The past calls to us

Probably one of my favorite activities growing up was hunting arrowheads in the Sandhills of Nebraska. So when we were driving around in the Sandhills or riding a horse for whatever reason one was always on the lookout for arrowheads. If there was a sandy draw or blowout you'd either ride through it looking for arrowheads or get out of the pickup and look for arrowheads. I honestly think part of the urge to look and find was the challenge but also think it was a blast from the past. Kind of a part of the past that calls out to me.

Kind of like my desire to build a muzzleloader. I got the plans for a muzzleloader through the mail. Don't have a clue as to when but probably in about 1970 or so. Studied them and bought two pieces, the barrel and the percussion nipple. Made the rest. It was a smoothbore, and you couldn't hit anything with it. But it went boom. Took me back to the 1800s.

Read every Zane Grey book I could get my hands on. I became the gunslingers from that era. For a Christmas gift, I got a Mattel six-gun with a holster set. It even shot plastic bullets. Had other cap guns, but the one that shot the plastic bullets was my favorite. Every time I carried my six-gun and rode my horse I could imagine I was Nevada or Shane or others that Grey wrote about. Still enjoy his books. I don't know why, but I still enjoy reading and reliving in my mind the days of yesteryear.

We've watched the movie "Thunderheart" gosh knows how many times, and I'm usually in the mood to watch it again. Makes me think back to my childhood and the vacations Mom and Dad and us boys would take in the Black Hills. As we drove through the Black Hills, I could imagine Indians waiting just over the hill getting ready to attack some ignorant white man or kill a buffalo. There is one scene in "Thunderheart" I could swear we were there. Love the Black Hills.

There is probably a part of me that longs for the isolation of the frontier, no cars or planes or trains or even people. I enjoy all of the forms of civilization we have today, but there are way too many of them today. It's like the city has moved and became country, and now we don't have country anymore. It's like they moved to the country and built but now the country is like the city.

Back in 2019 before COVID-19, Marge and I drove back to Nebraska taking mostly two-lane roads and driving through many small towns. Funny and sad at the same time, but there were Dollar General stores in most of these hick towns out in the middle of nowhere. Great for the nearby residents but sad as well. Kind of like driving along and seeing hundreds of those energy producing wind mills. They are a sign of technology but a sad sight.

If I could I'd like to find a brand new ¾-ton Dodge pickup with a six-cylinder three-speed transmission with a step side box on it. Sixteen-inch tires of course. Probably about a 1949. AC, but it would also have them little windows you could turn and get air circulating in the cab. The speedometer maybe went to 80 or so. Speed didn't matter. I'd rather have that then what is being produced today.

I don't think we need pickups the size of old two-ton trucks. Most people don't need an eight-bedroom mansion with 10 bathrooms! Seems like the "important people" all have Lear jets and spend a lot of time flying here and there for no other reason than to impress their followers. Maybe more justice for criminals and less time spent lawyering. Schools that teach reading and writing and arithmetic. Might be wise to run the flag up the flag pole and say the pledge.

What I think we really need is to simplify our lives.