The Lost Gen Part 2

Mark spent his summers playing little league and his falls playing football.  Somewhere during all that he found time to build forts in the woods by his house as well as “Kick the Can” in the middle of road at night.  The Greatest thing America as ever done is the “Suburb”. A series of single family homes that all look the same. The colors may be different but every fucking house was the same.  You see that basketball hoop in the driveway is not just a hoop for the kids it’s an accessory. Like a throw pillow on a couch, a basketball hoop is to a driveway.  The homeowners were mostly white working classes and everyone tried to just live the American Dream and copy the lifestyle that was on TV.  That was until Dallas came to our homes.  No longer could you watch a show with a story of old school America, now it was all dressed up and ready to show.  Sears wasn’t good enough anymore. 3 channels of TV programming wasn’t good enough, people want cable.  Cable TV, 26 channels of TV, From Bee’ville to Toronto.  I never knew football was played in the summer until CBC came to my families TV set.

How Nixon became Ford, which lead to the Rise of Reagan.


Mark sits in a bus station in Yonkers; his youth is in that “I’m the master of the world” phase.  He is out of the house and searching for his own way, something different from what he knows.  He has watched one friend pass away via the social ills that a down market can bring to former big collar town.  The factories left town 1st, malls and retail, the dream of an America that can last at this pace replaced them, it will end at some point; it won’t happen fast but it will end.  A southern Governor is running for president, one part smarts and one part ladies man, he will continue America’s love affair with the mall and cheap easy living.  Bill Clinton, a horn playing democrat is making moves in the Democratic party that saved the country from Nixon/Ford but lost its way with Carter.  Not that Jimmy was a bad man, he was smart, too smart for a country full of half wits and greedy businessmen who want American Money for themselves.  Like a the stale beer Mark is drinking on the sidewalk, the can looks great, it’s the liquid inside that needs the work.