Summer in the City

School was part of life, a daily routine, until it wasn’t, in June. Hooray, school’s out and there’s no more
homework. For the kids in the cities, May 30, Memorial Day, had been the start of swimming in the lakes.

A little chilly but school’s out in a week or so.

For the undergrads, it’s time for a summer job. Word passed among friends where to apply, the places
with the best pay. We all knew that the then ‘supermarket’ paid the highest rate. At the time we were all
about 16 and could drive. Sixteen was the age when you could get a Permit to Drive. Freedom.

SNL had its ‘Wild and Crazy Guys’ from Czechoslovakia, we had our teachers and bosses who were
about ten years older. We had to have a ‘glue’ that brought us together. It was our work, we all worked
in supermarkets in town. 

The grocery manager often was in charge of Monday nights. We had after-school shifts as ‘carry-outs’,
we took the customers’ groceries to the car. Yes, that was the way. 

Monday was special. That’s when the local truck company brought the new merch.It was the night
we restocked the store. We got more hours and had fun.

Myron was our manager guy. Once we went swimming after the shift, another time we were
‘moonlighters’. Well, just a sort of wine. Yes, we, well, he used the facilities.

We helped crush and load the expired cherries into the Redwing vessel. It fermented and a couple
Mondays later, we had a sip. Not a good mash. I blew my cookies in bed and in the sink.

And we got  80 cents an hour. 

Why Mask?

It’s not a stretch to understand that we all grew up with Howdy Duddy,Why 57 Chevy, and the Barby

Doll. I could not vote when I graduated, but Kennedy would have been my guy. He was our initiator,

founder, and, some would say, hero.

I’m setting you up, mentally, for what is coming. 

Our parents lived through the “depression” and served in that last war. Some people found a way to

prosper in that environment, others looked to the government. No matter, we smoked, we drank,
later we all watched TV. 

My family, like yours, was in that generation. I’ve done videos of guys in my Legion Post who served

Finally, they are ready to talk about it. 

They gave us a great, exciting, and prosperous country where we could flourish. Those of us who
have retired must consider our responsibility to our kids and the nation.

We grew up with Television, Nightly News, Walter Cronkite, and “Howard Cosell” as our daily consorts.

Well, maybe just friends. Three Networks, CBS, NBC, ABC. 

The dynamics of news, entertainment, etc have proliferated ad absurdum. Movies, television,
newspapers have resolved to six owners. 

Technology now permits the Populus to react to the innocuities and errors promulgated by the

six media owners. Think about it, in our time, the media supported the government actions in Korea

and later VietNam. Returning veterans from VietNam were like Rodney Dangerfield, they got NO

Respect.

Our government is populated by OUR generation. We learned from our media, and continue to believe
them today. 

Few will stop and think about this current pandemic. It is dangerous for many, but less than headlined
by the six media. We are the participants in this narrative, told by the Man Behind the Curtain. 

Put your Mask on.

A couple of quotes: 

https://www.forbes.com/quotes/427/

https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/533430-fear-again-if-you-want-to-control-someone-all-you

MASK in Public

The words of history ring true. Today is yesterday, tomorrow is the day after. It never was that history
repeats itself, it is that the roles are played by actors of equal ambition.

A dramatic event can change the direction and policies of a nation. It is the policymakers, those who
make laws, that recognize an opportunity and are quick to seize it. The laws are enacted by these

people, the actors on stage. 

They are not bad-actors in that sense, they are actors who are the understudies of, without knowing,
the play in which they play a part. 

We are the audience, that is our role. When the director narrates the scene, the actors perform, speak,
and tell the narrative. 

The playwright creates the narrative, the actors have been fully rehearsed, and the Audience suspends
belief, indulges in a fantasy, thus the narrative becomes the truth.   

When writers could not sign their works, the “nom de plume” was their personage. A Mask, if you will. 

The audience bought into the play. The difference is the use of the Mask, the audience WEARS the
Mask to signify compliance with the narration. 

No one should consider the Corvid-19 cannot be a conspiracy. We just follow the new rules set out by
our government and the media.

It’s just a test. A test of public gullibility.   

Hidden Persuaders

The book was named “Hidden Persuaders”. Maybe you read it, it was not “Fifty Shades of Gray” but it
was instructive. On TV, Jon Hamm starred in “Mad Men”, 2007 version of Hidden Persuaders.

Life expects much from each of us but it takes so long to understand the script we need to follow. The
script is in our history, what we learned to get to our ‘certain’ age. .

For us who listened, we learned the word “Propaganda”, one etymology implies a religious origin, a
liberal interpretation would be “preaching to the choir”. It has its route in Latin, surprise, surprise. 

Many people have heard and learned the word from stories about how it was used in WW II to
influence
the Germans. It was, no doubt. But it did not stop after the war, Propaganda changed clothes and
became Advertising. An effort to gain a respectable face.

What we grew up knowing as “advertising” is now in all forms of our lives. What was on paper, on the
radio or TV, is now everywhere but not recognized. 

Consider an expression we hear in daily conversations: “thank you for your service”, this expression
became popular in the early 2000s. Remember the route of the Iranian Army? The thank you is
deserved but is a cliche.

Contrast this expression with the “baby killers” chant offered to returning VietNam veterans. I’m
‘veteran’ but despite my reluctant service, I deserve no KUDOS. I support my contemporaries who
also served. 

The Mask

The words of history ring true. Today is yesterday, tomorrow is the day after. It never was that history
repeats itself, it is that the roles are played by actors of equal ambition.

A dramatic event can change the direction and policies of a nation. It is the policymakers, those who
make laws, that recognize an opportunity and are quick to seize it. The laws are enacted by these
people, the actors on stage. 

They are not bad actors in that sense, they are actors who are the understudies of, without knowing,
the play in which they play a part. 

We are the audience, that is our role. When the director narrates the scene, the actors perform, speak,
and tell the narrative. 

The playwright creates the narrative, the actors have been fully rehearsed, and the Audience
suspends belief, indulges in fantasy, thus the narrative becomes the truth.   

When writers could not sign their works, the “nom de plume” was their personage. A Mask, if you
will. 

The audience bought into the play. The difference is the use of the Mask, the audience WEARS

the Mask to signify compliance with the narration.