Monday, August 8, 2005

... gotta keep searchin' searchin' ...

Associated with our local superstore, Wegmans, is a home improvement center named Chase-Pitkin. We have always wondered - what exactly is a Pitkin, why should we chase one, and where do you find one to chase? I mean, we don't even know what a Pitkin looks like. Is it like a leprechaun? Are they somehow valuable? Or are they like woodchucks, frolicking among the tomatoes, ruining the crops? This is a very perplexing subject.

It was, when we were younger, a question one asked of a frisky date if one wanted to make time ("Ya wanna chase Pitkins?") The other favorite was "Ya wanna go watch the submarine races at Lake Ontario?" (A cousin of mine, when I was about 14 years old, actually asked me this question; being completely clueless at the time, I skeptically answered "There are no submarines at the lake!" Boy, did I miss out!)

It was also fun to send newcomers to our area out on the equivalent of a snipe hunt - we built up a whole mythology about Pitkins and then sent the luckless foil out to hunt them down. No one ever caught a Pitkin, though many tried.

Here's an apocryphal matchbook cover for your consideration:

 We hope your day is a satisfying one.

Peace.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'd almost forgotten about submarine races.

Anonymous said...

ahh, i spent many a lovely summer evening watching the submarines go by...
marti

Anonymous said...

It took a long while for me, during that sheltered childhood and teen years, to figure out just what a submarine race was....and now, after reading your post, I realized I'd forgotten all about them.  Gettin' old, I guess.