RUDIMENTS, pt. 880
(the way history tries to keep up)
Certain things are markers for
time and history; often seen, and
most often overlooked. Silos are.
for sure, one of them. They dot the
old landscape like pylons; other
times and other meanings. Over
at Cook College, in New Brunswick,
there are two silos at the agricultural
school; each of them, long ago
having lost their way, are now
fairly meaningless. They are, yes,
still in place, but have lost all of
their functional meaning by having
been stripped of use. What a sad
spectacle that is. There was a time,
I can remember, when they were
still 'silos' - we'd enter the old
barn there , and before it was all
sealed off and made off-limits,
and by taking the ladder built
into the wall, get to the loft area,
and right there was a shaft-entry
over to the silo. There were scales
and weigh stations for the sheep,
pills and dispensation arrays for
medical treatments, nursing and
birthing. And, across the roadway,
there was another barn, a dairy
barn, wherein cows were kept,
milking stations and storage
tanks, and, earlier on, milk cans.
The silos, attached to each of these
places, still reeked of their previous
uses, with fermented silage, and all
those rich, dense, smells. Now, all
that's barren and dried out, used
for scientific record-keeping, and
the farming what-not of this
more modern era. It's amazing,
in 1970, how close we still were
to the past. All this, after time,
and now showing for little. Once
the use is taken from a silo, it's
left with nothing, as are we.
-
Travel the countryside, and you'll
get a glimpse of what I mean. Views
along any of the interstates crossing
Pennsylvania and Ohio will show
you the same - generations of the
past, limping along in silos. Arrays
of them - leaning, broken, and,
some, forgotten. Weeded over,
one or two along the byways
will be grown over, the land
around lost to all practical uses
as the interstate itself, so nearby,
has rendered its farm-use and
its meaning lost, redundant,
and dead. White wooden staves,
or the old glazed brick ones,
or the broken-down, darkened
wood, ones. Exit the 'Interstates'
and travel the real roads and you'll
see all sorts of part of dilapidated
America gawking back at you -
mostly in the form of run-down
barns and silos somewhere left
to wither between times and
eras. Beyond explanations, with
but a few people still knowing the
old language they are speaking.
It's a daunting task, dragging
oneself through all that; chin
better me up, and mind better
be strong.
-
When I lived out there, as now,
people were proud of 'Progress.'
They didn't put any pride into
the old, the leftover, or the
historic - History being what
they'd forgotten between the
box-stores, take-outs, strip-malls,
and (I used to love this), what
they referred to 'cash n' carry'
stores. There were any number
of them around - Nichols',
hardware, 'Bizzy-Buzzy's' or
however it went. I never quite
knew what was different about
them; cash n carry? You selected
your stuff, paid for it, and carried
it out. What was so different about
that? I guess maybe it meant 'no
credit,' but credit cards, in 1972,
out there, were still a new idea.
Other then outright stealing, I
guess 'cash n' carry' was another
way of saying, 'pay first, please.'
-
I remember, in Elmira one time,
walking into the Marine Midland
Bank for one banking reason or
another, and the desk guy taking
me aside to explain to me the
finer points of this new 'credit'
idea the bank was pushing. Sort
of a way, as he spoke, of accessing
a steady and always open line of
credit, within bounds and within
your approved means, to make
things easier and, at the same
time, open oneself up to many
new possibilities and opportunities
for acquisition. Of things? That
was a bit odd tome, only ever
before having been bounded
by whatever dough was in my
pockets at the time. The Marine
Midland bank, at that time, had
a publicity campaign for itself,
heard a lot locally up there,
which consisted of some
military style music, and a
sung-slogan of '...Tell it, to
the Marine!' It as pretty odd,
but they wanted to know your
wants, and serve them. I walked
out of there with my first credit
card, and some 10,000 dollars of
unlimited possibilities before me.
-
When credit cards first came out,
if you can believe this, they were
very awkward to use - places
did not always like them, some
didn't even accept them, and many
have minimum amounts, like five
ten dollars, for charging. Clerks
and waitresses would get all
weirded out if you presented a
card. The transaction was on
these odd, little, credit-card
pads, involving signatures, lots
of number punch-ins and, often,
a real time phone call from the
business to the card company,
for a transaction approval. it
often took time, went wrong,
phones lines were busy and,
behind you, people in line were
getting all annoyed at the delay.
Tough world out there, Mr.
Marine. It took about ten years
for all that tp clear up and begin
running more smoothly. Up in
those areas anyway - wasn't
until like 1990 that it all started
smoothing out. Now, I think, you
can buy most anything in the
world on credit, and in about ten
seconds too. I think I'll buy me
a silo at the cash 'n carry store.
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