Sunday, October 30, 2005

Mourning Lost Juvenile Pastimes - An Ode to the Marquee

Oh, how I'll miss the marquee at the high school;
I can remember the fun times of red and green socks;
Of the many nuns who would never be kissed;
Of "the fight" on USA.

Ah, the good times we had;
Nearly falling off the teetering ladder;
Practically killing someone with flying letters;
Changing zeros into O's, P's into D's.


I will miss begging for money on behalf of someone else;
The broadcasting of inside jokes;
The pleading of "insiders," wondering what would be next;
The ability to change the perpetual lameness of the messages.

But, alas, technology has taken over;
The chipped and taped plastic replaced by blinking red;
Ingenious and clever comments lost to the time, temperature, and date;
Unintentional wind-blown spaces substitued with burned out bulbs or technological jibberish that invariably appears.

My juvenile pastime is lost;
Despite my attempts to remain as Peter Pan;
I suppose someday I'll need to grow up;
Though I have been enjoying the procrastination.

If you would also like to mourn with me, please comment or send me photos to upload.

7 comments:

julie said...

It's funny that you wrote about the marquee this time, because Friday night (while leaving your house to get my stuff at my apt) was the first time I'd seen the new electronic marquee. I thought to myself, When did that get put up?

Cardine said...

It was a couple weeks ago, I think. It's the lamest thing ever, unless they change the messages. Otherwise, I think it looks like a bank.

Anonymous said...

My favorite memory was the last time we changed the marquee with Gail and Mr. Newman showed up. That was pretty funny, especially considering Mr. Newman had been the subject of one of our joke marquees. That and the fact that Mr. Newman was so impressed I was going to law school. (Look at my successful student -- she's in law school!) He didn't seem to think it was contradictory that we were participating in the juvenile act of scrambling the letters on a high school marquee.

Anonymous said...

the only time I got to help with the marquee was when you were on your mission, and Cash led the expedition. I think we put "Newman Broke, Send $, and signed it Carrie B. Then on the other side it said, "Play more, casa luau co."
They changed the Marquee??
First the theatre and now this. I can never truly go home again!

Anonymous said...

Oh no, oh no!! It can't be. Things will never be the same again. Next thing I know, they will chop down all the trees on my 'favorite' street. Cardine-- you know the one-- it's the street where we dragged a huge branch out of the way, and picked up a tarp to throw away, all just to be good citizens. And, wasn't Emma named on that street? At the south end of the street, you had a great view of the -sob- late marquee. I think I've been gone too long.

Cardine said...

Actually, yes, that is the street where Emma was named. I recall the time. It was around the time when we had the branch experience, no? And didn't we name the branch? Was it Bob? ...or am I thinking of THE mission? We named all of the junk (branches, old TV's, moldy couches, etc.) on the side of the road Bob. No, wait. They were Bub. It was short for Beelzebub. They were really smelly. Anyway, I rarely go down that street anymore. I should drive down it one of these days to check out the leaves.

Anonymous said...

Yes, I recall naming the branch. I thought it was Bob, too. However, I have no recollection of the Beelzebub experience. That must have been one from the mish.