Listening to Oldies on Internet Radio, going back in time, such a sweet thing, a luxury now. It was a quiet time, and I felt I would be alright, I didn’t have to wake up each and every morning and worry about what is going to happen today.
You see it your way and I see it my way, here in my heart I give you the best of my love, the benefit of my extended thought processes and good intentions.
Wouldn’t it be good if you could somehow locate a playlist from June of ’65 or that period of time. That would be a trip, I might have to do that this week.
Life was pretty good in ’65 as I remember it. (It might also pay to note here, that the sixties were especially good to me, and I don’t remember a lot of it, but what I do, well, that was okay.)
What a regimen.
Take my call, go to the yard, mount up on the beast and head out of town … another day on the road. A lover and a fighter, a dirty old freight train rider. The major emphasis was on “chasing the buck, making the almighty dollar, putting some grub on the table and buying the essentials for the good life.”
Not like it is today. I could sleep well with the backdoor unlocked, didn’t need a locking gas cap on my truck, security lights, my fellow drivers waved at me with all their fingers. Not like it is today. Today things are a lot different, it is a whole new ballgame, but strangely, it remains the same, if you can follow that line of thinking.
Bought some gas this morning, now that was a real bummer. My money, much like yours, isn’t even slowing down when it gets to me anymore. One of these days I fully expect to hear my banker say, “I am sorry, but your collateral is insufficient for your loan on two packs of Twinkies, and we have to decline you at this time, sorry.”
Yeah, you sure are.
Here I sit all dirty and dusty from trying to rub my Charcoal Briquettes together and start our backyard barbecue (I cannot afford starter fuel anymore). We are having burgers, with hamburger helper, added to the hamburger helper, no chips. Kool-Aid to wash it all down, or as they used to refer to it in the service, “bug juice.”
Things are getting so tight, that even the Mexican’s are now on the move. Like the tide, it appears that they will come and go with the ebb of the economy. According to informal surveys by the Mexican consulate in Dallas, most of those wanting to return to Mexico cite the sudden scarcity of jobs, fear of deportation and uncertainty about obtaining legal resident status any time soon.
But others think that immigrants returning to their countries won’t hurt the U.S. economy. “The country’s economy adjusted to the immigrants’ presence. No doubt it will adjust to their absence,” said Ira Mehlman, national spokesman for FAIR, an organization opposed to illegal immigration. “That these people are leaving proves what we have been saying for years,” he said. “If you begin enforcing the law to prevent them getting what they come here to get, they will go.”
According to the article, as the moment to leave came, José Luis Sánchez and his family didn’t have an idea of the Mexico awaiting them. From their family, they expect everything. From their home country, not much. “We’re going to continue living by the day, for sure,” he said. “But psychologically we’re going to be better. With our family, without fears, without pressures. It’s worth the difficulties.”
And, he added, “The American Dream is just that – a dream.”
Mexicans that are staying are sending less money home. Mexico’s central bank said remittances from Mexicans working abroad fell some 2.6% in the first five months of 2008. A vastly slowed down economy, immigration “enforcement” have led to the downturn of funds leaving the U.S.A. There goes Mexico’s virtually cost free second economy or source of foreign income.
Now let’s see if they can “complete globally like the rest of us? On a shrinking dollar that is worth less than twenty five cents.”
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