Inflation: We’ve been through it before
We are in the middle of June, and on June 13, the Old Men of the Mountain met at Mrs. K’s Restaurant in Middleburgh.
The OMOTM who are falling off the Schoharie side of the mountain are finding prices less expensive (for the most part) than falling off the Albany side. Not 100-percent of the time — but enough so it is noticeable.
However, with the current price of gas (as one OF put it) when that is figured in, it is best to shop close to home for small amounts and small things. For big-ticket items ,shop around, but one OF said he uses the ’net more than he thought he would.
The way inflation is, and apparently is going, things are much more expensive for just routine items necessary for living. One OG thought somebody is making big bucks off this. It is either pay the price or do without.
This will all come out in the wash was a thought, we’ve been through it before, tain’t new Magee. Of course, these OFs have 70 or 80 years of living to draw on with a lot of comin’ and goin’ in between so the thought was well put.
Too fast to photograph
Getting to the restaurants, or getting to anyplace, or just sitting on the back porch, there are many events in life that are interesting, scary, or just plain, “what the heck!” that happen in an instant and, even if the OF wanted to capture it on camera, it is so fast that time does not allow the viewer to gather up anything to save the experience.
At breakfast on Tuesday morning, one OF mentioned such an experience traveling to the restaurant, and another OF mentioned having the same thing happen to him and, by the time he could record it ,the scene was gone.
How many of these blips in life happen to everybody and all we have is the oral record of them and then some seem so far-fetched that no one believes them.
Pondering pills
The OMOTM have covered this topic before and maybe more than once; it is the number of pills some of the OFs take in the course of a day. One OF went through a new experience last week and that was having a stent put in his heart.
Today, this is so common it is like having the tonsils removed. However, with this OF, some pills were added to his already bouquet of pills.
On Tuesday morning, the OF took a handful of pills before eating, which was commented on, and the OF said he takes more pills than this at night. The pharmaceutical companies must love this OG.
Now the question came up: How do the pills know where to go? How does a pill for the prostate know to go just to the prostate?
One OF said that he thinks some of the time it doesn’t and that is why we have all these awful side effects. The listing of the side effects is scary, some get to the final side of the medicine as even death. Now that is a side effect!
Many of the OFs claim they do the same thing they do a lot of in the hospital: They plop the whole wad of pills in their mouths at the same time. What in blazes must your body think is going on when this whole concoction of medicines hits the stomach at the same time? Somehow the body has to figure out what medicine goes where.
What should schools teach?
It is graduation time, and some of the schools have poster-sized photos of the graduating class members on the lawn of the schools. This is a neat touch but was not around when the OMOTM graduated. We were lucky to have Brownie cameras to record the event.
Some of the OFs are glad they are some distance from school because the OFs say they don’t think they could learn what kids have to learn today. Talking in numbers is something the OFs do not understand.
One OF said everything today is just zeros, and ones. That’s all there is. Another OF thought that is how we are going to talk to aliens — zeros and ones, along with do, re, me, fa, so, la, ti, do.
One OF commented the other way. This OF said shop and metalworking should be brought back into school. This OF said that many kids graduating today do not know how to work, or even what work is.
We need carpenters, plumbers, electricians, truck drivers, yes and even more farmers. This OF said that, even with all the disasters going on, the population of the world is increasing and we are going to have to take care of each other.
This OF doesn’t believe it is going to be done with everyone dealing in zeros and ones. Someone is going to have to know how to drive a nail, and measure a board.
Those OFs who drove to Mrs. K’s Restaurant in Middleburgh and got there in vehicles designed by kids with their zeros, and ones put together by kids who took shop, or attended BOCES were: Wally Guest, Harold Guest, Ed Goff, Doug Marshall, Frank Fuss, Mark Traver, Glenn Patterson, Joe Rack, Roland Tozer, Russ Pokorny, Warren Willsey, Bill Lichliter, Pete Whitbeck, George Washburn, Ken Parks, Jake Herzog, Gerry Chartier, John Dab, Paul Guiton, Rev. Jay Francis, Bob Donnelly, Dave Hodgetts, Herb Bahrmann, Lou Schenck, Dick Dexter, Jack Norray, and me, who says it take all kinds, and don’t do away with shop, metalworking, art, or music.