Chapter 1

Hmmmn.... Come to think of it, try telling anything to a twelve year old kid.

Back in 1950, there were electric lights and cars and flush toilets and stuff–––all the cool kinds of things that make life a lot more comfortable than it used to be, when hiding out in caves and eating grubs and bark was the norm–––but this was stuff that people probably took for granted every day. After all, that kind of stuff had been around for quite a while ....at least for fifty years even before 1950, and fresh novelties inevitably become old hat, anyhow.

Ah, ....the 50's! Modern conveniences, new technologies, scientific breakthroughs! Oh, sure, ....it was still a long way from space shuttles and cellphones, but at least most folks in America didn't have to freeze their buns off going to the outhouse any more. Things like tellies (blowers, not tubes) and gas buggies (cars, you moron!) were shrinking the world for millions of folks ambitious enough to earn the money to buy them, ....and peripherally, even for the folks who didn't. The past 100 years or so have seen more change than any others in modern history, and it would seem that old novelties are continually replaced by new ones ....in any era.

Anyway, ....I heard a story once, about a kid in 1950 who lived in a big house on a hill in a small town in Maine. Seems one day this kid dropped a gum ball in the driveway at the big house. The next day the kid is playing and sees the gum ball exactly where he dropped it the day before, only now the gum ball is covered in an army of frenzied ants, all furiously working over the sweet, succulent prize. Our kid understandably becomes engrossed in the whole spectacle, and when he goes looking for the gum ball again the following day, it's gone. Wow! ....Just like magic to our wide-eyed youngster, the candy was nowhere to be seen! It's consumed....carried off, ....completely disappeared from the face of the earth....

....Ah, ....the wonder of it all!

Kids did shit like that in the 50's. Times were simpler back then. In 1950, kids ate gum balls, dropped them, and watched ants eat them up. This was entertainment. It was learning, ....about nature, ....and the lessons of life.

I mean, you never saw a kid back in those days walking around wearing a set of ergonomically correct headphones, with a shiny steel ball stuck through his tongue, an unnatural Prozac gleam in his eye.....and of course, there still was no such thing as a kid shovelling down barbecue pork rinds and doing a Dew with one hand, while catatonically punching buttons on the latest version of GAMEBOY with the other, either.

Fairly sedate pastimes like baseball and marbles were popular among young boys in the 50's, and girls had untold fun playing with doll houses and make believe sewing and cooking. Can you fathom that? ...And generally speaking, people were not immediately judged insane when they took long walks in the evening, or stared up at the stars in the sky for hours on end–––just for fun. Meanwhile, more novelties were coming all the time.

Right around the time our kid was losing his candy in the yard, there was more modern stuff on the way to entertain folks–––like the amazing new gizmo called television–––sort of a radio, but with a moving picture you could watch on a small screen. It was really no big deal, though. Back then, TV was still in the crude early stages of its development, merely an interesting new curiosity. Its potential political applications were still far on the horizon. Indeed, the first shows might only come on only for a few hours a day, if at all. Entire lives certainly did not revolve around the idiotbox, as is the case sadly far too often in our current era.

Anyway, back to our kid.... The big house the kid lived in towered a lofty three stories over its massive stone cellar, and the circular driveway had a big black Cadillac parked in it. Our kid was virtually dwarfed standing next to the colossal family sedan. Yeah, true, ....he was just a half-pint youngster, but they made huge frigging cars in the 50's.

The shiny black Caddy had glossy black tires with huge, wide whitewalls and fancy chrome wire wheels. The crisp white mansion standing behind it, with its contrasting black shutters and steep asphalt roof, was immensely impressive, in a small town sort of way, grandly resplendent in the traditionally quaint New England Victorian style.

The big house was one of those regal, almost castle like, over-the-top, turn-of-the-century jobs, ....you know, ....the ones complete with spires, turrets, dormers, cupolas and gables, and fancily carved crystal windows with plenty of stained glass trimmings, to boot. The big house boasted large and airy columned porches, too, which faced down the hill towards town, ....and people actually sat on them now and again, just to watch the world go by.

Can you imagine?

Across the street and down the hill, other fine houses stood, some perhaps not as commanding and stately, but all substantial and dignified, uniformly well and proudly maintained.

Sure, ....downtown and across the tracks there were some meaner domestic accommodations, ....but even the people who lived there generally no longer had to poop in an outhouse if they so chose.

So why did these folks live in the seedier streets while the kid with the Cadillac in the yard lived up on the hill? Yes, I know....Who cares?....but let's go there for just a minute. It's the old have's and have-not's discussion.

Some will automatically take great umbrage and immediately say that the kid's family was obviously rich and privileged, and that the people on the other side of the tracks were somehow "disadvantaged" or "oppressed" because they were apparently less wealthy in a material sense. Not a chance, Mister! In most every case, people are in their current positions by choice.

Actually, the kid's family was relatively better off than most of the folks living down in the flats, but I happen to know this was not due to any so called advantage from old money or enviously perceived class privilege. No. ....No old money or special privilege was involved in this case.

In fact, the kid's great-grandparents on both sides were bold and thrifty pioneers with a burning dream, settling in this wild, farthest north-easternmost corner of the American frontier in the nineteenth century to carve out a niche for themselves, with not much more than the shirts on their backs–––and a level of ambition largely inconceivable by today's mediocre standards.

Some of them had been here since before the war between the states, working their butts off to provide their families a comfortable existence, wilfully coaxing the reluctant wealth from the forests and fields of this rugged northern wilderness, a region considerably less than temperate for a good six months out of the year. Ah, but I digress, and this is another story worthy of its own compelling chapters.

Yeah, ....back to the 50's ....it was still only gum balls and not salsa verde nachos in those days. Yes, ....we've come a long way, baby, ....but have we really made progress? Seems that somewhere along the line this republic of ours has hit the point of diminishing returns.

Once upon a time, our forbears routinely butchered native Indians, chained and enslaved whole tribes of black African aborigines, and now and again wantonly beat women, children, and assorted animals, often to death. We have, however, progressed as a society. In enlightened modern America, lawsuits and imprisonment are now common penalties for what our grandparents nostalgically recalled as "courting," and "making time" with each other. You practically need lawyer just to get laid anymore, much less to strap the kids or drive away the poachers.

Candidly speaking your mind is no longer something you're free to do in this country, either, if you should carelessly happen to offend any race/gender/alternative-sexual orientation/non-Christian religion or atheistic based/social-democratic minority group. There's a whole new branch of law emerging to deal with fools who would hold unpopular opinions and dare vocalize them. These are known as "hate crimes" and they are predicated on the intent or thoughts of the accused–––literally thought crimes, not applicable to minorities, of course.

Slavery is bigger than ever, but no longer is it just a black institution. Actually, blacks now are largely used as fodder to fuel the vast government prison industry and the dubious "phony-war" economy nefariously created around it. The slaves are now, in fact, people of all colors, i.e., most everyone who works for a living and is burdened with supporting criminal government to the tune of a 60% tax rate....be it volunteered, cajoled, extorted, ....or simply seized.

Yes, somewhere along the line, things in the republic began to decline. Attempting to put one's finger on the exact moment we reached that point is probably something that can be accomplished with a fair degree of accuracy, but only by keen students of history who possess a lucid underlying understanding of natural rights and the concepts of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Are any of those students left?

It has been my experience that this type of critical historical analysis can be a nasty business, and people as a whole are anything but interested in what amounts to an embarrassing self-examination–––and once you do put your finger on it, make sure you wash your hands, will ya?