The Foulness

The foulness that proceeds us,
the stench, the smoke, the half life
the static noise of mistuned radios and burnt out street lights
blown out streets and broken water mains.

lost shoes line the paths
broken wheels and blown out tires
bent and burnt cars with missing hoods and cracked blocks
and children playing with discarded green cans and skinny dogs

The foulness that proceeds us,
the wailing mothers and lost brothers
uncles and aunts now without nephews or nieces
no walls or roofs for their dirt floor gated homes

their minds without freedom left in them
without bread, meal or ovens to bake.
just to be left alone to make the new shoes and robes
and to pound tools from their new found scrap metal.

The foulness that proceeds us,
the despair and unleashed sorrow
and cautious walk of digital camo soldiers without cause or blame
only yearning to get home to a land more understood.

As the wind blown sand settles into drifts
across arched doorways and blocked exit roads
we hear distant sounds of flying war iron always overhead
we hear the sounds of lost hope, life and future
the sound of the sad foulness that proceeds us.

OC

(This is rewind week, just blowing off the stench, John) 

 

Royal Fly-Boys

Captain! Sometimes the most important person is you!
You!….. you dizzled drapes dropper
You! …. you measly mound of moose melt
Get up and fight the sons of bitches!
Hit ’em in the face!
Kick ’em in the balls!
Fuck’em up!

Now wait a minute……..
Think about this
The last skull you cracked still isn’t healed.
And you lost your Secret Society of Greenwich Ring.
Oh! Those were the days!
There was beer, blood and Brylcreem
smeared all over everything.
Royal Fly-boys!…. the Bastards!

Wake Up!!

Whew! That reoccurring WWI dream again!
What time is it?
6 O’clock already!

I HATE Daylight Saving Time!!!

OC

(DST has that affect on some people. This is OC’s  twice annually modified rant about it. Brylcreem??  John   )

Orie Penny – Page 3

“There ain’t no sin and there ain’t no virtue, there’s just stuff people do.” Casy the Preacher – Grapes of Wrath.

As a guy travels around the country, working on different projects, working with different crews and spending a little time with different kinds of men with many experiences and backgrounds, you learn not to ask any questions of their past. They may be and probably are there because of a past that they are trying to forget or get away from. But eventually a man will voluntarily begin to talk, without being asked.

Over the most eye squinting whiskey that I’ve ever tasted, Orie started talking. It was a very short story. The words seemed to spill from his mouth, slowly draining from his skull. Words that had been festering in his head for years and pushing to get out. It started abruptly with ” San Quintin is a terrible place to be. Men have been in there for years and are just forgotten, no family, no friends, no nothin’! They are in there because they had nothin’ and when and if they leave they’ll have nothin’, nothin’ but their old underwear and socks under a new cheap suit. I spent five years there pounding stones for rock roads. And I left with nothin. I know.”

He went on to say, ” Tin Cup Tim was a friendly sort, sold pencils and pens out of a tin cup. Wouldn’t have hurt anybody. We were on a high speed freight, barreling through Iowa. The train came to a fast screeching stop. High speed Coast to Coasters don’t do that unless there’s trouble. Stuck my head out of the box and I saw silver passenger cars side railed ahead. It was the California Zephyr with her engines down. Our freighter was pickin’ her up for the pull West of Ottumwa. Tin Cup and I stayed put where we were in the boxcar. They broke the train at the rear of our car, side railed and hooked on to the Zephyr. First thing we know we are part of a passenger setup. Unspoken rule was for the Bo’s to stay off the Zephyrs and there we were stuck there.”

“Tin Cup got real worried about this, the Railroad Bulls on the passenger lines were mean sons of bitches and didn’t put up with Bo’s on their trains. The freights were no trouble, hell we were part of the crews, but the Zephyrs got your ass beat and then thrown into the next jail! A few miles out of Osceola and Tin Cup decides to bail out before the stop. But the train wasn’t slowing enough for him to jump. While his head was stickin out the door the Bull on the Zephyr must have caught a glimpse of him and before we knew it the Bull had swung up and around and was on his way into the car. Hell we were still going 70 or 80 mile an hour. Well Tin Cup started a scuffle with the Bull, they both lost their balance and fell out the door. The Bull was alright cuz I saw him land and get up but Tin Cup fell under the train. Must of been drug the two mile to the depot. His body parts were strung the whole way. It was right before school time in the morning. An arm and a foot were dropped right in front of some school kids at a crossing.”

Orie went on to say that he’d stepped off the train unnoticed at the Osceola depot and started walking down along side of Highway 69 and hitched a ride at a big intersection in town with a car going west on Highway 34. He hitched all the way to Omaha.

“I hopped a freight out of Omaha, figured I’d take her all the way out to Emeryville, California.”

Well the railroad took the Osceola incident very serious. They couldn’t have body parts falling off their trains in front of school kids. And so the railroad detectives hunted down Orie and caught up with him in California. He didn’t say how they identified him, probably the railroad Bull. He knew it would be the Bull’s word against his about what happened and that would be used against him.They got him convicted of murder of Tin Cup. San Quintin was taking a few Federal prisoners at the time and he ended up there. I think any crimes happening on the railroads were handled as federal offenses and you could end up anywhere. “Glad they didn’t pick me up in Iowa!” he said as he pulled back his old felt hat and downed another shot, “I could have ended up in Ft. Madison.”

Orie spent most of the time in prison forgotten like so many others. Doing hard labor while working on roads. But he said one day he received a letter from a woman that he had known before the war. They had planned to marry when he returned from overseas. They corresponded all of the time that he had served in Europe. When he returned and went to see her, he found that she had been married for two years and had one child and was pregnant with another. She had mentioned nothing about the marriage in any of her letters and said she couldn’t bring herself to tell him while he was at war. I’m sure this is what first fueled his wanderlust.

She had heard from a friend about Orie being in prison and just couldn’t believe he had done anything to deserve it. Her father was a well known attorney on the East coast. She ask her father to do something to help Orie. Her father somehow got Orie’s conviction reduced to manslaughter and he was released from prison with time served.

In 1954 Orie Penny was given a new lease on life.

All for the Smartphone…

There’s so much to talk about from the last few days! What can I say, do I need to repeat it all? I’d just as soon leave my mouth shut and thought a fool as open my mouth and remove all doubt. There may be other powerful men out there that probably should take that advice. But I’ve been told that I’m a powerful AND handsome man, so I can suggest that.

This is an era of self promotion. The implications are huge, HUGE.
Resumes will be written, diplomas and degrees proclaimed and accomplishments will be shamelessly exaggerated. You know, the typical corporate resume. The ones you read , shortly ponder and then realize they are as amplified and meaningless as the new slick suit and the red tie they are wearing.  Right to file 13. You guys…, I know you are only carrying your lunch in that briefcase.

I’m very soon getting out of this rat race, great phrase “rat race”, it’s really “Rat’s Ass”. We go to work 7:30 to 6:00, everyday (oh, you say E, you mean 9:00 to 5:00, heh, heh, 9 to 5, I’ll bet you liked “Madmen” , too. It hasn’t been an 8 hour day since, I’m thinking…., 1970-77. Yes, 1970’s, the last century, I think I remember that.

Of course, the computer age has really helped corporate America. Now your boss, subordinates (sorry, Reports), dispatchers, just about anybody in the company, can email, call and get a hold of you evenings, on Saturday and Sunday AND Holidays. We are very “handy” now. Just a message away. Wonderful, HUGE. Hey! , they can do that, they’re paying for the SmartPhone!

They say that I’m going to miss this when I retire. Ah.. just a minute, you mean, like the boil I once had on my butt. My ass never felt so good. I’ll miss work about in the same way.

I can do this. I only have a few more months in my sentence. Hell, I can do 2 or 3 months standing on my head. Just like the last Performance Review  I had to write about myself, I felt just like I was in the corner , standing on my head. I powered through it!

89 days 12 and a half hours to go. Now that will be HUGE!

E.

(Powerful AND handsome man ?? Where in the hell did that come from? OC)

 

 

 

 

 

Changin’

What’s that I’m hearin’
I hear people cheerin’
while old folks are die’in
young kids are starvin’
while women are hurtin’
they act so for certain
the dogs are collectin’
the good to be changin’
to crap they are sayin’
get rid of these fuckas
they think that we’re suckas
these financial magicians
are takin’ positions
Takin’ over and destroyin’
to hell with protectin’
the dogs are all barkin’
all good is forgotten
Think only of wallets
it must all be for profits
What ever they’re doin’
We must get rid of this ruin.

E.

Boomer’s Rage

(I wrote and posted this a year ago, I felt it coming, now we are going to see it coming!)

As I go stumping through the day
full filling dreams of other’s say
I count the months and the day
That I’ll be free on my own highway

I’m not young I have reached the age
that I can crawl from this cage
Take some time to disengage
Be free of toil and daily wage

Write a word, build a craft
Drink my whiskey, have a laugh
Get up late then take a nap
Put on my head a liberal’s hat

Scream the words, that I’ve suppressed
Of oil and air and climate’s mess
Opinions kept, so close to chest
Like a caged bird sings, I will confess

Protest and rage, make a change
March the streets, rearrange
For I sold out for profit’s gains
All along we were all shortchanged

It’s not too late, songs will be sung
Painted signs and banners hung
On granite steps, speeches flung
Our 60’s youth not wasted, on the 60’s young.

E.

 

Vanished on Friday the 13th

Because I’m lazy, I was going to re-post our Bi-annual standard Friday the 13th story. You know the one,  the WW2 ship yards story of building the HMS Friday. Bla bla bla , bla bla bla. How it was lost at sea on its first shake down cruise. Bla bla bla , bla bla bla. And shortly after the loss, no one could find any record, either military or ship builder records or engineering blue prints of her ever having been built or find anyone that remembers working on its construction. Ya da ya da ya da … well……., I went to our archives to retrieve  John’s last post of the story from a couple of years ago, so I could easily re-post it and the post and all drafts of the story were gone, lost, bleato, vanished.

I’m a little spooked. I don’t think I will ever tell that Friday the 13th disappearing story again.

I know, you are laughing, but until a Friday the 13th event happens to you, you can laugh all you want. But I’m spooked!!

John says he doesn’t remember ever posting it!!!

Vanished, bam!!

OC

(Heh, OC is a little confused. It was posted last in Sept. 2013. But I’m not telling him. Be careful out there!.  John)

2017, Come Together

I have been writing for most of my adult life. Adult being , 30 or over. I was of the Timothy Leary era, “Don’t trust anyone over 30. I only mention Leary because one of the best ass-kicking songs John Lennon ever wrote was “Come together”, that music was derived from of all things, a campaign song Leary asked Lennon to write when Leary made a run for , I believe, governor. Unfortunately the Feds threw Timothy in jail and the governorship and the unused newly written John Lennon campaign song were left to rot where if you wanted sunshine, it had to be piped to ya. But Lennon had great hope for that music and did not want it to die, so he went ahead and wrote the lyrics, that he said was just “gobbledygook“, to “Come Together”. After the Beatles broke up, Come Together, was the only Beatles group song that John would perform on stage, It must have meant a lot to him.

While my children were growing up in the 80’s, teenagers, I required Come Together as compulsory learning in our household before allowed entrance into high school. They had to know every verse, and in the proper order. Well, I have to say, I’ve always graded on the curve. Isn’t that what Old Flattop would do?

Such is the life of John

“https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSM5MpKSnqE”

Chapter 1, Page 1

 

All about us may be lost
and time will continue,
but it will live only in the minds of those who remain. E

The old question, “If a tree falls in the forest and there is no one there to hear it, does it make a noise?”

When I was a ten-year old child fishing with my father one beautiful spring morning and he presented me with that question, I seriously pondered what he had asked. It was possibly the first philosophical question I was ever confronted with.  Perhaps it was cruel to ask a young impressionable boy such a thing. It may have hinged on the edge of child abuse. The most difficult questions he had ever asked me before were “where’s your shoes”, “what’s that on your face”, “have you washed your hands”, “did you put gum in your sister’s hair” ??

And that day I was asked a question that I had to think about, I could not lie about and how ever I answered it, he was willing to discuss it with me.

” Jesus Christ!, what the fuck?” I thought. (I had learned from my father to quietly swear to myself years earlier).

OC

 

(Con’t on the next post)

The Myth Continues

It is 7:35 AM, I have been up for about 35 minutes. I have been reminded three times, so far, to set my clocks back before I go to bed tonight. There is so much wrong with that statement. First why am I watching TV this soon after waking up, (I like chatter in the background when I write). Second, why do I have to be reminded to set the clocks back, it’s the 21st century, all of my clocks, computers, microwaves and coffee pots can do it automatically. Three, and most importantly, why in the hell are we screwing with our time twice a year anyway? It is obviously very important or why would the manufacturers build it into their firmware? Or is it?

I bring this up twice a year also, everyone in my family is as tired of hearing me rant on this subject as I am tired of all in this country that are playing with my time and schedule. It is uuuuunn-necessary !..

As far as this saving energy, that is a myth in the 21st century. Daylight Saving Time, goes back to when we were using candles, kerosene lamps and burning firewood and coal. Perhaps, if you are living a frontier pioneer life without electricity, or natural gas or other modern heating and lighting devices, DST could possibly save you a candle or log or two. But chances are if you are living that life, you are working simply sun up to sun down anyway. And I doubt if you are in love with the modern conveniences with automatic clocks anyway.

Daylight Saving Time is the most old fashion event or brainwash that truly plagues us each fall and spring season. Yes, it is a myth that plagues hundreds of millions of people more than most realize. Here’s a few facts:

Two internal systems interact to regulate when we sleep and when we are awake. These systems are the sleep/wake homeostat, which monitors our need for sleep based on how long we have been awake; and the circadian system, which regulates the cycling of numerous functions, including when we sleep and wake, every 24 hours. These two systems usually work with each other. But if they slide out of sync by an hour, for a few days or sleep cycles, we are affected both mentally and physically because of the disruption of needed sleep. Everyone has different tolerances for this imbalance. Obviously, I am affected more than most. It takes weeks for me to re-sync.

The human body bio-rhythm is adversely affected with changes of sleep cycles for a few weeks after time changes.
Due to that traffic accidents rise after time changes
Accidents at work increase
Work production decreases
And some simply feel ill for a few weeks

A serious reconsideration needs to take place on the subject of DST. My solution is to simply move the clocks forward one hour in the U.S. or the entire North America and leave it there. It makes sense that if we need 1 hour more of daylight in the summer we certainly need the same one hour of daylight in the winter.

In other words, don’t screw with the time. Leave it the hell alone and help everyone get a good night’s sleep.

E.