Letter - Throwing foxes into the hen house?

Like-minded extreme right wing lemming. I.
11/07/2009 5:17 PM

dylan - After 4 years of Obama you'll probably wish you had hung on to your neighbors' "interesting" and "creative" shoes.

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Patricia W.
11/07/2009 4:43 PM

I don't think anyone is mocking or laughing at their beloved and respected elders. Not for one minute. I so appreciated the fact that my father NEVER forgot what they went through raising six kids through the depression. My parents would indeed be appalled at the excess today. I remember making Easter baskets out of those strawberry baskets. I still have my mother's tree tinsel. We may well have to go back to saving everything and living off the land.

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GP K.
11/07/2009 1:57 PM

It looks as if we see garbage where they saw all kinds of possibilities. It is sad that we have lost that ability to see beyond the surface.

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GP K.
11/07/2009 12:56 PM

A thought to ponder while you are thinking of your parents and grandparents as hoarders. I would suspect that if any of them could walk through their children's homes today and look at what they treasure they would be appalled. Mock that they stored sugar and flour or saved endless string and I wonder if their offspring can will be able to eat knick knacks and wall hangings. Laugh about their tin foil and plastic tubs but if you lose your jobs tomorrow you will be wondering why you spent all of your money on a bunch of useless things that only have worth to impress other people. Which by the way aren't impressed. Those people didn't have the luxury to live in our throw away society. Because they saved and scrimpted we all had full bellies and good educations. When I cleaned out my mother's house I was confronted by the same things and I would be proud to think that I had one ounce as much sense of responsibility and sense not to waste anything. It is all a matter of what you treasure.

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Patty W.
11/07/2009 12:10 PM

Wow. My parents were farmers; but the things they couldn't raise, flour, sugar and coffee, were bartered for with the neighbors or folks in town. Flash forward to my dad's death in 1988. My sister and I were cleaning out 902. Upstairs in a cupboard we found extra flour, sugar and coffee marked with date of purchase and rotated with the newer purchases to the back. The fear of running out never left them. We could add to your list 500 Ball jars for canning, both pint and quart, some still filled and dated 1969 (pushed back and forgotten down in the root cellar), at least 1,000 Cool Whip containers with lids, several pressure cookers (one would not do?) and don't forget the Christmas Tree Tinsel, painstakingly smoothed out and put back in the original box to be used every Christmas for eternity. I try not to be that person. I'm not a hoarder by any means; but if someone I loved, remotely liked or even know casually once touched an item that is now in my possession, my kids are going to have to throw it out. I cannot. But I'm going to work on it.

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C A P.
Alexandria, MN     11/07/2009 12:01 PM

I sure do enjoy your posts robert. LOL

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robert r.
Oakton, VA     11/07/2009 10:06 AM

Patty W. Oh, you were crystal clear in your invite, but since I am in Washington and not-under oath-being deposed, I have learned to sidestep the issue(s) and offer up any answer that comes to mind. Similar to a cloud of chlorine gas, many of us live under the cloud of Depression-Think. We cannot escape it. Most of it good and plenty but occassionally it makes one want to emulate Edvard Munch's "The Scream". My bride and I have been in the never ending task of cleaning out her--depression child-- mother's home. I figured that "IF" upon her demise,we were to melt down all the aides to independent living (oxymoron) i.e. two walkers, two over the comode chairs, a cane, a small steel wheel chair, and add THAT to the --by actual count 181 aluminum pie tins, plus the reams of carefully pressed out aluminum foil dating back to the immediate post WWII era AND add the 1934 Maytag wringer style washing machine (too good to throw away)... WE WOULD HAVE ENOUGH raw material to truck to the crucible down at Pittsburgh's US Steel to be able to make an F-22 fighter jet. And I didn't include the iconic 7' aluminum Christmas tree with the rotating 4 lights, that really IS too good to throw out. Go rake leaves. And yes, Mung bean sprouts are the best for fried rice.

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GP K.
11/07/2009 9:49 AM

Consider Katrina and the toxic materials that ended up in the water supply along with the backed up sewage everywhere. That is a problem that can't be rectified by adding chlorine. When Fargo flooded this spring people that didn't evacuate were on islands of higher ground and couldn't get to the stores for food even if the stores were open. There was a problem with the sewers backing up into the houses. People installed some type of a valve in the sewer line so they could shut it off and not have it backing up in their homes. There are cities that don't allow wood burning. The biggest problem in winter would be no heat especially in apartment buildings where people cannot have alternative heat sources or run generators. All in all it would be the same in Alexandria but on a smaller scale. It would seem that Alexandria is in good shape compared to other places a person could live.

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robert r.
Oakton, VA     11/07/2009 9:27 AM

On topic: Big city cholrine stockpiles...and you. Should anyone care, in 1984 in was a student-fellow at the National War College in DC. Classmates and I were tasked with identifying potential civil disasters, waiting to happen. Someone came up with the problem-risk of having 5 to 9 ninety ton rail cars filled with liquified chlorine parked next to an interstate. That was bad, we determined, Worse was the realization that those cars, 2 or 3 at a time traveled on AMTRAC through the heart of Washington, 2 blocks from the Cannon & Rayburn office buildings and 3 blocks from the capital building itself. As if that wasn't enough a potential threat, those cars then creaked past Bolling AFB which presently houses the Defense Intelligence Agency, the Navy Research Facility and down to it's siding @ Blue Plains treatment plant ajacent I-295...and a hand held rocket launch away from grinding disaster, made worse by a southernly wind, albeit rare. End of class exericise. Enter 9/II and the-light bulb over the head really on- caused Greenpeace to present the WMD senario. It conservatively offered 10,000 dead, 25,000 walking wounded and up to 100,000 hospitalizations. Shockingly the DC government acted rapidly by initially rerouting the trains at least through downtown, staggering the delivery times and best of all - - - changing the agent to destroy the waterborne bacteria. All accomplished within two weeks of the smoke clearing at the pentagon. Clever, these Americans. I do not know what they are using. That highly diluted bottle of Clorex or Hylex (Minnesota talk) is your friend.

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Patty W.
11/07/2009 8:30 AM

Oh my. I'm at a loss for words. My parents, prior to moving to town, farmed everything BUT pigs. We moved to town when I was three in '52 and to South Quincy when I was ten. As I said, my husband as well as I were "raised by people who survived the depression and lived off the land"..and feel so blessed to have their knowledge which THEY gained by experience. I WAS interested in hearing robert r's thoughts on current day emergencies in large cities. I guess I didn't make myself clear. I'm sorry. I hope you have a nice day.

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