Whispers from the past

Friday Flash Fiction

The old camera had been in a box for decades, the pictures never developed, and now with the prints in his hand his blood ran cold from looking at the images that came from it. Thomas had found it after cleaning out countless dusty items from mom and Harvey’s house. The old disposable had been stashed in a box on the highest, and seldom used, shelf of the linen closet. For Thomas the camera was an odd curiosity, neither mom nor her husband Harvey had ever been much on taking pictures as he and his siblings grew up. The only pictures taken in his memory had been during strictly formal affairs like birthdays, graduations, and later weddings. What few cameras that were in the house could sit for years before the film was used requiring it to be sent off for development. Seeing that all the exposures had been taken Thomas had an absolutely burning curiosity to know what memories the old device held.

Days later in the quiet of his own home Thomas held the pile of prints in one hand, staring at each picture as if they showed bizarre rituals from long dead civilizations. After several minutes he would then move that picture to the back of the pile only to be captivated again by the next.

He knew every person in the pictures he held, they were his family. The pictures had been taken in the late 70’s on a family vacation to Disney World. The print he currently stared at showed his mom, baby sister, much younger baby brother, and himself all hugging Mickey with Cinderella’s castle in the background. Thomas’s heart skipped a beat to realize that the one taking the photo had to be his deceased dad.

Picking up the pace, quickly viewing then sliding more images to the rear, he saw a family having a spectacular adventure, everyone smiling and clearly caring about each other. He stopped when he came to the one of him standing next his dad in front of the entrance to Tom Sawyer’s Island. His father’s hand gently rested on his shoulder. Thomas now fully remembered that trip, the heat and humidity of the summer air, the noise of the crowd, and how safe and loved he felt at that moment. He especially remembered now the gentle touch of his father’s hand at the moment and how he dreamed of being just like him.

While the memories had come back each felt like an alien sensation, strange and particular as if the people he looked at were a completely different family. Thomas was glad to have the house to himself at that moment. His wife and son were out buying groceries and he needed time to come to grips with his inadvertent discoveries.

Thomas had been ten around the time of that vacation believing that everything good in life was eternal. However life’s uncertainly and brutality did not let him keep that belief for long.

Just as he turned twelve his father had been killed in a car crash, a drunk driver had crossed over into the oncoming lane suddenly. While his mother and siblings rallied around each other nothing could alleviate the pain from their missing husband and father. Far from sending them into poverty after his father’s death, life insurance and his mother returning to work had guaranteed a steady and decent lifestyle. Except that the spontaneity and love of life his father always demonstrated was gone. In its place was a sullen sadness that soaked each surviving member of his family to their bones.

Matters were made far worse three years later when Thomas’s mother brought home Harvey saying she had met someone she really liked. As much as Thomas and his siblings resisted Harvey became their step-father and while he never abused them or their mother directly we was a sour, tightwad little man who seemed afraid of both his new children and expressing any emotion. Harvey had come into their house quickly removing most of the past from view, their mother going along saying they needed to accept Harvey as part of their family.

As the years went by Thomas’s mother seemed to accept her new husband’s personality and changed hers to fit it. Thomas, his sister, and brother rebelled but never could come to directly challenge and break away cause their mother seemed so frail and lost, tied to a colorless man.

For Harvey family vacations, elaborate birthdays, and celebrations were wastes of money. Money was to be saved for those darker days when things were sparse and for Harvey every day was sparse with things always about to get worse. Many times Thomas would wonder what brought his mother and Harvey together and all he could think of was that loneliness was its own special kind of Hell and that she had reached out to the first man she had found.

For the children liberation took different forms. For Thomas’s younger brother it was college, paid for by their father’s life insurance much to Harvey’s chagrin, and who now lived in Boston. Thomas’s sister married and moved across the country out west hardly keeping contact with the family. And for Thomas it had been joining the army. Thomas realized each child though had been marked by so many years in an unhappy home.

Sitting in his home looking at the picture of him and his father on that hot Florida day Thomas realized that he had taken on many aspects of Harvey’s personality. At best he kept himself at arms distance from his son, now about the same age of himself during the Florida trip. For his wife Thomas knew he did little to show his love to her and in fact did much to criticize and push her away.

Thomas looked into the eyes of his deceased father and could almost feel the man reach through time and space telling him that he had to change not to end up lost and alone. After Thomas and his siblings had moved out their mother had sunk into a depression that ultimately ended her life. She died alone in a nursing home, not even Harvey by her side in the final hours. Thomas didn’t want to end up that way but his path seemed set in stone.

Thomas slid the picture of him and his father to the rear exposing another one, this time it was one of his entire family. His father, mother, sister, brother, and himself locked in a tight embrace in front of some fountain. The simple look of joy of that moment on his father’s face from decades ago reached deep into his soul showing him that not all was lost. That he only needed to reach out to those he loved to receive it in turn.

As if his chance had come Thomas then heard the noise of a slamming door and the running feet of his son. Knowing change would not be easy and would take time Thomas very gently sat the pictures of a lost past on the dresser and went out to reclaim his family and his soul.

Divided Germany in Autumn

Climbing into the way-back machine for me I remember some of the trip Uncle Sammy sponsored for a huge number of my fellow American soldiers and myself in August of 1987. I hadn't been at Fort Carson for more than two months playing full-time soldier when I was approached by a couple of non-commissioned officers of another unit in my battalion about joining them on the Return of Forces to Europe (REFORGER) exercise they had been tasked with.

If there is one avenue of posts and stories that I have not tapped it is that three month period where I learned the full meaning of the phrase about travel broadening the mind.

If I remember correctly we flew directly into Rotterdam, drew equipment at a preposition site then drove like bats out of Hell into Northern Germany. So much that bathroom breaks seemed to have been forgotten until one goofy kid from South Carolina couldn't take it anymore and pulled over and let it fly in front of scores of good Deutshlanders, fellow troops, and a television crew filming our convoy.

Many other sad and fun adventures followed during my three months in Europe. Including a night a platoon of Britsh troops, captured, stripped naked, and tied an American officer to a tree. Almost resulting in an American three-star general declaring war on them in the middle of war between the evil "Orange forces" out to conquer Germany from the east and the heroic "Blue forces" out to stop the Slavic hordes.

But the most revealing part of the trip was my visit to a concentration camp and the Inner German border. Not the Berlin Wall mind you, I didn't get that far by no means but the segment I saw was no less menacing.

It was late September and all the training and after action reports and reviews were over for the most part for the lower enlisted like myself. Our days were spent doing maintenance on the equipment we we would be turning in, hanging out in the various circus-sized tents watching movies or eating, or doing our level best to make time with female troops who being generally out numbered had developed a very cynical and choosy side to what male troops they would have sitting next to them "holding hands".

Still though, our great benefactor Uncle Sammy saw fit to cough up funds for visits to relatively near-by places. I got to see Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp. Nothing of the camp itself survives because liberating British forces had to burn the buildings down due to disease. All we saw in 1987 were mounds with brick memorials in front noting how many bodies were underneath. All supernatural jokes aside, walking those paths and seeing those mounds covering literally thousands of bodies you had to be soulless not feel the presence of those victims of a twisted madness not beside you. And no, somehow I missed seeing the tombstone-like memorial to Ann Frank.

The other trip I took during those days was to the Inner German border. When we got off the bus for that visit we were immediately greeted by West German border police who gave us ignorant Americans a brief history on the "wall" and what their mission was overseeing their side. We were also strictly told that when we saw the East Germans that we were to say absolutely nothing and make no gestures to them what so ever. After that we were shown the actual border and at first I was severely underwhelmed. What we at first saw was a simple rope barrier about a foot off the ground where the West German police talked so more about how many barriers there was from that point eastward. We couldn't see anything really at that point because of a grove of trees blocking our view.

As we had been briefed though five or ten minutes later two armed East German soldiers came out for the trees and to my surprise took several pictures of my entire group. I have to admit, that sort of freaked me out at the time and even now I wonder about what paranoia purpose those pictures served. Even now I can picture some Karl Rove looking character in a near-by depressing gray DDR office smoking a bad cigarette looking over those pictures trying to find the face of some super-spy among the collection of stupid and young American faces.

After the East German soldiers pulled back from where they came we were escorted to a raised platform that if I remember correctly actually sat beside a ravine offering a panoramic view of East Germany. All the barriers and obstacles on the pamphlet above could be clearly seen, thrown in for good measure was some sort of commie jeep headed for one of the watch towers.

Given the times, and remember this was two years before the Wall fell, I had a very surreal feeling knowing that the place I was standing at that moment could at the drop of a hat become the front-line for the Third World War. While all sort of warm fuzzies were building even then for the ultimate ending of the Cold War it would not have taken much, a stupid military commander and/or politician somewhere in the world, to have the tanks rolling and the luftballons going up.

Especially strange for me was to see a seemingly empty village on the east side leaving me to wonder if people even leaved there and if they did what sort of people lived there so close but yet so far from the West.

Our visit to the border ended fairly quickly and I'd like to say that my fellow soldiers were as equally taken back with both the view of a oppressed land and the realization of how damn lucky we were to live in a place that despite its numerous faults was lightyears better when compared to the lands we saw stretching eastward. However, all the talk on the bus consisted of the normal stuff twenty-somethings guys talk about when forced into a sparse female environment. In the end I guess that is what freedom to a large extent is all about.

On a closing note this post was "inspired" by the twentieth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Watching the television pictures two years later of Germans climbing on top of the wall that only weeks before would have gotten shot was beyond amazing. I don't think many realize or at least remember now that conventional wisdom from all the highly educated diplomatic, geo-political, and military types said that the only way that wall would come down would be under the force of tanks with mushroom clouds spouting all around.

Since then I have heard more times than I want to count conspiracy theories about "New World Orders". Hell, an important part of the History Channel's programming are shows about various conspiracies involving shadowy figures controlling things. But maybe, once all the self-aggrandizing crap by the political ideologues and conspiracy theorists are boiled away, a large segment of people realized how stupid and oppressive the system they were living under was and decided they would not take it anymore.

Nah, such an event would be giving credit for commonsense to the masses and would be a bad example since in my opinion the menace of Communism has been replaced by the religion of voracious hyper-capitalism, and the billionaires doing "God's work" wouldn't want their special status upset.

Just go ahead and piss on Mother Nature some more

Got to hand it to the naked primates running around bitching about the tree huggers threatening economic globalization and endangering corporate profits over silly things like recycling or being responsible for trash we all make. To hear some of the nice and pretty business pundits on the financial-religious shows talk its as if fundamental rights are being violated by promoting efforts to curb our relentless pollution of the planet.

A few weeks ago I was channel surfing and landed upon one of the business channels and due to my basic instincts stopped because one of the blonds on the show had big hooters and was gladly exposing the upper portion of said cleavage. During that segment the usual collective of little shits, twits, and bimbos were whining about how mandatory recycling of common plastics in certain urban areas was going to cost jobs and cost the consumer extra money resulting in some sort of dire consequences for Western Civilization. Now this whining is not unusual, more recently more or less the same group, while not coming out and saying it directly, were all having a minor spasm over how it was unfair for health insurance companies to be forced to take on the burden of people with preexisting conditions. Being even more vague they all agreed, from what I understood, that anyone with a preexisting condition was simply shit out of luck if they didn't have the money to pay for a doctor themselves.

So with such compassion about their fellow humanity you can imagine how little they care for the cheap plastics that we gleefully cast aside not giving a rat ass about where they end up. Of course, living in a closed system (the planet Earth y'all) the Greater Union of Marching Morons never realize that it will eventually find its way back to us in some manner.

Great Pacific Garbage Patch

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, also described as the Eastern Garbage Patch or the Pacific Trash Vortex, is a gyre of marine litter in the central North Pacific Ocean located roughly between 135° to 155°W and 35° to 42°N and estimated to be twice the size of Texas.^[1] The patch is characterized by exceptionally high concentrations of suspended plastic and other debris that have been trapped by the currents of the North Pacific Gyre. Despite its size and density, the patch is not visible from satellite photography because it consists of very, very small pieces, almost invisible to the naked eye ^[2] and most of its contents are suspended beneath the surface of the ocean. ^[3]

Sources of pollutants

It has been estimated that 80% of the garbage comes from land-based sources, and 20% from ships at sea. An average 3,000 passenger cruise ship produces over eight tons of solid waste weekly, much of which is carried by currents to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. ^[13]Pollutants range in size from abandoned fishing nets to micro-pellets used in abrasive cleaners.^[14][15][16] An international project led by Dr. Hideshige Takada of Tokyo University studying plastic pellets, or Currents carry debris from the west coast of North America to the gyre in about five years, and debris from the east coast of Asia in a year or less.nurdles, from beaches around the world may provide further clues about the origins of pelagic plastic, including that of the Pacific garbage patch.^[17]

Plastic photodegradation in the ocean

The Eastern Garbage Patch has one of the highest levels of plastic particulate suspended in the upper water column. As a result, it is one of several oceanic regions where researchers have studied the effects and impact of plastic photodegradation in the neustonic layer of water.^[18] Unlike debris which biodegrades, the photodegraded plastic disintegrates into ever smaller pieces while remaining a polymer. This process continues down to the molecular level.

As the plastic flotsam photodegrades into smaller and smaller pieces, it concentrates in the upper water column. As it disintegrates, the plastic ultimately becomes small enough to be ingested by aquatic organisms which reside near the ocean's surface. Plastic waste thus enters the food chain through its intense concentration in the neuston.

Some plastics decompose in the ocean within a year of entering the water, leaching potentially toxic chemicals such as bisphenol A and derivatives of polystyrene.^[19]

Impact on wildlife

Some of these long-lasting plastics end up in the stomachs of marine birds and animals,^[21] including sea turtles, and the Black-footed Albatross.^[22] Besides the particles' danger to wildlife, the floating debris can absorb organic pollutants from seawater, including PCBs, DDT, and PAHs.^[23] Aside from toxic effects,^[24] when ingested, some of these are mistaken by the endocrine system as estradiol, causing hormone disruption in the affected animal.^[22] These toxin-containing plastic pieces are also eaten by jellyfish, which are then eaten by larger fish. Many of these fish are then consumed by humans, resulting in their ingestion of toxic chemicals. ^[25] Marine plastics also facilitate the spread of invasive species that attach to floating plastic in one region and drift long distances to colonize other ecosystems.^[14]

This ain't good for anyone

Feeling really bummed out and lazy with no mental motivation beyond more beer, a movie, and then having Dragonwife tell me for the millionth time she has a headache. Actually did some yard work today in an attempt to be the respectable suburban dweller like all the other hive people I live around. It pretty much sucked beyond all description.

Came across this political cartoon from the Seattle Times and after hearing comments from several republicans, namely party hack and confirmed suckass Michael Steele, the evidence that they have all lost their minds continues mount. I have no idea if it will get this metaphorically bad with Palin, Beck, and Limbaugh excommunicating and executing anyone not carrying the extreme party-line but I figure its bad enough already.

Hopefully, I will get motivated, or at least think of something real to write in a couple of days. Then again I have more pictures from Hilton Head I can post.

Just a few Hilton Head memories

The only problem with nice weekends away from home is that they always end. As planned we came home Sunday after spending five hours at the outlet malls where Dragonwife and Miss Wiggles bought a few needed clothes and what I will describe as a trunk load of crap that in the end will just take up space either in the attic or garage. I would be neglectful if I didn't add that when we pulled out from the resort Dragonwife had volunteered to drive being that I had to go to work later that night. Long story short napping in a Toyota Corolla for someone my size does not really work.

The picture above is of the Saturday night sunset on Broad Creek. Around me were all sorts of ghouls and goblins doing the resort sponsored Halloween activties. Miss Wiggles dressed as a witch and I would have included pictures of her in custom except none were in focus.







Being completely screwed up and out of chronological order this is a picture of the beach on Saturday afternoon. I found this sand castle looking like some abandoned ancient city from a lost civilization. That Saturday was just about a perfect day as they come. I was able to ditch Dragonwife and Miss Wiggles who were taking part in a craft back at the main resort. The only problem I had at that moment was that the beach house bar was closed for the season and there were no cute babes or smoking hot MILFs anywhere to be seen.










Even more chronologically screwed up this is the resort pier sticking out on Broad Creek. This was taken on Friday afternoon as the clouds moved in and the mist started swirling around giving it an almost fantasy feel.

Across the creek you can still see the mansions owned by the truly rich and famous. I have actually heard that real estate agents have special checks they do on any potential buyer long before any house is shown. Which I understand to a certain level but the devil is in the details and if the story I heard is true such things like politics and family history are taken into consideration. So say I win fifty million in the lotto and want to buy one of those mansions I was told that it just wouldn't happen.


This last item is just a short video of the beach with me walking around enjoying the sights, sounds, and smells of the beach. I promise I don't say much.

Some Disney Hilton Head resort rest and relaxation

Just chilling right now with a half-empty bottle of Rolling Rock beer thinking about the awesome seafood dinner from earlier tonight that now is just a very fond memory. When we arrived this afternoon the tide was high with a nice, steady breeze coming from the west bringing with it the scent of the marsh that, while this might sound trite, felt like like seeing an old friend again.

I don't really like Hilton Head. It is severely over development and the majority of its "upper crust" inhabitants like to claim with a straight face and more than a little arrogance of being long-time locals while completely ignoring the African-American guy bagging their groceries who can trace his roots back to the Civil War.

But, this place still has little spots set aside from all the commercialism, golf courses, and outlet malls that still have some small echo of what this place was before it was invaded and overran. If you look closely at the picture and see the small pier in the center right that is where Miss Wiggles and I spent the last minutes of daylight. Clouds had moved in and a soft mist swirled around us with the breeze that greeted us earlier turning a little chilly. It was very peaceful and if I tried very hard I could ignore the huge mansions across the creek.

In the morning Wiggles and I will cross the main highway and sneak into the the beach house crossing over to the beach to watch the sunrise. On past morning excursions we have seen a pod of dolphins paralleling the shore; carefully inspected the path a Loggerhead turtle mama took crawling from the ocean to dig an underground nest in the sand for her eggs, only to leave her children to return back to Mother Ocean; and we have met lots of interesting people from all over the country and world.

Even with the little pocket of this island we have carved out for ourselves, mostly ignoring what has been spoiled Sunday will come all too soon requiring us to return home. So all I can say is if you ever get down around this area there is much that is still good, holding onto the history and culture that once flourished here. There are countless Civil War era sights stretching from Charleston down to Savannah. The rich Gullah culture of the sea islands can still be found despite the best efforts of the developers to make the area lily white. And places like Pinckney Island National Wildlife Refuge and Savannah Wildlife Refuge offer glimpses of what this place was like before Europeans came and brought all the blessing and curses of progress.

My beer bottle is empty now and I hear persistent whispers of its buddies calling me, so good night and see y'all again in a little while.

Political graveyard eroticism

Another South Carolina politician gets caught


Politicians are truly a different breed of people. While insurance agents and car salesmen are famous for looking you straight in the eye and lying I believe politicians and bureaucrats have the mental ability to actually believe two conflicting points of view.

Especially here in South Carolina where our elected officials and bureaucrats can't seen to decide if they want to be monuments to family values and virtue or typical politicians out to get laid as much as possible using their position and power.

Personally its seems reasonable to me that there should be a power to aphrodisiac scale with higher ranking politicians able to attract more and better looking ladies wanting to parlay their physical attributes into some sort of advantage. I mean its a given that a president, senator, congressman, or governor should be able to attract educated, and gorgeous ladies for passionate trysts in such places like the Oval Office or far away lands like Argentina. The scale would then fall exponentially with lower ranking politicians and bureaucrats having to accept ladies of less standing and met in places far less glamorous. Still some standards should still hold, with limits no self respecting person should fall below and chances that should never be taken.

South Carolina state attorney caught with stripper in graveyard

A deputy assistant attorney general who said he was on his lunch break when an officer found him with a stripper and sex toys in his sport utility vehicle has been fired, his boss said Wednesday.

Roland Corning, 66, a former state legislator, was in a secluded part of a downtown cemetery when an officer spotted him Monday, according to a police report obtained by The Associated Press under the Freedom of Information Act.

As the officer approached, Corning sped off, then pulled over a few blocks away. He and the 18-year-old woman with him, an employee of the Platinum Plus Gentleman's Club, gave conflicting stories about what they were doing in the cemetery, Officer Michael Wines wrote in his report, though he did not elaborate.

Corning gave Wines a badge showing he worked for the state Attorney General's Office. Wines, whose wife also works there, called her to make sure Corning was telling the truth.

He then searched the SUV, where he found a Viagra pill and several sex toys, items Corning said he always kept with him, "just in case," according to the report.

Corning and the woman were let go without charges. Wines' wife reported the call to her supervisor, who told Attorney General Henry McMaster.

"We received credible information about inappropriate behavior Monday afternoon," McMaster said Wednesday. "And by the close of business, he was no longer working here."

Such a trip to the cemetery "would not be appropriate, at any time, for an assistant attorney general," McMaster said.

There was no answer Wednesday at a number listed for Corning, who was a Republican legislator in the late 1980s and early 1990s. He was hired in 2000 by the attorney general's office, where he worked on securities cases.

South Carolina has had its share of scandal lately, most notably Gov. Mark Sanford's disappearance in June. His office told reporters he was hiking the Appalachian Trail, but he was really in Argentina visiting his mistress.