While Mr Grant continues to court young bank loan officers to push more insensitivie paper upon the poor, he has failed to realize that less people know the Grants well enough to even think of buying their new dream home. In fact his own home does not have enough machines to put more paper into the system. Few trust the family anymore. Even now, Grant has taken yet another hit today as those with little access to the family wither on the vine waiting for even little Washington’s to rain upon them. Tight the vest and tight in the wallet the regular Joe’s that I have grown with cannot get even the remotest job. I heard the Washington’s were still available for help but since they are so common and have nothing of value or to really put my family ahead, we seem to all choose not to purse that courtship. To our demise, we took for granted the Washington family and their sustainability. They were always around and always consistent. They were easy to get along with but like a friend who stays for three days like fish, they begin to stink. The Washington’s were too easy and nothing to be proud of.

Why it is Ill never know but the Grants always continue to look out for reponse, return and self. How it came to be, no one knows. I had only purchased one burger and a fry when I could feel someone hovering over me and I gave a quick look behind. Blue blazer, open white polo, brown slacks that I have yet to ever find for myself and a set of burgundy loafers with tassels. I small scent of cologne. I rolled my eyes, shook my head. That all important grip and fold of the Wall Street Journal…..ugh um sir are you finished. I beg your pardon sir.. I say are you finished can you step to the side? Fine….Coffee to go please. Mc’ds for coffee, my has time changed. I just stood waited and continued my wait. He strutted out, got into the old BMW and drove. I shrugged it off as nothing. I had nothing of value for the Jones but he was out of place for sure. Alas, a Jones and I in the same place ordering off the same menu. What could be next in the new world.

Matching green fabric lazy boys rock away upon the gold shag carpet, keeping tune with the nightly news. Central America is a hot topic, the Shah is flying around looking for  country to land in and the hope of country for an end to cold war grips us all. I was delegated to the floor. I loved the floor. I was even given a huge brown throw pillow to make the shag upon subfloor much more comfortable and entertaining. I was awash with news and could only imagine how another world lived through such grief but was oh so safe here in the states. What was the point of it all? Major powers at will, pushing each other around waiting for the other to blink. The Smiths seemed OK, the Jones were always solid and yet I never knew a homeless family, or one without a job. i guess that was the twist family asking for yet another bowl of food. The Twist family never came around our neighborhood. I saw them on the news on the streets and or in the dirt in some third world country but never suburbia. The Twist wore clothes that never fit nor matched, probably found at the goodwill store or wherever, but it never drew close to my life. I was one of the lucky ones. I was a Smith but as with any good Smith, you still look out the single pain aluminum window and wish the Jones were within reach but the Grant family blocked the way.

Now I dont want you to forget but the Moonflower family has not yet died off. In fact we still find them roaming today. Oh yes, they did yet dawn long ago the long flower power skirts and shirts, beckoning the call of a musical muddy pit before multiple bands in upstate New York, NY but they did not go away. Life of no consequences to your actions, live and love let everything go wow what a time. I can not help but notice that they have traded in the VW van and peace signs for the SUV and the dollar sign. By some twist of fate they merged with Jones by marriage or did the Jones evolve from these very people who never lived by the rules but now make them and sit at the front of the table of the Grant family. Can my head swirl more. My simpleton Smith family looking for whom we should listen to and who will lead us.

The Grant family have been a part of the neighborhood for sometime now. They say they were once backed up in Gold and could never fail. Perhaps that is why the Gold Rush took such a strong hold on so many citizens, so many years ago. Even Custer took to the Badlands of South Dakota in search of Gold. Now, they say that standard is gone. Yet still the change in the times of the Cold War were swirling around me and knew not who to look to, the Grants, The Smiths or the Jones. Father did not say who to find. For some reason in school I only saw the Jones family. They always seemed to where just the right clothes, listened to the right music and drove just the right car. I was not one of these people. How did I know? I was reminded daily that I was not to sit in the row of the Jones family. I was to sit over there with Smith. All we had were the 501 jeans and beat up used cars to show for our wealth. It was so silly if you really think of it. Yet just another example of the pecking order we humans create.

Now the Smith family was not mine but looking back it could have been. They spent much of their time chasing the Grants and never seeming to find them. It was an allusive goal because the finish line changed by the season. The Grants did not own anything, but the Jones family did and seemed to have the Grants backing. Our little Smith family could see the Jones family from the front door, up on the hills with a very nice cars in the driveways. I did not care too much for the car, but their cable television stood out as a must have! For some reason, we could not become close enough to the Grant family and only those of privilege and luck could. Our father worked very hard with very irregular hours, that it took a calender with lines from 3 different colored pencils to keep it straight. I knew that red was graveyard, blue was swing and green was day shift. No one else at school had heard of it much less lived a unpredictable yet ironically, very predicable lifestyle. I always knew when dad was at work, at what time and what time he would be home. I did not know how the days would go because it would depend so much on my poor father’s strength who would run the shift work rotating every week and every month would run a complete cycle. It was our normal, but not normal at all. The Grants did not care, however, they did not seem to do all the favors for the blue collar family as for the while collar family next door and their new mazda rx7 who had much of the Grants favor.

One of my dreams to write a story that could be published one day. It will come to a surprise to many of you, however it will continue with the We are Going South and Believing in Change mantras. I have read Dickens, Tolstoy etc and find their writing just amazing. I will not copy their work but will find inspiration from them, especially their sentence structure. My blog will be a great opportunity as a place to practice my writing and get some feedback from many of you.

I plan on using our times and our current situation as the setting. I want to expose the issues of greed, wealth, pride and power as the motivations behind the characters involved. Yes, I know it has been done but I think the current economy has been like no other. Why, because this time the most powerful have fallen. Unlike the Great Gatsby where the rich continue to press down the poor, we have the Madoff’s the world and CEO’s and bonus checks that now the country has scorned from the President down. People no longer strive to be the big fat cat. Again why, because they have all they need. That is why we are in a “recession”. People have realized that they have every gadget, a nice home, food and water. So the story will need to launch from before the recession and then into an era of contentment. “I am content with what I have” is the theme and it will derail the economy which has a GDP where 70% is in consumer spending. There is no more of the “Next big thing” We don’t need it.