RUDIMENTS 880.

RUDIMENTS, pt. 880

(the way history tries to keep up)

Certain things are markers for

time and history; often seen, and

most often overlooked. Silos are.

for sure, one of them. They dot the

old landscape like pylons; other

times and other meanings. Over

at Cook College, in New Brunswick,

there are two silos at the agricultural

school; each of them, long ago

having lost their way, are now

fairly meaningless. They are, yes,

still in place, but have lost all of

their functional meaning by having

been stripped of use. What a sad

spectacle that is. There was a time,

I can remember, when they were

still 'silos' - we'd enter the old

barn there , and before it was all

sealed off and made off-limits,

and by taking the ladder built

into the wall, get to the loft area,

and right there was a shaft-entry

over to the silo. There were scales

and weigh stations for the sheep,

pills and dispensation arrays for

medical treatments, nursing and

birthing. And, across the roadway,

there was another barn, a dairy

barn, wherein cows were kept,

milking stations and storage

tanks, and, earlier on, milk cans.

The silos, attached to each of these

places, still reeked of their previous

uses, with fermented silage, and all

those rich, dense, smells. Now, all

that's barren and dried out, used

for scientific record-keeping, and

the farming what-not of this

more modern era. It's amazing,

in 1970, how close we still were

to the past. All this, after time,

and now showing for little. Once

the use is taken from a silo, it's

left with nothing, as are we.

-

Travel the countryside, and you'll

get a glimpse of what I mean. Views

along any of the interstates crossing

Pennsylvania and Ohio will show

you the same - generations of the

past, limping along in silos. Arrays

of them - leaning, broken, and,

some, forgotten. Weeded over,

one or two along the byways

will be grown over, the land

around lost to all practical uses

as the interstate itself, so nearby,

has rendered its farm-use and

its meaning lost, redundant,

and dead. White wooden staves,

or the old glazed brick ones,

or the broken-down, darkened

wood, ones. Exit the 'Interstates'

and travel the real roads and you'll

see all sorts of part of dilapidated

America gawking back at you -

mostly in the form of run-down

barns and silos somewhere left

to wither between times and

eras. Beyond explanations, with

but a few people still knowing the

old language they are speaking.

It's a daunting task, dragging

oneself through all that; chin

better be up, and mind better

be strong.

-

When I lived out there, as now,

people were proud of 'Progress.'

They didn't put any pride into

the old, the leftover, or the

historic - History being what

they'd forgotten between the

box-stores, take-outs, strip-malls,

and (I used to love this), what

they referred to 'cash n' carry'

stores. There were any number

of them around - Nichols',

hardware, 'Bizzy-Buzzy's' or

however it went. I never quite

knew what was different about

them; cash n' carry? You selected

your stuff, paid for it, and carried

it out. What was so different about

that? I guess maybe it meant 'no

credit,' but credit cards, in 1972,

out there, were still a new idea.

Other then outright stealing, I

guess 'cash n' carry' was another

way of saying, 'pay first, please.'

-

I remember, in Elmira one time,

walking into the Marine Midland

Bank for one banking reason or

another, and the desk guy taking

me aside to explain to me the

finer points of this new 'credit'

idea the bank was pushing. Sort

of a way, as he spoke, of accessing

a steady and always open line of

credit, within bounds and within

your approved means, to make

things easier and, at the same

time, open oneself up to many

new possibilities and opportunities

for acquisition. Of things? That

was a bit odd to me, only ever

before having been bounded

by whatever dough was in my

pockets at the time. The Marine

Midland bank, at that time, had

a publicity campaign for itself,

heard a lot locally up there,

which consisted of some

military style music, and a

sung-slogan of '...Tell it, to

the Marine!' It as pretty odd,

but they wanted to know your

wants, and serve them. I walked

out of there with my first credit

card, and some 10,000 dollars of

unlimited possibilities before me.

-

When credit cards first came out,

if you can believe this, they were

very awkward to use - places

did not always like them, some

didn't even accept them, and many

have minimum amounts, like five

ten dollars, for charging. Clerks

and waitresses would get all

weirded out if you presented a

card. The transaction was on

these odd, little, credit-card

pads, involving signatures, lots

of number punch-ins and, often,

a real time phone call from the

business to the card company,

for a transaction approval. it

often took time, went wrong,

phones lines were busy and,

behind you, people in line were

getting all annoyed at the delay.

Tough world out there, Mr.

Marine. It took about ten years

for all that to clear up and begin

running more smoothly. Up in

those areas anyway - wasn't

until like 1990 that it all started

smoothing out. Now, I think, you

can buy most anything in the

world on credit, and in about ten

seconds too. I think I'll buy me

a silo at the cash 'n carry store.