Page 375, Foxfire Book 1, interviewing Hillard Green.
People nowadays don’t live right. It’s just how long they’re goin’ live, and how soon they’re goin’ die. Just what they can get in their hands now. Always wantin’. They just reach an’take ever’thing they can seems like. Ain’t got no mercy on no one else. If I didn’t depend on Him, I wouldn’t have anybody t’depend on. You can’t depend on a neighbor these days. Ever’body is for themselves. Ever’body’s looking out for money. They’re not lookin’ out for th’ humans. We’ve got t’look out for ourselves. If we don’t look out for ourselves, what are we goin’t’do?
We had freedom back then. We was free. We went out anywhere and did kinda as we pleased. But now we can’t do it. Money is th’ root of all evil, and it rules th’ world right now. Ever’thing goin’ for money. They’ll do anything. They’ll kill, rob, steal, and ever’thing else all over th’ world now. You hear tell of it anywhere y’go now. It’s fast time now, y’know. Ever’thing’s flyin’. These automobiles runnin’ to and from ever’ corner of th’ world. Well, ain’t they goin’ from ever’ corner? You can’t hardly travel fer’em. You can’t walk along th’ highways’r’nothin’. You ain’t got no freedom’r’nothin’. You’ve got t’be in under some kind of control. If we didn’t have no highway patrolmen, what would it be? Most folks sort’a dread’em, but some of ’em get so far along they don’t dread’em. They just go along ’til they get killed. Look like they want t’kill themselves. And while they’re killin’ themselves, they want t’kill somebody else.
I think it's very obnoxious that they tax dividend payments in non retirement investment accounts that you are reinvesting and never see any cash from each year. Supposedly it's "real" money but it doesn't put food on the table. You can't buy a can of soup with stock paper at Walmart. Sure having more shares of your investment vehicle means you will have a better chance at gains in the future but that sure don't help you now.
I’ve never been much of an embracer of modernity. Maybe because it’s too real, too contemporary but also because I like to have distance from all the problems of today. Consumerism of yore seems cute and boutique, crude and basic compared to the clever marketing that is far more manipulative then even the most clever tactics of yesteryear.
I really enjoy the simple melodies of yesteryear. Maybe because I grew up in a household of folkies and one-time homesteaders who where I grew up a steady diet of Peter, Paul and Mary and of course the oldies. In later years I got into country music, and there is nothing like the rustic old music of yesteryear. There is something authentic and raw about the simple world of music before modern electronics and recording techniques.
I am also fascinated by the history of the recent past – the electromechanical era – the one of the superhighway and ideas and ways of the 1960s and 1970s. Just before my time – I was born in 1983 – but I know today’s technology but I always wonder how we got here today. It’s interesting to see old photos of fifty or sixty years ago, as in many ways you can trace them to where we are now, even if much it lost to time and changes.
Moreover, it’s not always obvious that the changes of today are better, and that old tools and ways of doing things aren’t still valid and good for doing things today. Some really old computer programs and basic technologies, still work reliable and do their job well even if modern technology has gotten all the spotlight. AI might be good for some purposes, but you sure can do a lot of good things quickly with vim and awk.
Of course all this fascination in the way things once where, and the old music has people thinking I must be a lot older then I am. How many people in their 40s listen to things like Phil Ochs, Fairport Convention or Ian and Sylvia? Or even Creedence Clearwater Revival and our favorite one-eyed Dick Curless? I am not saying we should go back to way things once were, but I do enjoy some of those old songs, and using and learning about old tools from an older generation, even if it’s not my own generation.
Big Red failed his inspection due to frame rot. While it’s certainly possible that the frame can be fixed, at this point I am not sure it’s worth putting several thousands bucks into a truck to have a bunch of steel welded onto a rotted frame. They left the sticker on the truck so I could drive it home and get repairs, though it expires at the end of the year.
I asked Mom and Dad if I could keep the truck at their homestead until the end of winter. I want to pull the CB radio, kayak racks, solar panel, relays and other camping equipment from the truck before I scrap it. I want to see if one of my friends who has an Silverado 1500 would like the cap. I think it’s probably okay to use through the end of the month, as while the rot is bad, especially after they poked at it and marked it, it’s not going to get that much worse over the next two weeks. I need gas, and I will fill the tank one last time, as I want to get out camping after Christmas. But then on December 31st, I’ll park it, take off the plates, return the plates to DMV and cancel my insurance.
So maybe my paranoia about something being wrong wasn’t totally wrong last summer. Things really were wallowing around in the backend, because the whole frame was flexing as it bumped up and down on the road. I just knew something was wrong and I did see the cancer growing last summer, and tried to wash it – but I know most Silverados end their life this way. Next truck, I’ll have to get oil coated after fall and get it pressured washed up on a lift in the spring. I did regularly crawl under the truck and wash it with the pressure wash at the car wash, but alas 14 winters and summers was just too much for it.
I am planning to go car-free for the winter. I don’t regularly drive much except to Walmart and out to my parents house, and that very occasional trip to winter camp, ski, or hike – though not this year as my skis broke two years ago. My parents said they could give me a ride out there to visit. Busing it sucks with only the local bus but I’ll have my mountain bike to ride when weather allows. It will allow me to save money, and it’s silly to get a brand new vehicle during salt season. It’s healthier and better for environment not to drive. And spring will arrive before you know it.
Unlike many people, I am not facing a car payment as I can buy a new vehicle with cash I’ve had earmarked for this purpose for a number of years. I am still not sure what I am going to buy – new or used? I am kind of still infatuated with those big trucks, specifically a red F-250 4×4 regular cab long bed. But the gas milage is bad but so much room for camping and gear. And it would be such a bitch to park in those pissy little urban parking lots. Then the other option in my mind is a Toyota Tacoma 4×4 with a 6 foot bed. Maybe that’s the only tsensible option with reliability and good milage, and easy parking. But I like the big trucks, and don’t really love extended cabs, even if they are popular with people with families and bros to load in it. Chances are it would be much more easier to get used gasser F-250 then a used Tacoma with the long-bed. But the later is certainly cheaper new. And I kind of would like to have cruise control for on the highway, which I don’t know if Big Fords have on their basic models. I am not at all convinced on reliability of current generation of Chevy gasser engines.
Of course, if the internet were to believed, if you don’t want to be impoverished for the rest of your life, you should get drive a 20-year old Honda Civic. They are reliable, they’re cheap and frugal. And buy a plastic house in suburbs which you must use your frugal Honda Civic to commute to. Houses are good investments, even if you’re expected to rip out $10,000 a year of them to keep them up to date and buy all kinds of equipment and get in tons of contractors to maintain them. But the plastic houses in suburbs with 100-square foot television and 3-yard dumpsters in front are their own kind of impoverishment.
Time lasts forever until it’s over. And then you just have memories of good times that were.
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