This strip brings back memories. We used to live in the most southwesterly apartments in the continental US on what was then First Street in Imperial Beach California. We watched mountain sunrises over Mt Miguel and the Tijuana River Wildlife Estuary from our patio and Pacific Ocean sunsets from our little seawall. No man made intrusions (wires, poles, buildings, etc.) interfering with the view.
Those small blue boxes sound familiar. I remember our uncle giving them to us when we were small. Smaller than a paperback, and only about an inch thick (at most), but they contained so much! We loved them! Thanks for the trip down memory lane.
Maybe Mary Lou associates the name “Garden of Eatin’” with being very young, frightened, unwed, and pregnant (with Meg) for some reason?