Who Let the Dogs out?

This picture, one that I took in Panama City a few years back, reminds me of the last description of the end of time for Earth as H.G. Wells' The Time Machine. Where the time traveler is sitting in the Time machine at the end of time at the edge of the ocean as the sun dims and is burning out. The traveler can hear the scratching of the crabs on the sled rails of the Time Machine having gone a far in the future as he dare.
Having root memories in time with no air conditioning, Television or money for summer footwear, it seem surreal and a paradox to have moved this far in just a short time in sixty years. From a time when a handshake was a serious event and my word was fact to whoever I gave it to. I could sleep with my doors open, drink from another person's well with only a nod or a tip of the hat. Corn cob pipes were what we used to test a variety of dried plants that would give us the same dizzy feeling as spinning in a rope swing twisted as far as we could reach. Fishing with cane poles with worms we fiddled up and ending up skipping flat stones when they weren't biting. We proudly wore out flour sack shirts to church on Sunday and giggle as older men would doze during the sermon, and snicker as we watched how many choir members could read there hymnals upside down. We weren't afraid of horses slept with dogs and would play for hours with the scary looking Ant Lion under the front porch. Always proud of our hand me downs and sad when we out grew a favorite pair of overalls. Our closets would smell of moth balls and shoe stretchers were a new invention that only grown-ups could use. We washed our hands before we ate, said a blessing and removed our hats when we came indoors. It didn't take but one trip behind the wood shed to learn not to back talk your elders. Having to pick the hickory switch to be used on your legs,often being sent back for a larger one taught you bite you tongue and mind your language. We learned to tie a knot young because your hay baling twine was often your belt. We didn't need watches we always new what time it was, everybody knew their dad's whistle and grandma's yell, which often was not a word just a sound. We would sit around the radio at night listening for war news about our men folk and pray for their safe return. We could chew weeds as we lay in the grass at night and view the most magnificent array of stars and could always find a shooting star, that sometimes we would name;we were taught that in our day. We cut our grass with a sling blade and swept our front yard often displacing the old dog that only barked when the mail came. We would learn the value of a good garden and how to take care of one: and we planed for winter with canning of vegetables. We would hang our clothes out to dry for everyone to see and make lye soap in large kettles in the yard. We had other pots also one we made hominy with,a job I didn't care for. One was used for heating water to scald the fresh hen in as to make the feathers come of more easily.

We lived in a Norman Rockwell world with trips to the barber, We had no Wal-Marts, the salesmen came by our house, Butter and sometimes eggs, sorghum new pots iron skillets were all bought from traveling salesman who never ask for tax or denied credit or turn down pickled peaches as payment. Later they would deliver milk and cheese, and even put in the ice box if you were still asleep or away and the dog wouldn't pay no mind. We didn't have phones then, but when we did we could call anyone with just three numbers, or share a partyline useually with someone who was prone to gossop. Christmas ment candy clothes and fruit. Hopalong Cassidy pocket knife that everyone knew I would cut my fingers off with. Not all my hero's were cowboys, some were baseball players, Mickey Mantle, Lue Burdett, Dizzy Dean all played a part in my devlopement for love of my country. I relly don't want to just roll over and let what is happening to my country throw the baby out with the bath water. I have served in her military, seen her might when correctly governed and watched with embarassment as fundamental rights are broached and moral indignation a forgotten lesson. I expected more from those of my age; not the indifferent attitude that seems to prevail today. It is those who seek power and control who probe for weekness's and they seem to have found a few, this generation is awe stricken with technlogy, some we've embraced in our effort to fit in and conform, but confused by the lessons of the past and the developements of today moving so fast; too fast. We are not charged with clear cut medthods of collective thinking, fear of big brother jerking the rug out from under us and being treated as expendables in a world where their morals, knowledge and experience is our generation. It is only in number that we posess any power and using the rights still recognized as fundamental. Use your phone use your computer and raise hell, Bitch slap Congress and the executive and judicial branches for the selfserving idiotic deviation from the constitution based on a lie gone arie. America is but a paper tiger with the governing body we have, evilly led monetarily driven by idiots with the light off. We do not need change first we need damage control then solutions. Change the flat tire before you plot a new course.

As lond as we give the government premission to act as they please they will.
At some point we have to get the dogs out, give them the scent and see what they tree......