Back when I was in high school and college- I fantasized about being a hippie in the sixties. The Summer of Love and Haight/Ashbury and so on... it all seemed so romantic to me. Naturally, I went to as many Dead shows as possible (without actually ever
touring because I am not particularly adventurous like that). I was fascinated with all that surrounded the whole hippie culture (or counterculture, perhaps?). Of course, I read up on all things related, including Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters (though come to think of it, I never completely read the Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test- how odd. Must add to my "after grad school reading list"). Any how, as we all know, the Merry Pranksters traveled America in a painted bus, living the bohemian life which consisted of dropping acid and whatnot. This led to Ken Kesey famously saying, "You're either on the bus or you're off the bus...." Meaning of course, either you "got" their lifestyle or you didn't, you were with them or you weren't. And as an aside, was I ever excited to learn the Neal Cassady drove the bus(
THE Neal Cassady and by that I mean Dean Moriarty from my beloved On The Road- is everyone still with me?)! Oh, the irony of course that Jack Kerouac was none too fond of the whole hippie movement- but never mind that right now. Continuing on- my point is that to me saying that someone was "on the bus" meant that most likely they were a fried acid casualty. Until this happened....
My son has a security blanket that he loves to drag around and sniff. He calls it noo noo. And in an unfortunate event recently, on the way home from the babysitter's, we accidentally left noo noo on the bus. Of course I panicked but noo noo never turned up in the lost and found (what a surprise, that tattered thing?) But it actually turned out okay- I replaced it with a new one (stupid me but that is a different story...) and we talk about the old one occasionally. For example, the other day he told me that our cat smelled like noo noo on the bus. But then yesterday my poor son couldn't find his favorite Thomas train and he was growing increasingly frantic as we looked for it. Finally he grabbed my hand and said "Where is he? Did we throw him out? Is he in the garbage?" and then after a short pause his eyes widened, his voice got a little more quiet and he said, "Is he....
on the bus?" It broke my heart a little but still I had to laugh to myself and say, "No,Thomas the Tank Engine is most definitely not on the bus! I think I can say for certain Thomas is
off the bus!"
-35
