I think of lots of blog topics when I'm not in front of the computer but when I open it up, I go dry and can't remember a thing. Now I have a blog folder into which I stick cryptic notes and hope they mean something to me later. So here are some thoughts for memory lane, if you're old enough to join me. I wrote down some brand names of popular female products not from my time but from my mother's and older cousins,

Mother used Pond's cold cream. I think her cologne was named "Mimsy" (as in borogoves? I doubt it.) I used to buy her a bottle for her birthday and she was effusively thankful about it. We had a maid in the days before the war. Once in a while she took me with her on her day off (Thursday afternoon). I suppose my mother had an engagement. Anyway, Jean's "perfume" was called Ben Hur, and it came in a precious little cobalt blue bottle that I wish I had now because I collect blue bottles. There was another fragrance in a blue bottle called "Midnight in Paris". A little later, in my teen-time, but I didn't wear nail polish and still don't, there was an exotic brand called Chen Yu and it came in dark colours: green, black and blue, way ahead of its time. I see young women on the subway wearing those colours but now they have stars and squiggles and all sorts of motifs on top of the colours.

I can still remember the products that sponsored the Eddie Cantor show on radio: "Ipana for the smile of beauty and Sal Hepatica for the smile of health." Oh, and I can sing the jingle for Bryl Cream: "Bryl Cream, a little dab'll do ya/ Bryl Cream, you'll look so debonair. Bryl Cream, the gals will pursue ya/Simply dab a little in your hair."

It was years before I understood the pun in the Fisk tire ad. A little kid in his nightshirt, holding a candle, is being told "Time to re-tire." And then there was the Bon Ami slogan.I think Bon Ami was some kind of household cleaner for glass or something fragile, because the line went "hasn't scratched yet," with the picture of a cute little baby chick.

Well! This has drawn up a little heap of memories that probably don't mean anything to you youngsters. But if you're hockey fans I bet you can sing the Hockey Night Song even though it's long since off the air. Me, I remember the song the Happy Gang used to sing on noon-time radio. Keep smiling.

Do you remember the movie, Just Like Heaven? Reese Witherspoon is in a coma, between life and death, and she visits Mark Rufalo who has rented her apartment while her family waits to see if she lives or dies. Well, a spoiler, but it's an old movie: she lives, but she doesn't remember him from her coma visions. At the end, when he comes to find her and touches her, she remembers all the nice things about him and they live happily ever after.

I bought the DVD so I saw the extra bits. Her memories include scenes where things were not so good. They weren't deleted; the audience saw them but they were deleted from her memory when she touched him. The extra bits reminded us of what she had chosen to forget. I think sometimes we do that, I know I do, - but I remember the bad things, sometimes, when I'm on a downward spiral. Then it gets worse, hard to get off the roll and look up. I remind myself of that, when I get low lower lowest. Good things and bad things happen to everyone. Not that we should put on rose-coloured glasses and be like Candide, thinking everything's lovely in the best of all possible worlds, but we do have some choice. We can choose to remember the good things, look on the bright side, as the saying goes, and look UP. After all (I can't stand this) tomorrow is another day.