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BBHQ Boomer Essays: |
| Our Boomer-In-Charge here at BBHQ, Hershel Chicowitz, writes frequently about current events... from a boomer perspective. He is sometimes funny, sometimes provocative, sometimes a little of each. We hope you get a kick out of our Boomer Essays. |
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So, you are sitting in your modest yet comfortable home, having just dodged a major hurricane. You are watching TV in your cool and comfortable Lazy-Boy recliner. You see stories of the devastation less than a hundred miles down the road -- people without food, without electricity, without water. At first, the media says the people do not need direct help; they need money, a resource which is beyond your capabilities.
But, four days later, they say they do need help -- manual labor -- in remote places inland. You have nothing critical on your schedule, and a full tank of gas in your car. How can you NOT offer to help? How can you just sit there when people in need are so close by?
So, Thursday morning I drove 50 miles to Ft. Meade, Florida -- inland, but nonetheless in the direct path of the hurricane. Folks at the fire station assigned me to a major theatre of operation in the small town, the 9th Street Comfort Station.
The newly established Ft. Meade 9th Street Comfort Station is located next to Ft. Meade High School. It consists of about four flys (poly-something covers resting on aluminum stakes), a few plastic chairs, and some wooden storage pallets.... surrounded by about half a dozen truck trailers. The trailers came in from all over; they were filled with every damn thing in the world.
I was one of about 15 volunteers working a shift at the comfort station. The others were mostly locals, I guess. There was one guy from the Salvation Army; I think he was in charge, though he wore no uniform and bore no resemblance whatsoever to General Patton. He carried no sidearm. A Polk County sheriff's deputy on duty did carry a weapon; I guess it is required. But he got testy and threatened to use it only if you did not drink water regularly and take a five-minute break every couple hours in his air-conditioned cruiser. When I took my turn, I had to sit in the back seat -- my first time in the back seat of a police cruiser. Actually, it was OK; I was not handcuffed, though I did notice the faint smell of pepper gas on the seat. I donno; maybe it was pepperoni; same difference to me.
In front of the large trailer in the background is a stack of cardboard boxes. My job: bust 'em up and stomp 'em down. I done my best. In fact, I am very proud that, after about a half hour of hard work, I was promoted to Cardboard Box Supervisor. My job then was to direct junior cardboard box busters, determining which boxes should be busted up, and which were strong enough for recycling to another task. I relished the responsibility and was proud that the people in charge recognized my executive abilities so quickly. They told me it was the fastest promotion in the history of the comfort station, though I suspect there may be some exaggeration in that.
I also worked the ice line. Bags of ice were stacked on a pallet under a fly. People could drive up and collect up to four bags. Every 20 minutes or so, we had to unload more bags from the trailer and stack them on the pallet. After all, they don't unload themselves. To do this, we formed an impromptu ice line. Yep; just ordinary folks standing shoulder to shoulder passing bags down the line. It's not rocket science. Nut they didn't need rocket science; they needed an ice line.
There was no hierarchy to the ice line; your position in the line was completely arbitrary. There was no status in being closer to or further from the trailer. I appreciated the egalitarian structure of the ice line.
Beyond the ice pallet were a jillion bags of food: chips, canned fruit, bread... that kind of stuff. I donno where it came from; but there was no shortage of anything.
Oh; and water... in all sorts of containers, from 6 ounces to 2 gallons. There was an ocean of water. Fresh, bottled water - you know, the stuff you pay about two bucks for a 12-ounce bottle for at Publix.
For everyone who drove to the 9th Street Comfort Station... it was all free. No money; no paper work; no questions asked. And if you drove a van and said you were collecting for several families, you got several loads of stuff.
It was sunny and miserably hot; over 90 degrees by mid-afternoon. But no one complained. It was just part of the deal.
Late in the afternoon, a truck with hot meals arrived. I donno... maybe a thousand meals. I'm not sure exactly what was in them. But we quickly unloaded them into large shopping bags and into several SUVs for delivery to mobile home parks in and around Ft. Meade.
So that's my little story. It's not much, but it sure beat doing nothing.
I went to Ft. Meade six days after a devastating hurricane wreaked havoc on the area. Aside from my brief tour of duty, several things stick out in my mind:
Though there was considerable damage to the area, there were many
structures that showed little or no damage.
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| Vice-presidential candidate John Edwards talks, in his stump speech, about two Americas. In a way, I agree with him; there are two Americas. But I see it divided not as he describes it. I see it as people who complain, look to the government to tell them what to do and how to run their lives and to take care of their needs. Then there are people like the folks in Ft. Meade; people who get out and do what is necessary without being told by or waiting for the government; people who do not look first to the government to solve their problems; people who do what is necessary, help their neighbors, and then get on with their lives. | 
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You do not need to look up Ft. Meade on a map. You do not need to visit there. But you could learn a lot from this small town in America... the real America.
Have a nice day.
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If you like what we're doing here at BBHQ, please help us by buying stuff through our link to Amazon.com:
| The BBHQ Album of the Month is "Old Friends Live on Stage (Deluxe Edition) (2 CD/1 DVD)," by Simon & Garfunkel. If you were fortunate enough to see them in concert last year, I do not have to sell you. The concert was terrific! This album collection includes 55 songs, plus their new recording, "Citizen of the Planet," and one of the songs sung by the Everly Brothers during the concert. The DVD was recorded during their concert in Madison Square Garden in 2003. For any S&G fan, this is a must have! But then, you knew that already, didn't you? |
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The BBHQ Book of the Month is
"Vinyl Highway," by
Dee Dee Phelps. You remember her as Dee Dee, of Dick and Dee Dee.
Together, they took a decade long ride on the rock and roll roller
coaster. It was a heck of a ride! Dick Clark, Quincy Jones, the Beach
Boys, Glenn Campbell, Dionne Warwick, Bobby Vinton... Dick and Dee Dee
rubbed shoulders with all of them. This is her "behind the scenes" story.
It's pretty cool.
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