Shades of "This is Spinal Tap"

This is great.

I used to listen to WLIR back in the 80's. I also would get alternative music magazines from Europe from the local candy store, and I had a few pen pals through them, two of whom were from Yugoslavia, Jelena and Jasenka. I don't know what happened to them after the unrest in that part of the world in the 90's. One of my pen pals was local and she came to my sweet sixteen party at the Moose Lodge. I don't remember her name because it was probably American.

I miss candy stores. If you needed school supplies, you could go there and get a notebook, loose leaf paper, or some brads. Oh, and poster board for projects you forgot to tell your mom about that were due the next day. Does anyone remember the large rubber band book straps for school? I think I was part of the last generation to use those before luggage-sized backpacks became popular for texts. We also had to cover our books for the school year, and my mom was an expert at turning a Key Food brown paper bag into a perfectly fitting book cover in a matter of minutes. It is amazing to think of the things we made on our own and didn't spend money on, but that suited us just fine because homemade tended to be better.