I had assumed the goods Uncle Bruce’s family brought were personal effects, mostly clothing, toiletries, maybe some food or tools. But as we started unloading and inventorying them to their proper location in the kitchen, we found it to be much more than that. We started yanking clothing that was stuffed into the car and uncovered two cartons of toilet paper, each with 72 rolls in. Okay, we had figured out how to do without it, but it would sure be nice to have some in the meantime. Some of the other items came in cartons also. They had cartons of toothpaste, shampoo, Clorox, laundry soap, matches, and duct tape. We found fishing tackle and line, 20 packs of sewing needles, and maybe 50 spools of thread. They had a couple wood saws and axes. It was great, for other than the soap, these were all things that we would have difficulty manufacturing.
In addition, there were a dozen new bicycle inner tubes, four new bicycle tires, and a box of tire repair kits, plus a 12-volt air compressor. We were not using much equipment with rubber tires like we would have with a steady supply of fuel, but we did use bicycles and wagons and boy, would those repair kits come in handy. There were no tire repair shops to take flats to. We even came across two of those flashlights/radio combos. They were the kind you wound up to charge the batteries, so you could keep them charged without electricity. They had some replacement batteries for them and a box of regular “D” cell flashlight batteries. Even if we couldn’t depend on them forever, it would still be nice to have them as the days got shorter.
Of course, they managed to bring us some food, too – canned fruit and canned beans. But not a few cans – a few boxes, maybe 70 to 80 cans. There were six cans of black pepper and even 50 pounds of flour. That would bring joy to the bakers in the bunch, for the boys still hadn’t perfected a working flour mill. And to go with the flour, they had brought twelve, ten pound bags of sugar. Sweet!
Everything had been jammed into the two cars with their clothing, shoes and boots filling in the crevices. I think we found about 30 dozen socks - men’s, women’s, kid’s, brand new, still in the plastic packages. They were used to top off boxes that weren’t quite full, inside of boots and shoes, and stuffed into what would have been any empty space in the load. Near the end, we found three boxes of additional treasures – medical supplies. They contained Epson salts, Kaopectate, Preparation H, Motrin, Midol, Maalox, Benadryl, calamine lotion, antibiotic cream, cotton swabs, band-aids, surgical tape, and gauze pads. Not just one or two bottles or packs of each, now mind you, but one or two boxes of each; six, ten, fifteen or more of some of the items. There was a carton of Vicks Vapor-rub, witch hazel, cold tablets, zinc lozenges, vitamin C, lycopene, and other assorted multi-vitamins. I think we tripled the amount of medicine in Lois’s dispensary.
Finally, under the seats, we uncovered about 75 boxes of shotgun shells and a small cache of silver coins, including a few gold coins and a stack of Euros. Questions abounded. Where did you get all this stuff? Why did you buy that? How did you get the gold? You don’t even own a shotgun; why the ammunition? After supper, we started getting answers.
“The cars full of stuff,” Bruce responded, “originally were accumulated because I heeded some warnings and advice before the collapse. After the collapse, doing some careful and calculated bartering produced the modified bounty that we unloaded this afternoon. If you want, I can relate what happen between then and now?”
“Please do,” said Grandpop.
“Being in the banking business, I could easily see things happening. We’d look at indexes and charts and then predict what was coming down the road. Usually the quirks in those charts or graphs were dismissed as anomalies and considered nothing to worry about. The experts in both the finance industry and the government said, ‘Everything will be fine’. But there were things occurring that charts, graphs, and indexes couldn’t show us. We had to read people – people whose wages didn’t even come close to meeting their financial needs – people who had trouble paying their rent or mortgages. Some were trying to refinance, some were going through the process of foreclosure, or had started to file for bankruptcy. As fuel and food prices soared, people needed to use credit just to pay for those basic needs. And we just kept providing it; it was our biggest mistake. Or perhaps listening to the Federal Reserve was our biggest. We just did what they wanted – ‘Provide more credit,’ they told us – ‘That will pull us through,’ they said – ‘It will stop inflation,’ were their lies. Hell, it made it worse.” Bruce concluded.
“So what really is inflation, anyway?” Jake asked.
“Depends who you listen to,” Bruce answered, “what do all of you think?”
“When prices go up,” Harvey replied.
“And the dollar can’t buy what it used to,” Sandy added.
“When the government puts more money into the system,” Joe said.
“But are the products worth more or the dollars worth less?” Dennis asked.
“Products have the same value, so the dollar must be worth less,” Aaron said.
“Well, I guess it’s all those things,” Bruce responded. “Maybe the best functional definition is when too much of a currency is infused into an economy compared to the value of the goods in that economy. And our government doesn’t even have to ‘print the money’, like some people would say. They just had to expand credit. Heck they had to, so there would be money there for them to loan, too, beings they were always spending money they didn’t have.”
“What actually happened, like I mentioned before, was that families needed more and more money to meet their obligations. At the bank’s end, this is what we saw: First saving’s accounts were closed, and then insurance policies and CD’s cashed in. Next stocks, bonds, and mutual fund shares were sold. U.S. saving’s bonds were redeemed, which by the way, really put extra pressure on the feds. As people’s assets were reduced, they started to use credit, which many had already been doing.”
“What did everyone need the money for?” Lynette wondered
“Why, what did all of you need money for the last six months?” Bruce countered.
“Seed and fertilizer,” Larry said.
“Food and fuel,” said Jean.
“Energy,” Dad answered, “our electric company received an 8% rate increase last January.”
“But none of us got an 8% wage increase!” interjected Jeremiah.
“Nor for the 50% that gasoline had gone up,” Barry added.
“Nor the extra for medical bills and health insurance,” Lois chimed in.
“Nor for the tax increases,” Poppop said.
“Right,” retorted Bruce, “but what really did us in, discounting the war in the Middle East and China’s play, was when the banks were forced to discontinue credit to everyone, including our own federal government. Then when the feds asked foreign banks to extend credit, they just told us to kiss off. Pow – no money supply – that’s when everything stopped and got us to this point. Now here’s the kicker – not everyone needed the money for the present – many were cashing in for the future.”
“The future that is now,” Dad caught on, “you were one of them.”
“Yep,” Bruce agreed, “and some of you did, too. But just the few of us are not responsible for this mess. Millions of others did the same thing. In my case, I cashed in my savings, secured some Euros, and bought food, ammunition, and most of those other goods you saw earlier. Some of the goods you saw I traded for. That’s were I got the gold and silver coins, the air compressor and some of the batteries. We had a lot more food that we traded to our neighbors and some that we left behind for them. I even had more ammunition; some of it I traded for goods. I also used food to barter for gasoline to make sure we had enough to make the trip to retrieve Leticia.”
“Yes, Leticia,” Mom quizzed, “you said you would tell us about her experience.”
Kristen started it. “Most of you probably don’t know, but my mother was city born and city raised. After my father died, we tried unsuccessfully to get her to move up closer to us. As you noticed earlier today, she has a mind of her own and would not leave. She was doing well now mind you – had a nice apartment and a very dependable roommate. The last time we visited her in the beginning of August we pleaded with her to come back with us; all to no avail. We called her every day, and even the last time the phones worked, she still said everything was fine and insisted she stay. When the electricity went out, things were chaotic at home: people coming and going; uncertainties; neighbors in need. Finally, Friday a week ago, we knew someone had to go for her.”
“Deciding who should go was the first issue,” Bruce continued. “I thought it was too dangerous for Kristen to go.”
“Yet we didn’t know if Leticia would listen to Bruce alone,” Kristen added.
“Also, I didn’t like the idea of leaving Kristen behind, unless Dean would also stay to watch out for her, Jenn, and Vanetta,” Bruce said.
“Plus, I’d have been worried sick if they would have left me behind,” Kristen said. “But in the end, we decided to let the men go. We had solid neighbors who would stay with us, support me, and keep the neighborhood safe. As they drove away, I cried, thinking I might never see them again. I’ll let Bruce tell you about the trip.”
“Well the best thing about it was the result. That you know – we rescued Leticia. Driving was terrible. We wanted to get an early start and couldn’t sleep anyway, so we left in the dark of the morning. The moon was waxing gibbous; gave us light almost till the time the sun started coming through the clouds. We needed it. There were no street lights, no billboards shining, no stores lit up, and no traffic signals. I mean our headlights worked; we could see. And we needed to. Every road we traveled had obstacles. There were abandoned cars and trucks, including police cars and ambulances. Run out of gas I guess - a lot were in the middle of the road. There were accidents that had never been cleared away, some with wires down, that we had to drive onto the medial strip or shoulder to get around. Least we didn’t have to be concerned about live wires. Traffic wasn’t a problem though. We might have driven half-way there, about 25 miles, before we saw another moving vehicle. By the time we got to the city limits, it was full light and we started seeing more people on the sidewalks. Some weren’t moving. That kept us sober. Part of me wanted to stop and check on them, but it was way too risky. From the living we sure got some strange looks; looks that made us not want to stop and fraternize with them either. But stop we had to when we reached Leticia’s apartment.”
Dean took over. “That created a dilemma,” he said. “Dad didn’t want to leave me alone with the car. I didn’t want him to go into the apartment alone. Didn’t know what each other might encounter. It was about nine o’clock; we just sat there and started praying, asking God what we should do?”
“And I was praying, too,” Kristen inserted. “Almost the whole time they were gone. But about nine, I got this feeling that they really needed something. I gathered Jenn, Vanetta and a few of the neighbors, held hands and prayed. After a few minutes, I had a peaceful feeling come over me, so we went back to our business.”
“Bout that time,” Bruce continued, “we looked up and saw a gang of youth approaching our van. Now what should we do? Drive away? Sit tight? As they neared, the apprehension increased. ‘Does that one have a gun?’ I asked Dean. He didn’t think so, but then he said, ‘I think one’s a priest.’ And sure enough, one was. Well, at least one was dressed like a priest. What if it was a ruse? One quick prayer later, I decided I’d have to trust Jesus with the situation. The leader positioned himself to the front of the group, came to the driver’s window, signaled for me to put down the window and asked if there was anyway they could help us.”
“I told them they could indeed, that my mother-in-law lived in this apartment building and would they give us a hand. Of course they would was the answer. ‘These are good boys,’ the priest answered. ‘Jose and Elmadeo will watch the car, while I and the others accompany you.’ As the elevator was useless, we took the three flights of stairs to Leticia’s apartment. The door was locked. Fortunately, Kristen had given me an extra key that her mother had given her. We arrived none too soon. Leticia sat in her chair, half asleep, half awake, with an empty water bottle in her lap. Her clothing was soaked with perspiration. We quickly gave her some water that Dean had carried in. And then we opened the windows and let some fresh air in. Her roommate was no where to be found.”
“There was an open pack of cookies on the kitchen counter. She was able to eat a couple and then shortly regained her strength. She was in no position to argue about whether to stay or not. After getting her into some dry clothing, the boys carried her and her walker down the steps to the van. We had two boxes of food inside the van that Dean offered to the youth for their assistance. We also had several empty boxes along that the boys brought back up the steps so I could pack some of Leticia’s things. I was most concerned about her medicines, so I cleaned everything out of the medicine cabinet and off her dresser top. Found some on the kitchen counter, too. Not knowing what clothing she might need the most, we just carried her dresser drawers out intact, piling clothing and shoes from the closet on top. The van was getting pretty full and there were still things in the apartment we could have used, but so could others. I gave the key to the priest and told him to use the contents for anyone that had the need, especially if the roommate returned.”
“We thanked them and wished them luck as we headed for home. The priest told us that we’ve done them a favor, too. He realized there might be other people in the same situation as Leticia was. Just in case there were, he and his boys would search the rest of the building and others in the neighborhood.”
“On the way back, Leticia told us her roommate had gone out Wednesday in search of water. She had never returned. I feel the worst may have happened. We got out of the city as quickly as we could and made it home by three in the afternoon with no problems - truly a blessing from God,” Bruce concluded.
There wasn’t a dry eye in the butcher house. Nor was it dry outside either. All through Bruce’s tale we heard rumbling and saw flashes of lightning outside. Just before Bruce finished, a heavy downpour had started. Grandpop said, “God certainly is wonderful. We’re blessed by Leticia’s rescue and your return to us. Your mother and I were worried about you. We’re blessed by having a place where we can feel safe, have water and food. We’ve Harvey as well as God to thank for that.”
“Thank God,” Harvey said.
Grandpop agreed, “Yes, thank God, and also for the rain and the crops; and that my son had the foresight to accumulate and bring us all these wonderful goods.”
“I just made hay while the sun shone,” Bruce replied.
“Yes,” replied Harvey, “I guess that’s what it was. And that’s also what we have to do … as soon as this rainy spell ends.”
That was our cue to get to bed. It only poured a few minutes and then slowed to a gentle rain; slow enough to head to the house without getting drenched. We were getting a houseful. Jenn and Vanetta had squeezed into my room. Leticia, Kristen and Bruce were set up in the living room. Dean stayed with my brothers somewhere in Harvey’s house. I didn’t sleep real well that night, thinking about the things that were said, wondering if something like that could happen here, and planning hay making in my mind. I’m sure Harvey was too. I should have been able to sleep, though. The rain had cooled things off quite a bit and the steady dripping and easy breeze sounded so peaceful. I just lay there and took it in. I guess around midnight it stopped raining altogether and I fell asleep.
To be continued…. Finally time for mowing? Mort
No comments:
Post a Comment