I am not sweet. My wife told me. She thinks I'm grumpy, always has, probably right. We met in a library in the 1960s. I looked like this:
She looked like this:+Enos.jpeg)
Ok, maybe that was sweet, but I never got sweet again. Guys learn early on whether or not girls appreciate that sort of thing. Norma consented to go out with me a year and a half after I did that.
We now look like this:
But I'm really trying to write about a great hero of the American Old West. Before Norma and I met in the library, there was a breakfast cereal called Sugar Pops. It was advertised on early tv by a rodent called a prairie dog. His name was Sugar Pops Pete and he was ever-vigilant for Bad Guys. Bad Guys were outlaws, belligerents and assorted fusty rustics who refused to be sweet. Pete would pop onto the scene and Bad Guys would yell, "Look out, it's Sugar Pops Pete and he'll tarn ya sweet!" Then Pete would shoot them with his Sugar Popper and they'd be sweet. It was practically a religion. Observe:
Sugar Pops used real sugar, a sweetener that occurred in nature. By and by it was replaced by artificial sweeteners that did not. This political correction made Sugar Pops disappear from the world, and Pete too! Things changed after that. The world was different and more confusing. That's all I know about love, American history, vanishing prairie dogs and religion.
I think they took the same photo of everyone during that, my, era. I had the same tie, as all of us did.
ReplyDeleteI bet Sugar Pops are a good metaphor for all of those, and more.
It was either that tie or the necklace, not much of a choice for kids --but we were simpler mechanisms then.
DeleteLove, love, love the Sugar Pops advertisement. It has a great deal more charm (and humour) than any I have seen recently. And by recently I mean for a decade or more.
ReplyDeleteI am pretty impressed with your photos too. And the Valentine's Day note. Which of you preserved it for posterity? Or am I being niaive (again).
Ah, admittedly, I recreated the Valentine note. But yes, advertisements were way more fun back then.
DeleteI'm sorry...I got stuck at the part where you defaced a book. I mean, even in the name of love....you can't deface a book. That's where the problem started you know...we didn't DO things like that back then. You changed the whole flow of history with that one act of defiance. How are you going to live with yourself?
ReplyDeleteYes, I confess myself guilty of dead-boring book defacement, but I had to, you see, to find out whom I was dealing with and if she was good-natured. I live with myself by visiting my cardiologist twice a year. Plus, as an antique book collector, I value the doodles over the text.
DeleteThere's no Sugar Pops anymore? And wait, prairie dogs are vanishing?
ReplyDeleteI have to go now. :(
I believe they were called Corn Pops after that and rodents of all types still flourish.
DeleteHey sweet ums, I loved my Sugar Pops, and Pete , where have you gone Pete? On principal, I am against pistol-packing rodents, but by the things I read in the news, maybe we need old Petey again to shoot real sugar back into this sorry old world.
ReplyDeleteGeo, you and your beautiful Norma have not really changed much. You are still a happy looking couple. Did you store up a 30 year supply of Sugar Pops.
Arleen, I hope you won't think less of us but we didn't really like Sugar Pops very much. But yes, still happy.
DeleteDear Geo.,
ReplyDeleteYou two look marvelous - now and then!
Sugar seems to be the newly discovered evil for everything. I love "Sweets for my sweet, sugar for my honey" - in moderation, though. Will always prefer real sugar to the artificial version, real butter to artificial one, and real men to - oops!
Thank you dear Brigitta. Preference of real over artificial certainly seems to work well for you, "oops" included!
DeleteI certainly remember Sugar Pops, but I had completely forgotten about Sugar Pops Pete - - until you refreshed my faded memory. The world was a better place when real sugar was utilized. People were sweeter.
ReplyDeleteI loved hearing the story of how you and Norma met. It was truly sweet. I couldn't imagine you being a grumpy person, Geo., but if you are - it's undoubtedly from all the artificial sweeteners that have lately been forced upon us.
Norma still has the same sweet smile that she had in the older photo. And you seem to have the same expression, too. I'd say that neither of you have changed.
That's a good thing.
Kind Jon, I get grumpy when I have trouble letting go of troubles.
Delete"That's all I know about love......."? From the the photograph of you and Norma together, with you looking so pleased and proud, methinks you understate your case.
ReplyDeleteMost perceptive. I overgeneralize sometimes to wrap a post up.
DeleteGlad she finally consented to go out with you a year and a half later. Persistence pays off :)
ReplyDeleteI'm glad too, Keith. We made friends that day and let go of any romantic social pressures. It was years before we realized how much we loved each other.
DeleteAh, the fifties. What a great time to be alive!
ReplyDeleteI had little choice in the matter but yes, it was a good time to live.
DeleteYou and Norma are a beautiful couple
ReplyDeleteSmiles Geo, I bet you can be very sweet just like sugar pops
Thanks, Margie. One has one's moments.
DeleteI remember Sugar Pops and I'm impressed your wife kept that book that you wrote in!
ReplyDeleteMost kind, Sage.
DeleteSweet couple:-) I could swear that Sugar Pops are still around...my kids ate them. I was fond of them, too, back in the days, but the Captain (Captain Crunch, that is) was always my main squeeze.
ReplyDeleteYou got me curious so I checked with Wikipedia: "The name was changed to Sugar Corn Pops in 1978, and finally to Corn Pops in 1984, a time when many cereals dropped the word "Sugar" from their titles."
DeleteYes, and probably high fructose corn syrup pops was not very marketable, anyways.
DeleteLike Delores, I had a "WHOA!" moment at you writing in that book. Dude, you could have at least used a PENCIL! HA! That was actually a very sweet thing to do, and I'll betcha her heart softened for you right then and there, whether she admitted it or not.
ReplyDeleteNot a big fan of Sugar Pops, but I did like those commercials. Thanks for reminding me.
A justifiable "Whoa", Susan, and I am sorry about it, but suspect it stirred some sense of civic duty in Norma. It has taken her almost half a century but my reformation is nearly complete.
DeleteI love the before-and-afters! You are a great-lookin' couple, then and now. I love your how-we-met story.
ReplyDeleteMost kind Stephanie, I love it too --but still, I live in fear of the Library Swat Team surrounding the house.
DeleteI think that's a sweet "how we met" story. It has just the right amount of sappiness not to be too sappy!
ReplyDeleteMost kind. You describe a formula I am still working on!
DeleteNatural sugar... sounds familiar...
ReplyDeleteI'm betting you're sweeter than you let on!
I confess, my glucose level falls within normal parameters.
DeleteIt's a great origin story the two of you have.
DeleteTruth is, I recognized the quality of quiddity in her --the inherent ability to know what's what. She has since presided as my stabilizer. When she leaves, I chew holes in the couch.
DeleteI knew I met the right woman when I found myself wishing I were more like her. 15+ years later, I still do.
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