After the White Bird adventure, it was back to the Bottoms Up in Juliaetta to dig a little deeper. Bottoms Up owner, Peggy, suggested I talk to two of the oldest regulars in town – Bruce, age 90, and her brother, Fred, age 71. In her words -- "the two biggest bullshitters in town."
I ultimately don't think Juliaetta's going to work for the book, but these two had some pearls of wisdom worth sharing:
On marriage:
Before Bruce's wife, Faye, passed away about a year ago, the two were married for 68 years. Bruce and Faye grew up together in Juliaetta, and by 8th grade Bruce knew Faye was the one. What's Bruce's secret to a long marriage? "Don't argue with your wife, and you can live a long time." Amen!
On society today:
According to Bruce and Fred, we're on a downhill slide. It's nearly impossible to find anyone who wants to put in an honest day's labor. In their day, if you didn't work, you didn't eat. Pure and simple. Not so today -- the "kids" they know can't wait to find their next route to a social security check. And when people do work today, they expect to have everything it took Bruce and Fred's generation 40 years to accumulate, so they end up in the debt trap. Bruce & Ed never would have financed something -- you save up for what you need and buy only what you can afford ("Hell, we kept house in a tent!").
Today's slacker + "need it now" mentality has led to and is fueled by an over dependence on government. Thanks to this trend, the government's now involved in everything and everybody's business. And as a result, we've lost our freedom. According to Fred, "it all boils down to people control." "And they can track you on that damn thing," he says, pointing to my cell phone.
Hmmm .. maybe these guys are on to something. Is it our own laziness and entitlement that's ultimately led us to the Patriot Act-cell-phone-evesdropping-throw-out-habeus-corpus-Cheney's-not-a-part-of-the-executive-branch slaughterhouse? Worth considering. Maybe if we stop consuming ourselves senseless and numbing our brains on Gameboys and reality TV, we could wake up and take our country back.
On what makes a good life:
"Hell, we didn't think about it. You just play the hand you're dealt."
And there you have it.... Wisdom of the ages.
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