Party Lines

DATELINE: NOVEMBER 24, 2010:
Party Lines

Do you remember party lines? No I ain't talkin about the Skunks or the Polecats parties, I am talkin about when you had to share your telephone line with two or three other families. That was back in the day when most folks lived out in the country and there weren't enough phone lines to go around, so folks had to share. Our first telephone in Nankipooh was shared with the Smiths, Cartlidges, and Rogers families, and you knew whose phone was ringin by the number of rings. The Biggers phone was three rings, and the Rogers was four, Smiths two, and the Cartlidges was one.

You had to listen pretty close to hear the number of rings so you didn't answer somebody else's phone, and you couldn't make a call going out if somebody was already on the line. Of course, there were those who listened in on other folk's calls, and since everybody knew each other there was very little secrets kept. As a matter of fact I believe that Grandma Biggers invented the first "Conference Call", since she and Aunt Helen Rogers, and Mrs. Evelyn Smith, and Mrs. Dora Cartlidge used to all get on the phone together every Wednesday at 2pm to discuss the grocery shopping for the next Thursday.

In those days every village was a family, and folks looked out for each other, and knew a lot about one another. Maybe this world would be a lot better off if we thought of each other as a village, instead of a metropolitan area! After all, they say the world keeps gettin smaller and smaller, and if we are all going to get along, we are going to have to spend a little time in each other's shoes.

Now that's the way I see it, and you can tell-em I said so!

Bascomb Biggers
November 24, 2010

Politicians

DATELINE November 16, 2010:
Politicians

Things have been kinda quiet down here in Nankipooh ever since the big election for mayor of Nankipooh between the "Skunks" and the "Polecats". Why its so quiet, that on a still night you can hear the rust growin on those campaign promises. When we was talking the other day, my cousin Elmo asked why I called the two parties the "Skunks" and the "Polecats" I told him that they wasn't much different, they both just want to get elected and then take our money and use it to get re-elected. And, besides, they both stink!

Now I ain't saying that they are all bad, just most of them! Now if you don't like callin them skunks and polecats, I looked up some other words you might use in my friend Mr. Webster's big book, that might describe them better for you.

carpetbagger:
n.- any of the Northern politicians or adventurers who went South to take advantage of unsettled conditions after the Civil War: contemptuous term with reference to the luggage they used in traveling light, any politician, promoter, from the outside whose influence is resented

scalawag: 
n.- a scamp; rascal, a Southern white who supported the Republicans during the Reconstruction: an opprobrious term used by Southern Democrats

scoundrel: 
n.- a disparaging dim. mean, immoral, or wicked person; rascal, rogue; scamp, low; dishonest; base

Skunks, Polecats, carpetbaggers, scalawags, and scoundrels, they are all about the same!.


Now that's the way I see it, and you can tell-em I said so!

Bascomb Biggers
11-16-2010

The Great Recession

DATELINE November 10, 2010:
The Great Recession

A very wise man once said history repeats itself, and we are doomed to be its servant. We are in the middle of Hard Times, but this is not the first time and probably won't be the last. Some are calling this "The Great Recession"
The last time it was:
The Great Depression

"After nearly a decade of optimism and prosperity, the United States was thrown into despair on Black Tuesday, October 29, 1929, the day the stock market crashed and the official beginning of the Great Depression."

When I was a young man, my daddy had a man who helped work our land as a "Share-Cropper", which meant that we paid for the seed and provided the land, while he did the work, and then we divided the money from the sale of the crop on a fifty-fifty split. At the time this seemed like a good idea. Over a period of time Old Samuel was supposed to save enough of his money to buy the land from Daddy. The problem was that Old Samuel liked a taste of the jug, and laying in the bed with his wife, and it turned out that after ten years, he had seven kids and no money. In fact he was borrowing against next year's crop from my daddy to keep the kids fed and a little squeezins in the jug.

Now it seems to me that now that we are in these hard times, its time to get out of bed and lay down the jug and start plowing. Just like Old Samuel, most of us can't afford seven kids and laying up in bed with mama and the jug. We got some folks up in the DC area who have been sippin on the jug and borrowing against next year's crop for quite some time now, and its time to pay up!

It really don't matter whether you call it The Great Depression or The Great Recession, the fact is, the stock market is still in trouble along with the rest of us, and the only thing that is worth anything is hard money and hard work! Its time for those "stump-talkers" to get off the jug and get to work. And, you can tell-em I said so!

Bascomb Biggers
11-10-2010

Prime the Pump

DATELINE: November 4, 2010:
Prime the Pump

The system is broken, and the public don't trust the politicians no more, so how do we fix it?
The following quote taken from the day after the 2010 election, pretty well sums things up.

"Tuesday's votes were largely a referendum against Washington and the politics of the status quo. While the GOP benefited from widespread disillusion, voters remain just as unhappy with Republicans as they are with Democrats, telling exit-poll interviewers that they view both parties with almost equal disgust." - (skunks and polecats - BB)

Well I know how to fix a broken plow, and I know how to prime the pump when the water stops flowing, but fixing a broken economy, well that's another thing all together.
Or is it? Maybe all we need to do is prime the pump! For close to two years the Great National Bank has been giving all of the banks in the country money on loan for no interest.
This means those banks don't have to give you any money for your savings or retirement, that they hold in their bank. Which means your little peanut crop ain't growing, since it ain't getting no water. Meanwhile the bank's big soy bean plantation is getting plenty of water for free, and growing faster than kudzu.

So the water ain't flowing into your account no more, and your little peanut crop is getting smaller instead of bigger. Seems like all we got to do is prime the pump! Let the Great National Bank start charging the banks for water and maybe they will start paying you to use your water, and your little peanut crop can start to grow again!
If you don't understand how this works, then I have a homework assignment for you.
This holiday season take time to watch "It's a Wonderful Life". It pretty well explains the whole thing. Funny how they understood all of this more than fifty years ago!
(Maybe you should let your new Congressman in on this!)

Bascomb Biggers
11-04-2010