Well folks, I'm in a difficult position, so I’ll try to be delicate, but hide the china in case I don’t succeed. Anna Hamilton is a friend of mine and I will always listen to what she has to say. She has done many magnanimous things for our community, and her heart is in the right place. She gave her “We’ve got trouble, right here in River City” speech at rotary, I introduced her. Only this time the “trouble” is legalizing Marijuana, and the “river” is the South Fork of the Eel. It hits pretty close to home, as they say.
Being an old guy, I see a certain amount of humor in all of the squirming going on with the grower, and the business crowd. Forty years ago there was a different kind of squirming going on in the South Fork of the Eel. The loggers, the ranchers, were being overrun by a crowd of long-haired militant people bent on “taking back the land for the people”.
The locals had meetings about what to do about them. They all felt that we had to get rid of them, or surely there would be “hell to pay.” “Logging and ranching just cannot exist with dope growing, hippy dogs, and and the people don’t have any standards whatsoever.” “MY God, they even thought that cheating the welfare system, and living together in communes designed to “rip of the system” was okay”. Can you imagine that?
Out of the meetings, that were designed to try to head of the infiltrating scourge headed to our beautiful canyon... that was about to be defiled... if we didn’t do something about it. It was decided that a judge here in town was “a hippy lover”. We voted almost unanimously to have him recalled. The recall election was held, and he retained his position. The cops clandestinely rebelled, and as much as said; “that they would no longer do anything about hippies, drugs, welfare, or vehicle crime because, the Judge now had a mandate to protect the hippies”. We wasted our time doing all that squirming, the Back to the Landers are still here
The flood gates opened, and there was no stopping it. The loggers and ranchers tried spraying to get rid of the “hippie weed” that they grew here. Out of that futile attempt, the environmental movement took over the north coast. The “Back to the landers” claimed all kinds of rashes and birth defects caused by the spraying. Some claims were real, and some were bald face lies that worked just as well, because nobody questioned the thought that “chemicals had to be bad”.
After the “Back to the Landers” became established, and became ingrained, they started openly growing marijuana, to the point that they were walking all over the local people, I personally had a grower tell me, as a merchant, that I should “just plain kiss his ass, because if it weren’t for people like him, I would just plain dry up and blow away”. I always thought that was particularly unfair, because he, and people like him, drove the local people that we used to depend on out of here, and killed all of our local industry, making local merchants almost completely dependant on them. While I’m in this china shop, dancing on all the china, I want to make it clear that this person was one of the “Bad Apples” that you find in every barrel, and was miles away from the normal rather non-violent “Hippy Dude“. So, don’t holler at me, I’m Frank today not Ernest.
That was at a time that CAMP was just starting, and the growers were in a panic. They thought that if we all banded together we could stop CAMP. They made up a list of merchants that said: “These Local Merchants are for Civil Rights”. It was well understood that if you didn’t put your name on that list, that you would be boycotted, and you would get to, personally, feel the effect of the marijuana dollar. Well CAMP is still here. We did all that squirming for nothing.
About thirty years ago, I introduced a man by the mane of Chris Thiel(Sp?), from the Humboldt Sheriff’s Office, to The Garberville Rotary Club. He said that we needed to band together to stop the growing in southern Humboldt, or there would “be Hell to pay” he suggested letter writing campaigns to every politician on our lists. He claimed that, slowly and surely, the grower was driving out industry, and supplanting it with “a product that would one day either be legalized, or eradicated” and either way if we didn’t get rid of it now, we would rue the day.
What should we do about legalization? Having been there before, I understand that we might as well all join hands, back up to the ocean, and try to stem the tide. We’ve done it before, it never works. So here we are.
Rue…
I wasn't going to say anything more about the back to landers but, as a few generations pass all will seem normal in Humboldt, Trinity and Mendocino. That does not change the fact that a culture was changed here and it was, I felt, shoved down our throats. Now I feel the same way about our Federal Government. When the grandchildren of today's kids grow up they won't know how great this country used to be. The kids are being indoctrinated into a social bent and that might not be bad if you live in a city. But it doesn't cut it with me.
ReplyDeleteOregon
Oregon
ReplyDeleteThe U.S. Goverment reminds me of a fire in "poor-Town". Nobody is fighting the fire, they are ALL busy looting the tills.
A friend of mine, who has never been wrong, says that health-care, legalization,and everything else is a moot point. Unless we get jobs and wealth back into America, we are ALL going down.
Rue...
Ernie, the way I understand it is that is what is designed for us.
ReplyDeleteOregon
I'll try not to be too off-thread here Ernie...
ReplyDeleteI was a Rotarian from 1981 to 1991 (when I was no longer able to work). I was one of the original founders of the Sunrise Rotary Club in 29 Palms - and transferred my membership to Palm Desert when I worked there.
The reason I point this out is your post reminds me of someone who I invited to be a guest speaker at one of our rotary breakfast meetings.
His name was Rick and he was a local park ranger (Joshua Tree National Park). He talked about finding illegal marijuana grows and warned us to avoid certain areas because of the chance of confrontation.
There was no river nearby, but he sure was talking about trouble in our area.
I still have my Rotary pins. I haven't joined any organization since.
"The loggers, the ranchers, were being overrun by a crowd of long-haired militant people bent on “taking back the land for the people”. "
ReplyDeleteBULLSHIT ERNIE. I WAS here too and you really have to stretch it to tell it your way. It's so insulting and I'm not done reading even.
But I have finished now and I'm wondering what the hell it has to with Anna...see your thread title. I'm sure she's as insulted as I am right now. And why write that crap at all if not to piss us off and throw a bone to your relatives reading here. You're retelling that old judge story. It was just one thing that happened here, along with that idiot guy you brought to rotary. What a dumb idea, form a rotary possee to go get those bad guys.
Why do you keep telling your same pot stories, haven't we done that thread to death along with how rotten it was when we all came here. Even tho you love and appreciate us now..... hard to believe that tho.
You're a trouble maker my friend.
I'm sure glad I don't have a blog site.
ReplyDeleteOregon
Could you clarify something?
ReplyDeleteYou say, "he, and people like him, drove the local people that we used to depend on out of here, and killed all of our local industry..."
What local SoHum industry did they drive out? Wasn't the timber industry pretty much done with out in the hills? I always figured the hippies bought land everyone else thought was useless. If not for weed, how do you suppose people would be making a living here?
Bunny,
ReplyDeleteAs far as Anna is concerned, the first paragraph, the one that pissed you off, pretty much explains it all. And, I hope to hell she is not pissed off, because I happen to appreciate, very deeply, some of the things that she has done for our community.
Either you weren't here in 1968-1970 or you have your rose colored glasses on. The people here now are much, much different than the early folks. You skip over the fact that no matter how hard I try to approach “The Story” you insist on inserting you self as “one of the insulted”. That is not the case. In fact I find it mildly insulting that you keep wanting to through yourself into the fray. You are one of the people that has come here that has been an asset to the community, along with others, like Anna.
There was no “Rotary Posse”, that was the point. We saw the futility and did nothing!
Do you want me to name names, and talk about the people that organized “welfare communes”. For the purpose of buying cheap logging land. Or the people that were encouraged to move up here, bring their kids, get on welfare and help pay for the logging land? You really aren’t trying to tell me that these “new people” didn’t come here, are you? Do you want to talk about the real estate people that carpet-bagged the old logging roads, and land, made a big mess and let the loggers take the blame?
Or do you want to talk about the new people that “Cleaned the logging mess out of the creeks” and ruined out spawning beds?
Bunny, there are good people here NOW, but we went through some rough times. The only time that what I have to say is accepted, is when I say, “oh that’s what it’s called now. I’ll try to remember that”.
So, where do you stand on legalization? Or have you been here long enough to see the futility of trying to change things also?
"Could you clarify something?"
ReplyDeleteThe South fork of the Eel has always been an attractive, and desirable, place to live. I could give you a long, and wide, list of things that might have happened here. But, some people would use it to tear apart, and who really knows what we might have become.
The fact is that we are totally dependent on Marijuana now. It really doesn’t make any difference what we do, we would just be washed away in the tide of what ever happens. Nothing that the South Fork people have ever done has had any statewide political influence. But, don’t let me dash your hopes, it’s always worth trying.
Very interesting take on things Ernie, and I think you are correct. Garberville ,Redway will become ghost towns if pot is made legal. I think a lot of people will move and the rest better come up with new professions.
ReplyDeleteWhat happened to old gold/silver mining towns once the mines ran dry?? People left. Maybe we should go the route of Nevada....legalize gambling AND prostitution!!
Ernie,
ReplyDeleteThe culture was changed. But not necessarily for the worst.
You are so right that holding back change is pretty futile but...just maybe we can ride the wave instead of letting it smother us.
I think Anna is on the right track. I'm going to be there Tuesday. If we don't succeed at least I'll have fun trying.
I pretty much quit trying to do anything about Marijuana clear back in the mid-seventies, when the writing was on the wall. I decided that I could do nothing about it. I figured that we would be at this point some day, with legalization and all, but like I say, it was like trying to stop the tide.
ReplyDeleteI don't use marijuana, I don't grow marijuana. I'm not a cop, and it may be my problem, but I choose to ignore it. If I see it, I treat it as a pretty fern and go on.
I don't mind the people that use it, they all say that they use it for medicinal purposes, and I don't question that. Some people say that I sold out. So be it. My other options were similar to Hari-Kari. And, my family needed me. Some say by accepting the marijuana dollar, that I'm complicit in the drug trade. I disagree, there is not one person in Garberville that doesn't have a drug dollar in their pocket.
bad for the economy? If you saw the blackhawk helicopters picking up trash for the past couple days you might question the price of cleanup when the delivery trucks cost $5000+ an hour to operate. Not to mention the 8+ blm trucks I saw driving down the road. Maybe our government is getting too big when the Air national guard is picking up trash.
ReplyDeleteI disagree, there is not one person in Garberville that doesn't have a drug dollar in their pocket.
ReplyDeleteactually there are several people who don't have drug dollars in their pockets. mainly because they have no dollars in their pockets. I have no problems with businesses which accept cash from customers with suspicious cash flow, but those who dole out credit expecting a good harvest may be in for some rough times as things change
I'm not sure why Garberville and Redway would become "ghost towns" after legalization. The growers have markets, and they can continue to sell to the same people.
ReplyDeleteI know that there is this question of the price. Legalization will certainly affect it, but it doesn't have to completely devastate it either.
Maybe I'm wrong, but it seems to me that the people who understand how the gears turn in the marketplace could keep the area afloat with legitimate businesses.
Ernie... If you want to see the future of the "marijuana Industry" go up to Sun Valley Flower Farm in Arcata. That is the future. A controlled environment, secure, pest free and hugely profitable. All the local "botique marijuana" talk will come to nothing as industry takes over. Hippies did not create the local pot industry, demand did. Vast amounts of highly bred pot is being produced all over this country and there is still a huge demand. That demand created the industry and when it is legalized, big ag will quickly move to take advantage. In the Marijuana business, Humboldt County is little more than an aging brand, like Nehi. Pretty much gone but not forgotten. No popular pot variety has originated here for ten or fifteen years.
ReplyDeletes for the rest of your screed, that was forty years go Ernie. Get over it. Go to a South Fork High graduation. You will be surprised. No more rednecks and hippies. Everyone looks pretty much the same. Weird..
The next influx in SoHum will be the burgeoning survivalist crowd. Gardens, guns and paranoia. You're going to love them. No peace love bull there. They're going to out redneck everyone and you'll pray for the good old days. .
Nehi soda, or nehi to a grasshopper?
ReplyDeleteI think it is time that we newcomers apologized to our local business people for all those walks to the bank that we made them do. I had no idea of all the suffering involved.
Tiny.. Thanks for that one... Hilarious!
ReplyDelete"In the Marijuana business, Humboldt County is little more than an aging brand, like Nehi."
ReplyDeleteAlthough Anna's attempt is to thwart that sentiment, that is a very strong possiblity. But, I guess you can't fault the Anna Hamiton's, the Jacqueline Debet's, the Kathy Moxons and those who are trying to perpetuate the "brand" as an effort to hold onto something as the tide goes back out and another tide comes in.
I'll repeat myself here once again,
My backfence neighbor is past president of the Humboldt Historical Society. She stated that Humboldt and the north counties are subject to a tribal movement at all times. First the Indians arrived and were here for eons, then with the rush of gold miners, followed by ranchers, fishing families and then the full blown timber industry which with the Douglas fir mills in the 1950's opened the floodgates that brought the Okie/Arkie/Redneck contigent to the county...(My mother's family). Then in the 1960's Ken Kesey just had to take that trip on Further and stop here along the way. Here came yet another tribal movement. Interestingly, it is now time for that tribe to play out.
Perhaps Mother Nature is having the last laugh. Maybe the red ants replaced the black ants and the ant lions are coming.
Humboldt is a pretty good brand, whether it's dairy products, marijuana or the people themselves who brand where they live as the Humboldt Nation. Where will that play out in the long run? I don't know, but the Modoc brand and the Tehema brand and the Plumas brands aren't doing that well, either.
I may sound defeatist, but after being here since 1882, I'm glad my own daughter chose moved out of here. in the meantime, I still have to make a living in the Humboldt Nation and yes, the marijuana dollars, like the fishing, timber and mining dollars are lining my pockets.
At least Anna is trying to do something.
Well, either you're closing your eyes
ReplyDeleteTo a situation you do not wish to acknowledge Or you are not aware of the caliber of disaster indicated
by the presence of a marijuana industry in your community.
Why sure I like a glass of micro brew beer before dinner, certainly mighty proud to say it, I'm always mighty proud to say it. I consider that the hours I spend with a glass in my hand are golden, help you cultivate horse sense and the hammer theory and to keep a cool head and a keen mind. Ever try one of those steamed beers that come in a green bottle? It takes judgment, brains, and maturity to sip that fine premium brew in front of a good tv show about the evils of LSD. But I say that any boob kin take and shove a seed into a bucket. And they call that sloth. The first big step on the road to the depths of deg-ra-Day--
I say, first, medicinal herb from a glass pipe, then kush from a big fat joint! An' the next thing ya know, your son is growin' for money in a camo vest. And list'nin to some big time newcomer from down south. Hearin' him tell about dispensaries with the most potent Afgani strains ... not a wholesome bottle of fine wine, no! but a drug that they suck in like cola up a straw! Like to see some stuck-up hip-hopper drivin' a big wheeled pickup to his patch? Make your blood boil? well, I should say. Friends, lemme tell you what I mean. Ya got one, two, three, four, five, six greenhouses on a forty. And the size of the patches that mark the diff'rence between a gentlemen and a newcomer, with a capital "N,"
and that rhymes with "M" and that stands for Marijuana! And all week long your SoHum youth'll be chillin' and fritterin' away, I say your young men'll be frittern away their noontime, suppertime, choretime too!
Get the clone in the bucket, never mind gittin' dandelions pulled, or the screen door patched or the beefsteak pounded. Never mind pumpin' any water 'til your parents are caught with the cistern empty on a Saturday night and that's trouble,
Oh, yes we got lots and lots a' trouble. I'm thinkin' of the kids in the tie-dyed shirts, young ones, peekin' in the Mateel Hall window after school, look, folks! Trouble with a capital "T" and that rhymes with "P" and that stands for pot!
Now, I know all you folks are the right kinda parents. I'm gonna be perfectly frank now and not earnest.
Would ya like to know what kinda conversation goes on while they're loafin' around at the Mateel Hall?
They're tryin' out purple urkl, tryin' out blue mist, rollin' up fat joints like reefer feends! And braggin' all about how they're gonna cover up a tell-tale b.o. with Patchuli. One fine night, they leave the Mateel hall, headin' for the dance party at Suzy's! Anarchist men and Pagan women! Listenin' to hiphop n reggae, shameless music that'll grab your son and your daughter with the arms of a jungle animal instink! Mass-staria! Friends, the idle brain is the devil's playground!
People: we gotta figger out a way
ReplyDeleteto keep the young ones moral after they get outa school! Mothers heed the warning before it's too late! Watch for the tell-tale sign of corruption! The moment your son leaves the house, does he switch around his baseball cap so the visor's at the back? Is there a hash stain on his index finger? A stash bag hidden in the corn crib? Is he starting to memorize jokes from Suzy Blah Blah's blog commentary? Are certain words creeping into his conversation? Words like 'sick'?"
And 'what up'?" Well, if so my friends, Ya got trouble, Right here in River city! With a capital "T"
And that rhymes with "P" And that stands for legal pot.
Remember Tim Leary, the Manson Family, and the Furry Freak Brothers!
Oh, we've got trouble. We're in terrible, terrible trouble.
That plant with the palmate leaves is a devil's tool!
Oh yes we got trouble, trouble, trouble! With a "T"! Gotta rhyme it with "P"!
And that stands for Pot!!!
Susie, you forgot Capital G for Greed.
ReplyDelete-and that rhymes with weed? No i think it rhymes better with the American Dream.
ReplyDelete"I think it is time that we newcomers apologized to our local business people for all those walks to the bank that we made them do. I had no idea of all the suffering involved."
ReplyDelete"Hippies did not create the local pot industry, demand did."
I think that my point was, not who should be greatful to whom for whatever service is provided... We are all in this canyon together. I gave a rather detailed explaination of how we all ended up where we are today, and we will all suffer the consequences of legalization together.
Wow! Suzy...that has been the best blog comment in the past 10 years. I mean it!
ReplyDeleteNow, could you do a version with the lyrics to the tune of The Wells Fargo Wagon? Ha!
Suzy Blah Blah just won that round.
Kym approached the legalization story much more gently than I did. She gave me one of those I wish I'd said it that way moments.
ReplyDeleteThe inevitability of legalizing marijuana and the change that that implies to the local economy has inspired a new class of people around here called the Back to Ann Landers movement.
ReplyDelete"Class is the sure-footedness that comes with having proved you can meet
life's challenges."
Ann Landers
Just think when pot is legalized how grateful all those people will be that need pot for medicinal reasons. All the sick folks will have access to it when Garberville has their farmers market every weekend. Maybe some of the other stores might be able to sell pot too since it sounds like a panacea. Another plus, the folks will have a better chance of becoming smarter as they ease their pain.
ReplyDeleteOregon
Suzie~ gotta hand it to you, you really know how to tell it.
ReplyDelete"People: we gotta figger out a way
to keep the young ones moral after they get outa school! Mothers heed the warning before it's too late!"
Thank you, for the sake of our children and future generations.
Cousin
no prob Couzin, glad to be obliged. byw, i have some trombones for sale if you're interested.
ReplyDeletesigh
ReplyDeleteHighsterical! ... you talking about our blog in some cryptosubtlespeak again? Just what are sayin' here?!
ReplyDelete..."Double bell euphoniums and big bassoons
Each bassoon having his big fat say"...
The way I see it, nobody knows what they are talking about really. It is all speculation. And almost everbody seems afraid of any change. Hey, it might be a great thing for this community to be able to stop hiding and wispering. Secrecy has divided this community for too long over a plant that may even end up being a cure for cancer!
ReplyDelete“ ....almost everybody seems afraid of any change.”
ReplyDeleteChange instills the “fear of the unknown”, which seems to be the most profound of all the human instincts. I suffer greatly from it myself...
The fear of the Unknown is the beginning of wisdom, and they who live by it grow in understanding... Prov 9:10
ReplyDelete"The single most important decision any of us will ever make is whether or not to believe the universe is friendly." Albert Einstein
Suzy 3:08 pm! Lol!!
ReplyDeleteNo thanks, I tried to play one in high school. Just didn't have the lips for it, ha.
Cousin
ultizidWell Ernie... That ws fun.
ReplyDeleteThanks Ben
ReplyDeleteI have a whole bunch of stories about the people that moved up pre-1970, after Johnson's welfare reform. MOST of them were bad people in every way. Those were the ones that were driven off, for the most part. But, about 50% of them were highly educated intelligent, but still Hip. They developed the more powerful strains of marijuana, and their kids were Rotary students of the month. Most of them still live here, and most of them are pretty low key. And.... Big contributors to who-we-are-now
But, after this post, I'm probably going to tuck all my “newcomer' stories away forever. There is no longer any place for them here, because they offend some people. Just like the tales of the early settlers, people get hung up on the brutality. And, they don't look at the deeper reasons for what happened. As many times as I've tried, I spend more time in “damage control” than history telling. The main thing that bothers me, is we all have monsters in our families, and like you say. “Our history is so recent that you can reach back and touch it.” For some reason the people here with “no history” all see their families as the “Good Guys”. As much as they say that they don't hold the people here today responsible for their ancestors “misdeeds”... they do. They want to remove the old family names from the places where they settled. Not fair!
But, I discovered that there people that are real fuzzy in their thinking out there... and I'm only one of them.
The rest of my posts will be like “Oh look, a pretty arrowhead”.
"the year was 1769 almost 300 years after columbus, spain had ruled mexico for 200 years when a small party of spainairds settled in san diego. for the native californians, the arrival of the spanish meant disruption, virtual enslavement, diseases and death and by 1845 their population declined from 310,000 to 150,000.
ReplyDeletethe years between 1845 and 1855 brought a flood of anglos who penentrated even the most remote areas in search of gold, timber, and land. in a mere ten years the indian population plummeted from 150,000 to 50,000; the result of disease, starvation, and outright murder. native peoples were displaced from their villages, salmon creeks were choked with logging and mining debris. fences and property rights of white settlers kept native people away from hunting, fishing, and gathering in accustomed places. legitimized by newspapers extolling the "manifest destiny' of the white race, volunteer armies, often a ragtag group of unemployed miners would present expense vouchers to the state and federal government for actions against "hostile indians" in 1851 and 1852, the state of california authorized over one million dollars for such excursions which was nothing less than subsidized murder."
this is from "the way we lived" by malcom margolin recommended to me by ben.
"the kashaya, pomo, lived along the coast of sonoma county. their first contact was with the russians at fort ross who acted indifferent to then. the sonoma coast offered few harbors, no gold, and poor agriculture and was sparsely populated. by 1870, a white rancher married a kashawa woman and permitted two villages to exist on his property. one of them was called 'aboloneville'. led by annie jarvis and later essie parrish, the kashaya once the smallest of the 7 pomo divisions, has the most surviving members at 150 with language and traditions intact. living on the fringes of white society, they often foud themselves starving in what had once been a land of plenty."
when i read this account and then listen to ernie complain about the newcomers it almost sounds as if he is complaining about the same things the indians complained about losing when the whites came.
almost as if things seem to manifest like circles or "what goes around, comes around'
i'm not trying to judge anyone. just relating your local history.
what is interesting about this book is that it ends talking about the "white indians" which seem to have taken over up there.
'for the white poets who would be indian.'
just once, just long enough
to snap up the words
fishhooked from our tongues;
you think of us now
when you kneel on the earth,
when you turn holy
in a temporary tourism
of our souls.
with words
you paint your faces,
chew your doeskin, touch breast
and tree as if
sharing a mother were
all it takes, could bring
instant and primal knowledge.
you think of us only when
your voice wants for roots,
when you have sat back on
your heels and become
primitive.
you finish your poems
and go back.
Spyrck
ReplyDeleteYou have enough “history” to understand. You are right about the conquering people. They never see themselves as conquerors, but the bringers of “light”. The Spaniards felt that the gold that they took from Mexico was a small price for the natives to pay for the civilization that they brought them. To the Spaniards, the natives would have suffered in Hell forever, had they not brought them religion. They gave them an “eternal soul” for the mere price of their gold. Such a small price to pay.
The Franciscans that came up the coast felt the same way. They were bringing the natives “Salvation”. The natives payed dearly for it. The Christians felt that suffering was part of this life and that a person NEEDED to suffer to be pure enough to enter heaven.
The Forty-Niners saw the Indian people as the Governments problem, and the government, by-God, better deal with them, or they would. The whites went about building a new state that they could be proud of. There would be rules to play by, and laws established, and the Indians needed to learn their place if they wanted to survive. Never mind that the whites were taking away the Indian way of life that they used to depend on. But, the whites didn't see that, or care, there was NO consideration for the Indians way of life. The white figured that they could adapt or die. Just look what a wonderful state we have now!
Ekovox is right about the changing tribes, they change in waves. It looks like we are about to be hit with the wave of legalization. It is yet to tell whether we will be cleansed by it... or drowned.
I'm not the one to say how our culture in Garberville changed with the last wave of people, but the people that are here now assure me that we are a lot better off. They also assure me that if they hadn't changed Garberville that somebody else would have. The conquering people are always right. History is written by the winners. I'm not bitter, I would describe the feeling as more of a feeling of loss. Like waking up on morning, and realizing that you will never see an old friend again.
Interestingly, after the whites finally decided to “take care” of the Indian people. They were put in schools, told to forget their history, told to forget the names that they called everything. Forget how they dressed, and told that they would no longer need the tools that they made. That from now on, they would have a new and better way of life. If they accidentally called a plant or animal by their native names they were ridiculed and punished. I feel just like I'm in school sometimes. I learn something new every day.
ReplyDeleteWell said Ernie.
ReplyDeleteOregon
Ernie, as someone that was there too, I'd have to say what you wrote is one way to look at what happened. You know I listened to President Obama talk about passing the health care bill this morning too. You know, he actually believes all that crap, so I guess it's understandable how you can believe what you keep writing too. What you failed to tell everyone is how you profited all those years from pot. When it comes to smoke and mirrors you and Obama have an awful lot in common.
ReplyDeleteWe all lead lives of quiet desperation, don't we? Some more desperate and some more quiet.
ReplyDeleteJoe Blow, Obama does not believe his spiel but hopes we do. He knows exactly what he is doing and it ain't health care.
ReplyDeleteOregon
i read this account and then listen to ernie complain about the newcomers it almost sounds as if he is complaining about the same things the indians complained about losing when the whites came.
ReplyDeleteGood comparison Spy. It makes a lot of sense. And it goes to show that we all have skeletons in the closet. But not Suzy, i admit freely that my aunt on my dad's side wore patchouli to cover up her b.o...
For Suzy sees clearly that Ernie has good cause to complain because most people simply will not bother to take a look in the closet and hold their nose long enough to plumb the depths of the deeper reasons for what happened. You see, for people like Ernie, when the so called 'back to the landers' arrived, it looked much like it did to the indians when the whites arrived. Not only did they use patchouli, they had dogs that chased sheep!
Yep, and it is well known among some that it is a little known fact that if you don't heed the lessons of history that it will repeat itself! This is proven by noting that the hippies, in a manner of speaking, killed off 95% of the rednecks and took over the homeland. The few oldtimer ranchers and loggers that were left after this drug induced brutal and genocidal conquering of soHum were forced to live in poverty, many starving to death on the fringes of the new drug money society. The surviving redneck children were forced into schools with hippie kids and ridiculed if they didn't use the new language. They had to forget the old names for things and learn new words like 'karma' and to contemplate the 'sound of one hand clapping' or be ridiculed and ostracized. Adults were in the same boat, they were told that if they didn't learn to smoke LSD and clap with one hand, they'd be banished from the Mateel Hall for all eternity.
But because of my study of the history of this area i have acquired a deep understanding due to my having walked in the oldtimer's moccasins. And so it totally brings a tear to Suzy's eye every time i run my finger over the smooth surface of the polished burl on my mantle and think of the passing of the redneck era.
And so i've come to believe that the only thing to bring true peace to this area and heal the old wounds is the legalization of marijuana and the new Humbpsterdam world view. Let's put a hooker on every corner and a hashpipe in every hand in order to bring us all together in harmony and love, even the indians.
Ernie Branscomb said...
ReplyDelete"We all lead lives of quiet desperation, don't we? Some more desperate and some more quiet."
Speaking for yourself again, I see.
Oregon, that's true and it is also true of Ernie.
By the way, Oregon, your first post is how I felt and feel too. It was also the way the old folk felt when my family moved into that part of the country. My problem with Ernie is he contributed to that change and not always in a positive way either. He'd like to BS everone into thinking differently though.
Joe Blow
ReplyDeleteSometimes the truth hurts. Is that why your attacking Ernie? Are you jealous that he is a prosperous businessman? He didn't contribute, he's smart: successful business equals supply and demand.