Wednesday, May 11, 2022

Hard Times Ahead


 My recent visit to Maybell, and talking with my aunts (88 and 84), brought back memories of growing much up easier than my parents. Still, my sister and I weren’t born with a silver spoon in our mouths.

A mobile home similar to the one in the picture was our home for awhile.

 My father was hired by the Denver and Rio Grande railroad as a laborer. At times we lived in boxcars converted to living quarters. Some were somewhat plush while others were stark. He eventually became a section foreman. On the side he shod horses.

 The D&RG kept cutting back on maintenance and consolidated sections. The senior would “bump” the junior and the domino effect went down the line. In ten years my father was never more than one step above the bottom of the seniority list. When he got “bumped” in Steamboat Springs, he found other employment and my parents bought a small 35 acre place outside Steamboat using a VA loan.

 With both parents working “town jobs” most of the ranch work was done by me. My sister helped, but was nine years my junior. After I left after graduating high school, more of the burden fell on my sister.

 The point, if there is one, we as a species have lasted because of the tenacity of the species. When I look at the world my grandchildren, and ultimately great grandchildren will live in, I am in despair. I fear extreme hard times will be their lot. They will survive, but why must they endure such conditions? Fuck Joe Biden and all the elites sucking the lifeblood out of this country!

 Those urban “homeless” camps springing up everywhere aren’t filled with just dopers.

8 comments:

Greybeard said...

We have seen "The Peter Principle" at work in our politics.
We've also seen the truth of Hitler's "Big Lie" theory.
The beatings will cease when morale improves.

Ami said...

The homeless issue has been happening for at least 10 years here, and no, they're not just addicts and scumbags. Families. People who have had one bad thing after another.

I don't have answers. Just a lot of questions.

If you ask me, the real scumbags are the politicians. 99% of them. BOTH sides.

Well Seasoned Fool said...

GB
Can't disagree.

Ami
Politicians, Yuk. A current county commissioner and now candidate for US Representative I once supervised in the car business. I called her, "Sister Kink". She was incapable of doing a simple car deal; always had to put a kink in it somewhere. She has the ethics of a starving piranha.

Old NFO said...

Concur with GB… sigh…

Well Seasoned Fool said...

Old NFO
This internet may thwart the power jackals. That is why they are trying so hard to impose censorship (for our own good, of course).

Anonymous said...

One of Mom’s sisters and her husband lived in an old mobile home like that down in Phoenix during the 50s and early 60s. My folks and brother drove from western KS to see them in dads favorite car, a late model Kaiser sedan. It was summer of 1956. I went also but my mother was carrying me at the time. Aunt and uncle and their one daughter in that little trailer. Then they had family come visit! But every story I heard about that trip was they had fun together. Later they “upgraded” to larger MHs and into the mtn regions of AZ. Another aunt lived in a MHP in Denver with dads old friend and my namesake in the same era. When my two youngest where born (twins) we lived in a MHP in western KS. Crowded when company came sure. But you work with watchagot. :- )

All that to say your narrative brought back some memories of a couple of my aunts and reminds me that our grand children like ourselves will continue to work with watchagot. That’s how the future always plays out except for the silver spoons and politicians.

I concur with everyone who doesn’t see the USA now as what was envisioned to be when our dads and uncles fought in WWs and all the others wars that trail through our history. Those old boys would be made ill seeing what a farce leader #46 and the congress has brought into being. Dad died in 1970. I was a boy still at home. I said then that the Lord took him to be in a better place than what this world was becoming. But I wish he could have stayed around to see what his prodigy has created, and to listen to him rant with me about the BS going on now.

Keep it Well Seasoned
Franknbean

Well Seasoned Fool said...

Good comment.

LSP said...

Good call on all fronts.

Hard times are surely ahead and yes, homeless encampments everywhere in the cities.

BUt let's not forget we have a way of rising to the occasion. Maybe that means nooses down the Mall, maybe not.