Month: March 2016

“Remember, democracy never last long. it soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy that didn’t commit suicide. It is vain to say that democracy is less vain, less proud, less selfish, less ambitious, or less avaricious then aristocracy or monarchy. It’s not true, in fact, and nowhere appears in history. Those passions are the same in all men, under all forms of government. and when unchecked, produce the same effect of fraud, violence, and cruelty.”    John Adams, letter to John Taylor 1814

“Democracy and socialism have nothing in common but one word, equality.  but notice the difference: while democracy seek equality in liberty, socialism seeks equality in restraint and servitude. ”     Alex de Tocqueville

Being of slightly advanced age does give one perspective on societal evolution when you’ve had the privilege of witnessing it with your own eyes. The late fifties and early sixties could  have been called “the age of children”.  The “baby boom” that had started at the end of WW2 was now in full bloom with full classrooms in in every grade.  It was reading (phonics), writing, (cursive) and arithmetic. The morning started with saluting the flag and saying the pledge of allegiance , including the words (gasp) ‘under God.

Other items that were mandatory at the time was art and music. Both were instrumental in my intellectual development as I was able to learn early on that I had precious little talent in either.

Recess was always a blast. over a hundred kids running,  jumping, screaming, and playing with all kinds dangerous playground equipment. Kids chose their own teams, played games and played to win. Two teachers oversaw this mayhem to break up the rare fight, and to take injured students to the school nurse.

Boys played competitive games, girls jump roped and played hopscotch.

Tomboy girls were accepted. Girly boys? I’m sure they were there but I never noticed. Remember these were primitive times.  The latest new technology was the rotary  phone.

To be continued.

 

The Governor is in favor, The Senate had spoken. What will the House do? I have a lot of mixed feelings about this. I must confess that the “twenty-something” me would say “ALL RIGHT, IT’S ABOUT TIME ! The “present” me says “Eh, I’m not so sure about this”.
It’s Ironic that I have a friend and an acquaintance who have indulged in “weed” for decades. Now that they have reached “geezer” status they decided that it was simply time to quit. Now it may become legal. All those years when they could have been arrested for it.
I’ll have a lot more to say about this in a future post.

Meanwhile deaths from heroin and fentanyl jumped from 15 in 2012 to 53 in 2015. This from the Vermont Health Dept. The opiate epidemic is really bad. How can this be?  We live in a progressive paradise, our unemployment rate has dropped to 3.4% (Plenty of sales clerk and fast food jobs), we’re at the forefront in saving the planet. We pay high taxes. So what’s the problem? Ha!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fi2XCsPKlY8

The fifties and early sixties can be best summed up as the end of the milk can, the demise of the short line railroads (the Montpelier and Wells River in 55′, the Rutland Railroad in 62′) and the twilight of the nearly hundred year run of the “Grand old Party”.  The state that never voted for Roosevelt and told him where he could stick his “Green Mountain Parkway” was in a process of transition.

What happened was the perfect storm for the coming “flatlander” invasion of the sixties.

Dairy farmers no longer took milk cans to the railroad station. The tracks were torn up or abandoned.  Now refrigerated tank trucks came to the farm to pick up the milk. But , the farmer was now required to have a refrigerated bulk tank of his own. Many farms on the edge couldn’t afford it. A lot of their kids didn’t want to carry on. Consequently a lot of land went up for sale.  “Vermont, the beckoning country” became the motto for real estate agents in the early sixties.

With the arrival of the Interstate highways Vermont was within 4 hours drive of all the major metropolitan cities.  Many moved here and more then a few discovered that unlike where they were from, here they could be the big fish in a little pond.They became teachers, journalist, and politicians (hey Bernie), and over the course of four decades turned the State of Vermont from red to purple to the deep blue it is today.