TAX DAY! OUCH! THIS ONE'S FOR BOOMERS-- The Dog Chronicles

4/15/2010

God help us it is tax day. Here's hoping you don't owe. If you do-- well... sorry.

If you are a baby boomer, I want to take you back to simpler times with Buster Brown Shoes. Believe it or not, they still exist.

At the risk of seeming maudlin, we were a little less jaded when we were children, and it didn't take much to grab our attention.

Buster Brown commercials caught my attention. I remember being on a car ride and seeing a store that featured Buster Brown Shoes and begging-- yes, begging (a good dog word) my mother to stop at the store. Luckily it was a Sunday (stores were often closed on Sundays, even as late as my high school days) and my mother got off the hook from buying me those shoes.

All this connects to dogs because Buster Brown had a dog named Tige. Now Buster Brown and his dog had been around for decades when I was a kid in the 50's. Now I am a kid in my 50's. Perhaps I was an easy mark. But really, Buster Brown's dog and his dog pal appealed to children. That's part of the reason I thought people might like this site. I try to throw in a little nostaglia, some fun, and impart the importance of dogs in our lives. I don't remember all my old girlfriends' names, but I do remember every dog I ever had.

Speaking of stores being closed on Sundays, I used to head down to the mall in Pomona back in high school and every store was closed for the day but a Woolworths. Sears was closed, all the smaller shops were closed. God, life was boring. We could walk to the mall-- we could walk to the bowling alley and without a car, and even with a car, Sundays were a drag. Sometimes we even went to church just to kill a couple of hours. NO WONDER WE SMOKED CIGARETTES. There was nothing else to do. Saturday night we cruised the Taco drive in and if there wasn't a party that was it. Too bad we outgrew the Buster Brown's. You know, it's too bad I didn't have a dog back then.