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Osprey
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 3694
Registered: 5-23-2004
Location: Baja Ca. Sur
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New Frontiers
Perfect Timing
Jawjackin’ with my old friend Tony around a Mojave desert campfire one night led to a long winded discussion of “Born a Hundred Years Too Late”. My
pal is a real atavist, rough, tough and hard to bluff; no friend of the easy life, crowds and crystal wine glasses so I wasn’t surprised to hear him
say he would rather have been born in the 1800s.
He painted some mighty pretty pictures for me. Convincing ones with broad prairies, wild ponies, buffalo and lots of opportunity for adventure. I
came back with some appropriate thoughts of my own about life on the New Frontier. It developed into what might have become an argument but we were
both too drunk to stand up so we probably wouldn’t have had much damaging contact.
Tony made a list of all the caca we wouldn’t have had to put up that’s now piling up between us and the good life. My list was not as long but had a
lot of heft to it. I asked him just how far he thought he might have been able to travel in his lifetime in the mid 1800s. If he lived outside the
city (where he would want to be) he would only be seeing the areas around his house that he could ride to on his horse in a day or two. I asked him
if he really wanted to trade the silence of the plains for a nearby dentist when an abscessed tooth could all but take his life. I asked him how he
would like to spend more days with an empty belly than with a full one, how he would like living without toilet paper or hospitals or clean drinking
water, books and libraries, music, sports, news, cold beer, fresh fruit and meat and cheese and candy. I don’t remember making my final point; that I
thought then, as I still do, that I was born at just the right time. Still in the early 1900s, when I was given all the chances at a good life,
chance to travel, survive, prevail, to prosper, to still have the means and wherewithal to visit places still uncluttered, untrammeled and unchanged.
Lately the discussion haunts me because I now live in what I call the Frontera Facil, the Easy Frontier, Baja California Sur. Life in this little
fishing village is barely less primitive than a small town in mid U.S. in the mid 1800s – no movies, hospitals, dentists, clothing stores, paved
streets. But just 40 minutes by a paved road brings us to place with all those things – a place where one can find all the luxuries and still be
surrounded by the cluttered grace of tropical Mexicana. One hundred or two hundred years ago travel in these parts was almost impossible – as
dangerous and daunting as anywhere on the planet. And what may the future hold? How long will my little village last? How long before all the
beachside developments will make an unbroken clean green line of grass and palms from San Filipe to San Lucas?
I’ve been lucky three times: south Florida as a child when the whole place was part of the Everglades, Las Vegas as an adolescent when the population
was 50,000 people, La Ribera, (my last stop) population 2460.
If you live in Baja California or you are fortunate enough to be able to visit, vacation, fish, surf, party just count yourself lucky that you were
born in the last few decades because otherwise that two day horseback ride would only probably have got you to about Otay Mesa and that’s probably
about the time that bad tooth would be acting up.
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Cypress
Elite Nomad
Posts: 7641
Registered: 3-12-2006
Location: on the bayou
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Mood: undecided
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Osprey, Well said. Fully agree with your sentiments.
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vgabndo
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 3461
Registered: 12-8-2003
Location: Mt. Shasta, CA
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Mood: Checking-off my bucket list.
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Osprey: I found your piece especially interesting. I am what is often called a micro-historian. I chose a time period 1887-1924 when my home town
was called Sisson. I have spent 30 years trying to get a gut feeling for what it was like to live here when twice a day the all-nurturing steam
locomotive with its cars of commerce passed through. A boom town with one, maybe two doctors at a time. A place where when the loggers and mill
workers left for the winter there was one saloon for every 40 people in town. Where if your arm was mangled at the mill you got a bottle of whiskey, a
belt to bite, and the quick application of the carpenter's hand saw. Women often died in childbirth. A man of 60 was indeed an elder. I have really
mixed feelings about whether I would rather be living then.
I'm truly fortunate that I can spend some time in San Nicolas, sixty-five miles from the nearest telephone, where having a fully stocked first aid
chest could save my life or the life of someone else. It is a place where the now ever-present awareness of the madness of our modern world seldom
encroaches on my thoughts. I think I'll click on "post reply" get on the phone, and cancel that poison that is coming into my home on that cable TV
wire.
Thanks for reminding me.
Perry
[Edited on 6-14-2007 by vgabndo]
[Edited on 6-14-2007 by vgabndo]
Undoubtedly, there are people who cannot afford to give the anchor of sanity even the slightest tug. Sam Harris
"The situation is far too dire for pessimism."
Bill Kauth
Carl Sagan said, "We are a way for the cosmos to know itself."
PEACE, LOVE AND FISH TACOS
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amir
Senior Nomad
Posts: 559
Registered: 5-4-2007
Location: Todos Santos, BCS
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Mood: chiropractic
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What's lucky for us is that we have a choice where we want to live, and some of us have the means and wherewithall to do it. Many of the world's
population don't have that choice; they are stuck where they were born and that's where they spend their whole lives.
But I also think that we have all lived in previous incarnations and have all experienced all kinds of frontiers, and as we evolve we are born into
situations, or given oportunities, that further develop our souls. We each get exactly what we need, and we are always exactly where we are meant to
be.
--Amir
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bajajudy
Elite Nomad
Posts: 6886
Registered: 10-4-2004
Location: San Jose del Cabo,BCS
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Seahawk
Your post could not be more timely for me.
Just back from a two week trip to the other side and am more determined than ever to never have sat nor cable tv. What a scary thought control tool
in the hands of idiots.
I told my husband last night that I have never been happier to be home and have never been more thankful that the place I call home is outside the
USA....Mexico to be exact.
Amir, I am also thankful that I had a way to get out of there and I do understand that everyone cant just pack up and leave.......well having said
that, I do believe that you can do whatever you set your mind to, it might take some folks longer than others.
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Capt. George
Super Nomad
Posts: 2129
Registered: 8-21-2003
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we, the lucky generation of working americans.........
the changes and growth may steal my beaches, plunder my right to my personal pursuit of happiness, rule & regulate me till my hair falls out....
chased from place to place by the whiners and I-Got-Miners........But through it all, I will retain memories of times and places that few have seen.
Ah, Jorge I, thanks for reminding me!
\"The penalty good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men\" Plato
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Skipjack Joe
Elite Nomad
Posts: 8088
Registered: 7-12-2004
Location: Bahia Asuncion
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They say that we may all live to be 120. No thanks. I'm seeing life over 90 and it's nothing to be envied.
But then neither is golf. I guess some people reach 90 when they're 30.
But nobody reaches 30 when they're 90.
What's my point? I can't remember.
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Capt. George
Super Nomad
Posts: 2129
Registered: 8-21-2003
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what an avatar, wadda movie!...keep forgetting (sound familiar) to mention it. thanks
me? 61, some days I'm thirty, some days 120? but wadda trip.
\"The penalty good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men\" Plato
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Iflyfish
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 3747
Registered: 10-17-2006
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I am grateful for the medical breakthroughs that have saved my life. No better time to be alive than now in regards to that. I had a discussion about
hip replacement this week, impossible a hundred years ago and better now than even ten years ago.
No emperor or potentate in all of history could have the material goods that can be found in my own home. In the USofA we are in a Rome that was
unimaginable throughout the history of mankind.
On the other hand the Polynesian Islands of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries have their appeal. Lots to eat, good climate, easy life, no
concept of either money nor work, that is activity that is separated from that which is required to maintain ones roof, fix ones boat, repair a net
etc.
Hmmmm, sounds a lot like Baja today come to think of it.
Iflyfishwhennotcontemplatingthefreeloveofthepolynesians
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jerry
Super Nomad
Posts: 1354
Registered: 10-10-2003
Location: loreto
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yes Iflyfish Only difference is that now we chose to camp like the old days and live in primative ways a lot different then having to
yet its so refreashing to see the stars. feel the warmth of a open fire,pass a bottle around with friends burn the hell out of a good piece of
meat,singe your hair,scald your lip, drink coffee with grounds in it sleep on the hard ground wake up with a throbbing head upset belly and start it
all over again just to prove to your self that your still alive we are spoiled
jerry and judi
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Skipjack Joe
Elite Nomad
Posts: 8088
Registered: 7-12-2004
Location: Bahia Asuncion
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| Quote: | Originally posted by Capt. George
what an avatar, wadda movie!...keep forgetting (sound familiar) to mention it. thanks
me? 61, some days I'm thirty, some days 120? but wadda trip. |
Since you liked it so much perhaps this will remind you of another one. I saw it again a couple of months ago and remembered just how good it was.
There is a scene in it where God reveals himself by striking our hero down from his mule. I can't find it on the internet but once you see it you'll
not forget it easily. Do you know this film?
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Capt. George
Super Nomad
Posts: 2129
Registered: 8-21-2003
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looks like Gary Cooper, but can not recall? first thought was Grapes of Wrath, but that was Fonda, no?
the kid with Tracy, Bartholomew?????????
\"The penalty good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men\" Plato
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bajaguy
Elite Nomad
Posts: 9247
Registered: 9-16-2003
Location: Carson City, NV/Ensenada - Baja Country Club
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Mood: must be 5 O'clock somewhere in Baja
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Gary Cooper...Sgt York
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Skeet/Loreto
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 4709
Registered: 9-2-2003
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Excellent Words from many Hearts!
I can only say that I feel that My Life from 1930 to Now has been Blessed with the meeting and interaction of so many different Places and People.
From Texas to California to Montana, Olympic Oenn., San Francisco, Hollywood, Central Valley of Calif. to nearly 40 years in Baja Sur.
I would not change it or all the Places or anywhere else!Known to Man or History. All my Dreams have come True and I thank the Good Lord for saving
my Life so many times as I took Risks to live those Dreams.
And it is kinda Funny that in my decling Years I returned to my Home Place Texas to enjoy the "Wide-Open" Spaces, the Horses, Bob Whites, Deer and all
the Birds and Animals of these Great Plains of Texas. Just another Dream on the Way>
God Bless you All and I Hope that you all realize your Dreams.
Skeet/Loreto
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Skipjack Joe
Elite Nomad
Posts: 8088
Registered: 7-12-2004
Location: Bahia Asuncion
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As a very wise Yankee catcher put it:
"When you come to a fork in the road, take it"
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Baja Bernie
`Normal` Nomad Correspondent
Posts: 2962
Registered: 8-31-2003
Location: Sunset Beach
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Mood: Just dancing through life
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Osprey---I salute you!
Perhaps, one day you will share what causes you to have such profound thoughts and why you stoop down to share them with us.
I'll stop right there except to say...............please allow that mind to wander at will because the results are wonderful.
My smidgen of a claim to fame is that I have had so many really good friends. By Bernie Swaim December 2007
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tripledigitken
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 4848
Registered: 9-27-2006
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| Quote: | Originally posted by vgabndo
Osprey: I found your piece especially interesting. I am what is often called a micro-historian. I chose a time period 1887-1924 when my home town
was called Sisson. I have spent 30 years trying to get a gut feeling for what it was like to live here when twice a day the all-nurturing steam
locomotive with its cars of commerce passed through. A boom town with one, maybe two doctors at a time. A place where when the loggers and mill
workers left for the winter there was one saloon for every 40 people in town. Where if your arm was mangled at the mill you got a bottle of whiskey, a
belt to bite, and the quick application of the carpenter's hand saw. Women often died in childbirth. A man of 60 was indeed an elder. I have really
mixed feelings about whether I would rather be living then.
I'm truly fortunate that I can spend some time in San Nicolas, sixty-five miles from the nearest telephone, where having a fully stocked first aid
chest could save my life or the life of someone else. It is a place where the now ever-present awareness of the madness of our modern world seldom
encroaches on my thoughts. I think I'll click on "post reply" get on the phone, and cancel that poison that is coming into my home on that cable TV
wire.
Thanks for reminding me.
Perry
[Edited on 6-14-2007 by vgabndo]
[Edited on 6-14-2007 by vgabndo] |
Vgabndo,
As a resident of San Diego I couldn't help but notice the Hotel Del Coronado in your picture. Is there a connection to our famed hotel in Coronado of
the same name?
Ken
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Capt. George
Super Nomad
Posts: 2129
Registered: 8-21-2003
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look out Skeet, Deborah keeps talking about Texas....
got any room down there? The little bit of Texas we've seen, we liked, ran into some really fine people!
cap'n g
\"The penalty good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men\" Plato
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Bob H
Elite Nomad
Posts: 5867
Registered: 8-19-2003
Location: San Diego
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Osprey... you really know how to write. I always enjoy reading your posts! And, no edits... wow! Please tell us more stories... Bob H
The SAME boiling water that softens the potato hardens the egg. It's about what you are made of NOT the circumstance.
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FARASHA
Senior Nomad
Posts: 848
Registered: 6-3-2006
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I enjoyed that, the way you wander with your thoughts about, Please MORE Osprey!
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