On July 5th, 2008 I’m the guest on The Puddle People Hour on BlogTalkRadio. The two hosts are Beth Marino and Pam Sargant. That show will be archived and available 24/7. We pre-recorded the show tonight and of course talked quite a bit about my first book, THE ENCHANTED SELF, A Positive Therapy and my newest book, The Truth (I’m a girl, I’m smart and I know everything). It was fascinating for me to go between the two books-THE ENCHANTED SELF being a rather dense book, full of case studies, positive psychology techniques, historical perspectives on women, my own journey as a woman in our society, etc. and The Truth which is a girl’s diary written in a simple, easy manner. However, what struck me as the most fun as we chatted was our discussion about “Mystery Rides”. The girl in The Truth goes on mystery rides with her family on Sunday afternoons and loves them. I was sharing her adventures when both Mary and Pam joined in saying that they also, had gone on mystery rides as children.
One family had eight kids and they would all pile into the station wagon and drive out into the countryside. So would the other, slightly smaller family. And Dad was the driver in both cases and he didn’t know where he was going. But it was so much fun, discovering small towns and local fairs and at the end stopping for icecream. The girl in The Truth also stopped for icecream at the end of the family’s mystery rides.
Now I’m wondering. Are mystery rides universal if you are over 45? Let me know. I went on them also, but sometimes I think they weren’t supposed to be a mystery. I think sometimes my father might have gotten lost! I don’t remember icecream at the end but I do remember often ending up at Savin Rock in New Haven, late in the afternoon on Sunday after riding around. What a treat! That was an amusement park along the beach. Usually I got to ride the ‘flying horses’ as we called them, my mom and Aunt Lil caught to sit on a bench and people watch and we all got to eat in the car at Jimmy’s hot dog stand, where we bought delicious grilled hotdogs (not boiled, like at home) and wonderful fenchfries that were crinkled and served in paper cones. Ah, such sweet memories of the old days!
