On childhood trips to Daytona Beach, Bob and I could hardly wait to stop at a restaurant called The Green Frog. Not particularly for the food, but for the toys and trinkets you could get there.
Traveling in other directions, say to Chattanooga to see our Harris relatives, we were just as excited to stop at Stuckey's--wtih their signs and jingles, "Just wait til you get to Stuckey's; Stuckey's is not very far...."
Backseat kids must have been the target audience for these food stops. Stuffed and plastic animals, bows and arrows, and all manner of cute things created a festive air of expectations and it was worth the wait.
The super gas stations of today are Stuckey's on Steroids. You can buy anything you want: kitchenwares, sweat shirts and jerseys, deli foods, toys, you name it. Roadside stations big and small feature a wall or two of rhinestone pocket books, fringy blouses, crosses, flags, and inspirational quotes on distressed wooden plaques.
Inevitably two signs are always in on the wall:
Believe
Live Love Laugh
Believe what? I always wonder. Believe in.... the Easter Bunny, Santa Clause, the Tooth Fairy?
America the Beautiful? Jesus? Yourself? It could be anything you like, just believe something. the soggy seems to say.
"Live Love Laugh" is printed, painted, stitched, and stenciled on wood, paper and fabric millions of times a year.
The book I'm reading now is entitled Live Love Laugh--written by Kristin Kobes Du Mez a scholar and historian of religious movements in American for the past two centuries. It's subtitled: The Secret History of White Christian Women and the World They Made.
Six years ago, I read her excellent book, Jesus and John Wayne--that traced the shift from gentle lesus in the Gospels to big strong tough John Wayne Jesus. A big segment of the Christian communities of the time yearned for a more "badass" Jesus. An Alpha Jesus. Jesus with big muscles and a gun.
In this her most recent book, she traces the long and bumpy road to the changes in religious sentiments that have led to the current political climate.
it's a fascinating read!
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