surprised me with the news that they are all built in Bowling Green, Kentucky. It’s a statistic I should have known, so I delved deeper. Okay, it is currently the only place that assembles, as opposed to manufactures, the Corvette. But that has been only since 1981, the Corvette itself has been in production since 1953. The Bowling Green plant has produced over 1 million Corvettes, but they are still a rare car on the open highway. Here’s me pulling into the nice parking spot they reserved for me near the front entrance. Jolly decent of them, really.

           This morning found me and the boys on the road to Bowling Green to say we’d been there. As usual, there was not that much adventure, so we created out own. Garmin, the worst GPS for in-town use ever invented took us on a tour of the city. I pressed the Garmin search button at the same time I noticed the post office across the street. The Garmin said it was 6.9 miles away. Wanted to see the sights, I let the Garmin navigate me down such roads with names like Smoked Pig Drive and sure enough, a half-hour later, it led me back to the same spot. The post office was shut down and had moved to a new building three blocks away.

           For ten bucks, the museum sure looked worth it, but I had the dogs and they are not pet-friendly. You can’t blame them, I mean with all those expensive and tempting hub caps. I toured the lobby and the treat was this unit. You cannot beat a Corvette pedal car for Second Grade snob appeal. The real disappointment was for Sammy, since they just would not let me take him for a spin. Heartless bastards.
           As you know, we make these trips for coffee, and we found a super place downtown, Spencer’s. At first, we didn’t now it was downtown because we’d imagined such a brand name city to be a much bigger place. Instead, take away the government offices and it is really one block square around a small park with fountains and statues. An excellent stroll and friendly staff at Spencer’s, who treated the boys to a dish of ice water, shown here. That little mug says it all, just dunnit? I add that it was an unusually hot day for this time of year, well into the 80s by mid-morning when we arrived.

           If you visit Nashville, Bowling Green is 63 miles north, freeway the entire distance. For a look around, the quaint downtown is a treat. It’s like any other town, right down to the street names. State, Chestnut, Broadway, etc. But I like that. The Corvette museum is out on the highway north of town, I’ll see if I have more pictures for you later. The city was small enough that almost everyone I bumped into knew we were tourists. There must also be a college or university nearby but I didn’t see it. The business community is geared toward that crowd, by all means look it up, I’m too tired right now. This just in. It was the assembly plant opened in 1981, the museum was not founded until 1994. By which time I agree, most Corvettes and the people who bought them belonged in a museum.

Picture of the day.
Wild pistachio tree.
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           Was there anything new, different, or unusual? By all means. I took the boys for an extra walk near a theater to find a small garden planted in the curb ring. This instantly reminded me of this blog’s namesake Trailer Court. Somebody had taken the spot and converted it to a small green area, with plants that have names. Right there, my kind of people would do something like this. And speaking of that, they happenstanced to be just a few paces away. Only too glad to relate the story of how the city had left the spot empty and now it was like a Victory garden. The non-hanging garden of Bowling Green.

           This is the clearest picture you get, see note below, but you can easily see all six posers are definitely movie-star material. The garden is to the lower left, surrounded by the city curb. We are right downtown in Bowling Green, Kentucky, the city center park is across the street further to the left.

           [Author’s note: here’s a blog first. The committee said no to posting this photo because, are you ready, the facial recognition software being banned in California is apparently being tested on group photos like this. When in doubt, I follow the blog rules.
           If you would like to meet this All-American family, you could maybe drive out to Bowling Green yourself? You’ll know them right away, far too photogenic. Not just a vegetable garden, the was a tall flower called a foxglove. I have no explanation why I’ve never seen this bloom before, but the cabin is getting them as soon as I return home. Sadly, none of the close-ups I took of the plants turned out because I used auto-focus.]

           Here’s a semi-dramatic photo of that park. This fountain was actually working, are you listening, Fort Lauderdale? The movie theater that caught our attention is the street in the background. This was mid-morning and the critters are tired already. So we took the scenic route back home, through a little town called Scottsville, then to Westmoreland, on to Lebanon, and home. Excellent tree-lined, winding motorcycle route. I do have something unusual to report. It finally had to happen.
           Being out of turtle food, I stopped at the PetCo in Lebanon. I had to leave the dogs in the car, so I had no time to waste. I had two choices when I walked in. One, to wait while the lady working the till served all the customers first, or walk up and down every aisle, hoping to find the product. The third option, asking for help, was out of the question. The dogs could die of heat stroke if I went that route. So, under pressure, I finally asked a staff person if they stocked the product but to NOT start looking it up on a phone, because I didn’t have time for that. Oddly, she put the phone back in her pocket, and said she understood my request, and to follow. I did. We found a whole section of reptile food at the far end of the store. Moral of the story? If you don’t know, say you don’t know, and put the phone away.

ADDENDUM

           Here’s something that could be interpreted a number of ways. You pick the one that suits you. I thought it was a poster for a square dance, which might interest me. However, my stance on male sexuality remains equal-but-separate. Upon closer inspection, it says the calls are “genderless”. What’s really going on here? Ah, the fine print says queer & trans welcome. No, not everything is fine and dandy. If I want a role model for my kids, it is not going to be someone who elbowed his way in the door.
           I’m still okay with dancing, but now I draw the line. The next passage says kids free and welcome. It’s the whole 1970 thing over again. It’s not enough to hold their own square dances. They want to take over yours. I know people have good sides, hell, Al Capone fed the homeless. I’m merely pointing he didn’t do it on your front lawn and pretend nobody was offended. Why, what could be more socially acceptable than a genderless square dance? How about an ordinary square dance and leave all overt preferences out of the equation?
           Bow to the “whatever” on your left. And if you have to advertise like this, maybe it isn’t the dance that’s square.

Last Laugh