Poster Child

My husband and I were remembering our respective childhoods, when I asked him what posters he had on his wall as a teenager. Every teenager has posters on their wall … and probably have since the first cave teens existed. Didn’t you have posters tacked to the walls, and taped to the doors? Sure you did.

My spousal unit told me about the Beatles poster he had on his wall, and the unfinished self-portrait that his brother had drawn … not my husband’s self … his brother drew his own picture, and my husband thought it was cool. So, he put it on his wall.

Trust me, I wouldn’t have had a picture of my sister on my wall when I was 16. He sounded pretty tame to me. I had expected that he had pictures of guitars … and motorcycles … and Rock and Roll bands. You know, “bad boy” stuff.

I didn’t have pictures of Rock and Roll bands, either. I didn’t even have pinups of the teen heartthrobs of those days. I’m so dorky that I thought Bobby Goldsboro was adorable. And, I had a crush on Andy Williams! What in Thunder was wrong with me?

Anyway, what I had on my bedroom walls was either extremely silly or it was poetic stuff, because I was all into being “artsy fartsy.” I fancied myself a “bohemian.” I didn’t fancy myself a “hippie.” At least, not out loud because my daddy would have gone ballistic.

I did get away with having a marvelous, psychedelic picture of Scrooge McDuck. He was dressed in an “Uncle Sam” costume with his top hat in a parody of those posters that were so popular during the VietNam War. Are you old enough to remember? Uncle Sam was pointing, and the poster read, “I want YOU to join the Army!”

Scrooge McDuck was pointing, but the poster read, “Quack!”

I dunno, for some reason I thought that was funny. It loses something in the translation, but I wish I still had that doggone thing.

I also thought, for some odd reason, that the logo for Frito Lay was funny. I enjoyed the humor of W. C. Fields, and W. C. Frito just struck my fancy. When Daddy brought home a poster of him, I confiscated it for my walls. Looking back on that now, I guess I still think he is funny, but neither he nor Scrooge McDuck fit with the “theme” I was trying to achieve.

Maybe I was trying to lighten the mood, because the posters that had words were what we called, “Heavy, man.”

I had a poster of a lone figure walking on the seashore, with a quote from Henry David Thoreau that read:

If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.

Trust me, I have always heard a “different drummer.”

But, the poster that I remember most held the words that follow:

Desiderata

Go placidly amid the noise and haste,
and remember what peace there may be in silence.
As far as possible, without surrender, be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others,
even to the dull and ignorant; they too have their story.

Avoid loud and aggressive persons, they are vexations to the spirit.
If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain and bitter,
for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.
Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.

Keep interested in your own career, however humble;
it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.
Exercise caution in your business affairs,
for the world is full of trickery.
But let this not blind you to what virtue there is;
many persons strive for high ideals,
and everywhere life is full of heroism.

Be yourself. Especially do not feign affection.
Neither be cynical about love;
for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment
it is as perennial as the grass.
Take kindly the counsel of the years,
gracefully surrendering the things of youth.
Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune.
But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings.
Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.

Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself.
You are a child of the universe no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here. And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

Therefore be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be.
And whatever your labors and aspirations,
in the noisy confusion of life, keep peace with your soul.
With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams,
it is still a beautiful world.
Be cheerful. Strive to be happy.

Max Ehrman

(c) Max Ehrman 1926

I kept all those posters for many years, but sometime in my late twenties I threw them all away. For some reason, I was embarrassed about who I had been as a youth. As I enter that home stretch, I’m not so mortified by myself anymore. My choices of wall art were much more palatable to me than some of the things my children tacked to the walls.

Though I don’t have any posters on my walls these days, I think I wouldn’t mind so much having the Thoreau poster or the copy of Desiderata on my walls. I probably wouldn’t mind W. C. Frito or Scrooge McDuck, either.

Y’all remember that for me, and you can help plaster the walls of the nursing home when I get there, OK? What posters do you want me to find for you?

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Tagged as: Artsy Fartsy Stuff, humor, Memories