Change: shampoo once came in glass bottles

     Yes, I remember Prell in particular. In that glass bottle. You could kill a guy with it.
     (A reader inspired my Prellian reverie.)

     That reverie inspired yet another: I recall my family's pink '55 Ford station wagon:

     Here are Annie and I, leaning on the old beast. This would have been about 1958.

     We kept the darned thing well into the 60s. Drove down from BC to Southern Cal with it twice: in 1958 (Disneyland!) and then again in 1959. It's what we were driving when we finally got permission to stay in the U.S. in 1960.

     The color: it was a weird pink, but I do believe that Ford called it "salmon."

     Yet another pic of the salmon wagon, or at least its front end.

     "Who's this lady with dad?", I recently asked my mother.

     "Oh, she vas a mudder*—vutt do you call it? — in Hamburg, I tink," she answered.

     "A mother?"

     "Yes, you know. She ran a business vit prostitutes!"

     "She was a 'Madame'?"

     "Yes, a 'Madame'! She vas one of dose. Her daughter vas a friend of ours back den. Gisele. Dat's her little boy."

     "Gisele's boy?"

     "Yah, dat boy vas raised in dat whorehouse," she added, disapprovingly.

     Don't know what this is about. I think they had stopped along the "Pan-Canadian Highway"— a dirt road — and mom (in the middle) was helping start a fire so they could boil water for coffee or something.
     No doubt Blondie was helpful in that regard. That's her grandson over by the fish wagon.
     Dad tells me the boy ended up "really fucked up."
     "Yeah?"
     "Oh yeah."

     Gisele was pretty hot. I'm surprised I don't remember her.
     I bet she had a heart of gold.

     (*OK, I admit that I exaggerated my mom's accent. It isn't that thick. But her speech is very German nonetheless. Heimatland!)


* * *


You don't see salmon colored things much anymore. Above: a Salmon T-Bird.

My folks recently at the Bagdad Cafe
My mom's still a fan of all things "Hollywood"
My dad is still NOT
He liked the french fries though