Seussian 70's....

You ever have forgotten something that you thought would never think you could forget? Not an Alzheimer's moment, but just gone. It never existed and then WHAM!!! (No George Michael isn't in this one..) It's back! It happened to me last night before going to sleep, I was thinking of when I lived in Florida when I was 8 years old and we had these neighbors next door that had this huge black cat. She was ginormous but sweet. Me and my friend would play with it all the time, I even rode it for about 5 seconds. It was that big. Years later, and I'm talking to my Pop about those days and I mention the cat, and he says "What cat? You mean the panther?" "The PANTHER???!!!!" Are telling me you let play with AND RIDE a friggin' panther?!!!!" I said almost having a full conniption. "You rode the panther?!" my Pop laughed and laughed. See in the 70's my Pop explained that wild animals as pets was a much looser thing in those days. Our neighbors had a de-clawed panther as their pet. She was really sweet, but I guess she had to be since she have little to defend herself with. Yea...the 70's...back when I could sit on my Pop's lap and drive the car as he just sat there and drank a can of beer and just used his foot for the accelerator and brake. Nowadays, the cops would have pulled him over, put him in jail and maybe even taken child custody away from him. You know what I say? However funked-up the 70's were, things weren't so controlling and litigious as they are now. Lighten up people! Life is short and I can say I rode a panther for 5 seconds!