One time, ages ago… I’d guess that the little bro was six and I was ten.(Circa 1979).. we were on vacation, and went to this horribly cheesy pseudo-Tijuana place in south Carolina called “South of the Border”… I haven’t seen the billboards in ages, but there were zillions of ’em at the time… Stuff like “No Monkey Business, Joost Yankee Pankee” with a picture of a gorilla and a Mexican. south of the border, 20 miles! You could buy fireworks there, and take pictures with a bunch of weirdo cheap roadside attractions like a giant gorilla, or lion…. we ate at a restaurant with a giant cement chicken on the roof. I sort of remember it as being good, but not as tasty as KFC. 🙂 Anyhow, the joint was crammed to the gills with cheap touristy trinkets like goofy sombreros, and fake curly mustaches..an arcade where my brother and I played space invaders. Yes. Space invaders, and I think it was new! . (can a place like this still exist in PC America?) I have to search…brb. Yes! here it is – http://www.pedroland.com/

674 miles from where I sit now.

Anyhow, since we were playing space invaders, mom and dad thought we were safe to leave alone for a while. (what were they thinking?) Being kids, and fairly smart, instead of spending the 2 bucks each on 8 games of space invaders we decided to get some souvenirs, instead. Derek, my brother wanted fireworks and I wanted some sort of cool piece of plastic tourist junk that filled the place…we figured we’d walk around, get a good look, and see what our collective 4 bucks would get us. (It occurs to me now that Dad probably would have gone so far as to cough up $5 for each of us, had we stayed where we were, and gone shopping with him after).

to be continued, just got another idea.