In the plaza where I work, Ben & Jerry's did a promotion. "Peace In The Plaza" or something like that. They gave away free ice cream bars and other goodies.
Employees of companies that are located in the plaza received complimentary "tickets" to procure a free ice cream bar. It was hot out today, so I took them up on their offer.
A man dressed like Austin Powers was accosting young girls in the line. A hippie girl handed me one of those "slap-on" wrist bracelets. I said "Right on." She looked at me, fully in character, and said, "Yes, brother-- right on."
I smirked.
The old Chinese lady next to me traded me her orange stress ball for my pink one. Then, right before we cashed in our ice cream tickets, we each received another gift: a multi-colored slinky.
Normally, this cheap exploitation of the Sixties would make me fume self-righteously. It would cause me to rail against phoniness and crass commercialism. Hell, the Jimi Hendrix impersonator with the Fender Strat was right-handed, for fuck's sake!
But...
It was about free ice cream. And peace. It was about peace.
In fact, the last gift I received was a rainbow-shaded peace symbol that can be worn around the neck.
A DJ spun hits from the Sixties, and they were NOT protest songs. It was stuff like "Sugar Sugar" by The Archies, or Fab Four-era Beatles tunes.
I guess I'm getting old, or happier, or a bit of both, because I let it all slide, ate my ice cream, and formed my fingers into a V.
PEACE... and have a nice weekend!
1 comment:
Yeah, the ice cream was pretty bomb.
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