2010: Begin Again: A van-tasy

Dreaming

Are you familiar with the Pepsi ‘Forever Young’ promotion?

I don’t know if this ran in the U.S., but my fellow Canadians will likely recall it. Someone is drinking a Diet Pepsi and the voiceover asks “Is there anything else youthful you'd like to experience?”

Then the person drinking has a flashback to something great from when they were young, sees how it would apply to life today and decides to stick with the Diet Pepsi instead.

The one that gets me is the guy in the minivan who says, “Yeah, I’d like to have my old van back.”

The view cuts to him driving around in this tricked-out Boogie van from the ‘70s with the gaudy mural of the big-breasted warrior woman and her team of saber-toothed cat/bear things. Cue Loverboy’s ‘Working for the Weekend.’ The music pounds, the van rolls and everyone is looking at him. A businessman gives the driver an odd look at a red light. He stops to let the kids out at school and a mother covers her little girl’s eyes as the driver stands leaning up against the van with one hand near one of those massive breasts.

He’s quite embarrassed. He snaps to and says “On second thought, I’ll stick with my Diet Pepsi.”

Wrong answer, dude! See, I had a Boogie van back in the late ‘70s. Yes. Me. And recently I’ve been thinking how great it would be to have one again. That one in the Pepsi ad would be so cool!

There was a very cool van around in 1976 sponsored by Pepsi’s competitor, Coke! Check out the photo I’ve included with this posting. Took me a bit of time to find it. Coke and Levi, the jeans people, teamed up to produce about 25 of these vans, giving them away in contests across North America. I entered a bunch of times, but never did win the van, although someone in Alberta did win one. Very nice custom interior . . . all in Levi denim.

Mine was a Dodge Tradesman B100. It was sort of a copper colour. No exterior mural. Couldn’t afford that. Duel side exhaust. Visor. Flares. No side or rear windows. My friend, Ian, and I worked on the interior. Ian had a Chevy van with a beautiful interior. We had lots of fun doing my van. I’m a klutz with things like that, so Ian was a big help. We built a good bed in back, with a pullout middle section that served as an extra seat and a cooler. Installed wood flooring and ox-blood red faux leather walls. Put in a sunroof.

I loved that van. Every once in a while, deep in a restful sleep, I will dream that I still have it. That it’s been sitting in a garage somewhere all these years and I just have to dust it off, start it up and get back on the road.

It’s a nice reminder that we all have dreams. Often we let the dreams slip away as we ‘mature.’

Life has a way of smacking you upside the head with a two-by-four. Before you know it, you’re working in a career, you’re married, you’ve got kids, the kids grow up and move away (hopefully) and you’re left staring at the fact that so much of what you wanted to do when you were young hasn’t happened.

The goals you had were put on hold, then got lost in the back of that garage in your mind, covered with dust and forgotten about. Part of what 2010: Begin Again means to me is examining those old dreams and seeing about resuscitating them. Can a little mental CPR breath new life into my earlier desires? At least those dreams that still intrigue and interest me.

I like to think it’s never too late to begin again. Take a fresh look at life and see if you’re living the way you really want to, or if you are living the way you have to. There’s a big difference. I’m fortunate to have a job I enjoy working with people I like. Not everyone has that. But there is still more I want to accomplish.

If you’re still in your 20s or 30s, don’t give up on your dreams. Maybe it doesn’t seem like they are possible right now, but if you work a plan to make them happen, you’ve got time. If you’re closer to me in age, I still say don’t surrender to the passage of time. You can still make a plan to achieve, then work your plan.

My plan involves developing second income streams to enhance what I currently earn. This summer I’ve been fortunate to have time to do some research and develop some ideas to achieve that goal.

One of those ideas is to provide others with access to a service that allows people to easily connect, reconnect and stay in touch with friends, family, co-workers clients and just about anyone else through easily customized greeting cards that are printed and mailed for you for less then you could spend on a card purchased in most stores. You can check this out here.

And if you want to see my van, stay tuned. I’m going to try to locate and scan some photos from that era. You’ll get to see me when I was skinny (I was once, you know), had a cheesy moustache and a perm! Hey, it was the ‘70s.

I can skip the cheesy moustache and the perm, but I’d sure like to have the van again!

Cue the music . . .

“Everyone's watching, to see what you will do

Everyone's looking at you, oh

Everyone's wondering, will you come out tonight

Everyone's trying to get it right, get it right

Everybody's working for the weekend

Everybody wants a new romance

Everybody's goin' off the deep end

Everybody needs a second chance, oh”

And fade out . . .

Photo: The machine of a dream. The Coke Denim Machine. I wanted it so badly. To enter the contest you needed to collect bottle cap liners. This was the day of metal bottle caps. I used a magnet on a sting to fish caps out of vending machines. Ya see, in the olden days you'd use the machines built-in bottle opener to pop the metal cap, which would fall into a receptacle below. How primitive!

2010: Begin Again - Dream Weaver and Litter Things

Dream Weaver
The fulfillment of your dreams is necessary for the well-being of the whole of humanity. The Divine expresses itself through you and your life. Are you living up to your potential or selling yourself short. And, in so doing, adversely affecting all that is. It’s something I struggle with.

I do believe in a spiritual side of life. In fact, I think we are spirit experiencing the physical reality of the universe. Who and what we are is something humanity has pondered for thousands of years. Seems we still don’t have a definitive answer that suits everyone, and we never will.

God, Allah, Shiva, Jehovah, The Light, One Mind, Divine Spirit, Krishna, Shen, Gaia; they are all expressions of our efforts to understand our place in the universe. For me, I tend to follow New Thought principles, not to be confused with New Age. Forget the crystals; you are connected right to the Divine.

Even knowing this, that we are connected through and with spirit, I still struggle with things that are all too human. Not recognizing the Divine in others is a big thing with me. Certain people and the way they act get under my skin and I react without thinking. Not good. And it’s got me into trouble at times.

But I know I can live up to potential and I like the teaching that individual dreams are important to the All. Here’s a great talk about pursuing your dreams.


It’s the Litter Things that Bug Me!
Thank your lucky stars, God in Heaven or own version of the Divine that I’m not in charge of everything. If I were there’d be some changes made. I can’t stand people who litter.

Someone who has such little consideration for others that they’d just throw their trash around is offensive to me. Even with the big interest in being ‘green’ right now, there still seems to be a lot of people who just don’t give a damn. When I walk Max, I often end up picking up the trash left behind by others. Today it was a paper cup from someone’s coffee. Really, how much effort does it take to carry it with you along the path until you hit the next trash container?

Want to help clean up the planet? Here’s what I’d do if I was in charge (and that’s not likely to happen, so relax, you’re safe).

The minimum fine for littering would instantly increase to $1,000 for the smallest infraction. Drop a coffee cup - $1,000 fine. Leave a candy bar wrapping in the grass - $1,000 fine. Toss a cigarette butt on the ground - $1,000 fine. You can be a slob in your house, but not where others have to tolerate your disgusting lack of manners.

The fine would be payable immediately, or as $500 in each of two successive months. Can’t afford it? Fine. Here’s your options:
1. Authorities will garnishee your wages until the fine is paid.
2. Fulfill 100 hours of supervised community work instead of the fine. This works out to a value of $10 per hour. Hopefully, you’ll spend it in a supervised crew cleaning up parks and roadsides.
3. Serve your time in jail and have a record.

If it’s kids doing the littering, parents are given two warnings. The third time, they are responsible for the kid’s fine, or allowing the kid to work 100 hours of community service.

Yeah, I know. It’s unrealistic and some would say too harsh. But you better believe there would be a decrease in littering and parents may take more responsibility for bringing their kids up right.

Photos: Just me and my shadow - gone over to the dark side! Max waits for me to snap a shot. Ice fishing . . . I don't the attraction. Creek behind the pool the west side - full of snow and a long way from spring!