“Hanoi Jane” in 25 Words or Less

Jane Fonda, spoiled American actress, Jet Setter and “peace activist”, betrayed her own country with impunity as a Vietnam-War-Era traitor, anarchist and Viet Cong spy.

Always on Sunday

Back in the 20th Century, and especially before 1970 when the American family as an American institution began its fateful journey toward extinction, Moms and Dads all over America loaded up the kids into the family car and went on a Sunday drive.

The Sunday drive was as much a part of American family life in that part of the last century as the Saturday shopping trip into town and a big Sunday dinner the day after that. When both parents of many American families had to go to work in the 1960s because a dragon called inflation began burning up their pocketbooks, the weekend was the only real time for family activities.

A drive into the countryside was the most popular kind of Sunday drive in the Pennsylvania Appalachians, even though most of us here already lived out in the country. But it was great to get out of the house and out of town and on the road, to nowhere in particular. That’s what the Sunday drive was all about. Having no destination other than arriving back home after spotting as many deer as you could and listening to Mom and Dad remark about the budding trees or the mountain laurel or the fall foliage. Some Sunday drives, however, took place in the early evening and with the kiddies already in their pajamas or otherwise dressed for bed. The purpose? To put the kids to sleep and carry them out of the car afterward and directly to bed. Then Mom and Dad would have a rare evening all to themselves.

I don’t think many people go on Sunday drives anymore. If they do, it’s probably to get to Walmart and back as fast as possible. Or to get to work. That’s sad, because some of my fondest memories of childhood are being in the back seat of our Chevy Bel Air and hearing Mom suddenly exclaim, “Oh, look at all the deer!”