Old Stories

Linda Lou gave me the discs full of all the pics we had. I should tell some stories relating to some of them. This pair of pictures is of my and my old man. I do not recall the pictures with the flowers, it was at some arboretum or other, Mom made sure we visited those in our travels. Which one that was is lost to time.

The other picture is the overlook by Nyack Lodge in the high Sierras. Nyack Lodge was a hotel and restaurant built at a scenic overlook on what was then US Highway 40. The overlook is still there although the hotel burnt down in the 1950s. The restaurant lasted somewhat longer. The overlook is still there on Interstate 80 and there is a new eatery and gas station although it's not the same. All I really remember about that place was the counter had stools with real cowhide with the hair on. And the view.

The low wall I was standing on is all that kept people from falling into the canyon of the Bear River, nearly straight down for about a thousand feet. I doubt that one could really have fallen all that far as the slope was fairly heavily timbered back then but look behind me. Standing on that low rock wall with no fence! No fence to keep idiots from rolling down to the river. Today's safety fetishists are breaking out in hives. Note to lawyers and child protection types: the guy keeping me from rolling down the mountain has been dead since '85 so don't try to sue him, I wouldn't testify anyway.

That's the difference between today and the 1950s. They put up a low stone wall so that if someone parked the car and the parking brake failed, the car wouldn't roll hundreds of feet through the trees. People? They were expected to have a few brains. If someone was dumb enough to roll down the hill, well back then it was on them.

I do wonder if the modern Democrat Party would be near as powerful today if not for the all out effort to make the world safe for stupidity.