A Post About Pink And Blue

I love that the "I" is missing in Philco!

Recently my younger brother has been scanning all the old family slides.

Do you know what slides are, boys and girls? Well long ago before digital imaging, people had cameras that contained FILM. And they had a choice of what kind of film to buy: black and white prints, color prints, or slides.

Slides, for some reason, were the choice of my father, so boxes of slides that have been rarely seen are piled in the various bottom drawers of bureaus and dressers back home.

The reason they have been rarely seen is that you had to set up a viewing screen and a slide projector and darken the room and gather a BUNCH of people around (for some reason nobody ever just set up a slide projector for themselves) and then you had to go through the slide show at the perfect speed: too slow and people got bored, too fast and people complained that they didn't get a good look.

Nobody, at least around my house, wanted to linger long and lovingly over slides of the kids. They wanted to see the ice boats, the motorcycles, the views of Baby Mountain or Bixler Lake or the Pigeon River.

Consequently, there are entire eras of my life that I have NEVER seen depicted in pictures!

Need I say what a joyous wonderland it is to see some of these old memories made new? He's sending them to me a few at a time via email and I am savoring each one and the flush of sound, smell, color, and temperature they invoke! It's heavenly!

Which brings me now to the point of this post! It's all about the pink and the blue!

I've always loved that particular color combination. I wear it a lot, myself. And I love to see it on others and in decor. It gives me a sense of giddy happiness and a little feeling of wanting to hoard whatever it is that is sporting that color combination. But Why?

I never knew until now! When I saw this picture of me in my favorite, favorite Halloween costume! And suddenly all the Pavlovian Layers of my personality quirks and programing came crystal clear to me!

I love pink and blue and it stems from wearing this Cinderella costume night after night roaming the streets of my hometown collecting BAGS and BAGS and BAGS of free candy!

Back then, nobody knew what a sugar coma was! Nobody knew it was that bad for you! Well, they kind of knew it rotted your teeth but that was more of a warning to keep you in line, as in: "All that sugar is going to rot your teeth!" That dire warning was filed in the same category as "you will put your eye out!" and thus deemed highly improbable and therefore utterly ignored!

Oh, another one I just thought of was, "that will stunt your growth!" which was used as a warning label for smoking and drinking, neither of which I had any intention of indulging in at the tender age of 7 or 8.

But the Pink and the Blue! I loved this costume! I loved the feel of the pseudo-satin! (probably plastic combined with plant matter extruded through tubes to make it shiny) I loved the Princess mask and the gold blond hair! Years after that costume was no longer in use (and we wore our costumes year after year, believe me! We didn't get a new costume every year like they do now! You wore it until it no longer fit or couldn't be found!) I would spot it in a pile of rubbish in the upstairs and feel happy when I glimpsed it.

I wanted it and the yummy goodness that went with it!

Now I understand why pink and blue hold such happy delight for me! I associate it with childhood and holidays and lets not forget the bliss of a sugar buzz!