6/18/05

Vacation

No matter what you may have been thinking, I have NOT gone insane nor has any other such thing befallen me.

Vacations are supposed to be for working people or peeps in school, so I guess the trip we took to Maine couldn't be counted a a vacation for me. Our sister community there (Where the people here in this community originated from some hundred and fifty years ago.) is all but completely abandoned. I've been there nearly every year for the past six years and each visit it got just a little bit more deserted. This visit was the last one we'll be taking. The people left there can be counted on two hands.

That community is over three hundred years old. It started during the time of witch burnings and the Crusade of Cotton Mather, now time has done to it what scared and angry christians couldn't.

The community I live in isn't what it use to be either. There are still around two hundred people here, but more time is spent in Quincy now that any time I can remember. Once you could get up any morning, walk over to the community center, and sit with a dozen or more people having breakfast or coffee.

Now it's usually only four or five sitting there. My neighbor and friend Annalara said it got this way once before, during the seventies when the community first started sending their kids to Quincy public schools and more people were getting jobs there. She says it eventually picked back up and things returned to normal but I can't help to worry about the future and what it will bring to my home.

Lora wants to go away to college in August. With both of us in Western Illinois University the house will be empty again. My step-dad, two sisters and baby brother live next door. None of them want to live here. (My tales of wallgnomes and dead grandma have spooked them a little I guess cause they've started calling the house creepy.)

Not sure how things will turn out but my chances of going away to college and staying there for four years seem slim. I've been living in this community, on this block, with my family for twelve years nearly. My entire world is confined to this little piece of existence and I'm very comfortable here. But Lora has my heart and where she goes so goes Sara.

Well, since I've been home less than an hour I should get offline and unpack. More later...

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

That you should. Sad about things in Maine, I hope they cling on because the world is about to turn very much in their direction. Within 2 years it will be very obvious so I hope they have the faith to hang on that long.

I think you should see reality outside your current / past world, maybe you don't realise how removed from true reality 99.99% of people are. So do go off to college with Lora and dip your toes in the mass delusion before it eats itself. The time for that experience is running out and I think it is important you observe it first hand. Don't worry about the 4 years - it will unlikely be so long, external events will intervene.

Love & BB to you all

Anonymous said...

Hey, where were you in Maine? I live in Portland, so i'll probably know where it is (unless it's up north, in which case i'll have to ask one of my friends who has family up there.)

Anonymous said...

I didn't think witches were ever burned in America...only in germany & sweden during the 16th/17th centuries.

Retro VGM Revival Hour said...

:POUNCE HUG:


YAY, SARA'S BACK....or is it sara's got back?
um, nevermind...the major point is, yer bavk sweetie


I MISSED YOUUUUUUUUuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu





um, yer not gonna do like hhh when he returned to RAW are yeh...because that sledgehammer looks dangerous *winks*

Anonymous said...

From the Bendis board Goddard? What the heck did you do to get banned that long?!?!?!?!

Hey,... isn't somebody back here? LOL!

DM Jim

Anonymous said...

On witches, burnings etc

I've only seen documentary evidence of hanging of witches in USA. The largest incident of official legal action was at Salem, here are some links:
http://jefferson.village.virginia.edu/salem/overview.html
http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/salem/SALEM.HTM
http://www.earlyamerica.com/review/2000_fall/salem_witch.html

But, that doesn't mean that unofficial (illegal) acts against witches, including torture and burning, didn't occur in the USA, just that there is no public documentatary evidence that I have seen. Torture was used at Salem.

If you'd like to know a bit about the scale and barbarity of witch persecution in Europe these links may help:
http://www.malleusmaleficarum.org/
http://www.sacred-texts.com/pag/twp/index.htm

Anonymous said...

Salem. Heh. I kinda have to laugh at the town these days. They exploit their history to make $$$$ but then bitch when Nickelodeon places a statue of Samantha of Bewitched there.

An okay place to visit but I'm glad it's on the other side of my state.

DM Jim

Anonymous said...

Yes, there seems to be something about US culture and society that is successful in commercialising, trivialising, cheapening and degrading just about anything it turns its eyes toward :(

Anonymous said...

It is The American Way, agric...always has been.