DIVERSIONS

 

December 30, 2023

I had started 2023 with the vague notion to create the Johnny Huckster persona which was going to be within the Community Product and Service Exchange concept. 

We need to get behind something. People are using thrift stores much more, spontaneous markets have begun to pop up, and in my travels, I see gas stations selling goods that are obviously homemade and locally sourced.

 When there is a major conference somewhere in the world, who goes? The G-20? Certainly not the People. NAFTA? Wasn't that about crushing small business on both sides of the border? 

What have we got to get behind, then?

 We set up a series of Community Exchanges. 

What we do is trade amongst each other. Zoom or actual meetings. No more third Thursday of the month meetings to connect unless you want to. Let THEM worry about cargo ships stuck in the Suez Canal and the  Somali pirates.

Community Product and Service Exchange. How does only Facebook have a marketplace? Though I have noticed it works well for regular folks selling their surplus stuff. 

Much like the Grange of Old, at the CPSE, we store surplus, shelf-stable goods. There are days we are open and staffed by volunteers. 

Bring Sysco and its food like products to its knees. I saw amazing growth in the farm to table initiatives as Covid progressed and corporate shelves were getting empty.

Imagine a Community Exchange (CE) in any form you like. These abandoned malls and closed Burger Kings and country homes on the verge of being too expensive to repair. You know, Turkey threatens to close US bases in 2019? Fangool to them ...imagine the savings if we did. Close the bases and Ambassador palaces. 

We could close 200 bases in Turkey Japan and Germany.. We could fund 1,000 No-kill animal shelters across the country with 20,000 employees if we start abandoning the Middle East. Or a free intercontinental bus system. The Middle Eastern people haven't stopped killing each other since 4000 BC. Leave them be.

Once upon a time every town had a Grange but they were all closed up in my young years. Some had 125 years of farmers selling their wares, and the furniture makers marketing their wares, and wool garmenters, their home made wears.

I belonged to a food co-op in '73 and '74, and to get the wholesale prices, you needed to volunteer two hours a month. I'd have a backpack full of peanuts and potatoes and carrots to bike home with, and was even a vegetarian for a while with so much produce available. It was about that time when I learned how Veal Loaf was made.

Art or Furniture or anything else that used to be made in this country, can be sold at these Community Product and Service Exchanges CPSE. 

You're going to see a BUY USA initiative get serious this y.ear.

A focus on locally sourced products that local people are looking for. 

Community Exchanges would also trade with each other, exchanging surpluses. Sending Mangoes up in June and sending peanuts down in September.

The Johnny or Jenny Huckster, is the person that drives between the Community Product and Service Exchanges. This is what I was trying to put into action in 2023.

I try to have as low a carbon footprint as possible with my 2009 HHR. At 52 MPH on a smooth road, I get 39MPG. I lived AND worked in and out of that car over 125 days in 2023. I visited ZERO tourist destinations and used a single burner propane burner to cook when outdoors. 

Biscuits and Gravy at local historical home. Single burner and my cast iron pan gets the job done.
I made Chicago Dogs at Mill Woods in Wethersfield. Completely contained in my relatively small vehicle. That was the goal.

cute cat pic till I find the "mill woods chicago dog" pic

An improvement on that carbon footprint would be Bio-diesel. Using restaurant oil to deliver to restaurants. Some delicious irony there and a double pun.

Or deliver to Food Trucks, which is another trend that will be big in the next five years. Not just farm to plate, but farm to food trucks. Putting the chain restaurants out of business. Their greed is going to drive them out of business. Pricing themselves right out of the market.

So to create Johnny Huckster I had to be Johnny Huckster. The spokes that support the hub that the Community Exchange would be.

 I had to live it and also, I have to do what I can ... while I still can, as I approach 70.

        #Houselessness is trending. It was an adventure for me. I could have borrowed a few hundred bucks to get a roof over my head, but I wanted to do this. One last ride. Well ... a couple last rides. I've been in 32 states the last three years.

Like I mentioned, our American economy is about to change dramatically but, I'm hopeful it will be mostly good changes. 

The people who save the seed grow the food ship the food, process all the agricultural products people who cook your food and clean up the mess you make at Cracker Barrel. We'uns going to create our own economy and by doing that we will resolve our left/right differences and without the parasitical white collar class we will all make more money.

I'm imagining people living out of their food trucks. I see these electric bicycles popping up everywhere. The whole economy is ready to do a transposition into Market Socialism. 

The hapless, feckless fools in Washington are all about enabling corporate control of all markets. They don't even know we exist anymore. So we're going to create a new economy as if the old one doesn't even matter. 

We need food trucks at work sites. We need work sites so we can get food. Let the buyer beware. Caveat Emptor (let the buyer beware) is also CE. We are not the rubes of 1950 who bought into every corporate ensnarement they could get their hands on. I recall the Tabacco industry going to Saturday movies back in the 30's and 40's and give away free cigarettes so the kids would get hooked.
       Gonna be A LOT of bridges getting repaired and rebuilt in the near future. Water pipes collapsing and rotten in big cities need to be replaced. Everyone trying to be millionaires with the overlapping pyramid schemes in the last 40 years and resource and ecosystem destruction fueled development and to create the illusion of prosperity. 

Alachua, Tallapoosa, and Tallahoma would all have exchanges and would trade with each other. Add Durham and Four Oaks and I am looking into the Franklin North Carolina Asheville corridor for opportunity.

My target area is; Franklin Georgia to Franklin Tenneesee to the, oh so beautiful, Franklin North Carolina. 

Look that up and within that triangle is where the best "climate change --- work at home" place to be is going to be. Learned that from a strange visitor at a campground, and from some real estate insiders. In ten years most of North Carolina will be too expensive to live in for the workers.

At the Community Exchange (CE) we would co-incidentally keep Caveat Emptor (CE) as the underlying theme. "Let the buyer beware". The motto of the marketplace for thousands of years will return.

People should be able to sell tinctures and potions out of their house. Or have a Raw Milk delivery route.

Here's the rub. Without government regulation or interference.

So much STUFF out there that needs to be fixed. And seriously do you go to thrift stores? The world can stop making clothes for ten years and we would still have most of it ending up in the dumpsters. 

    We create our own network of Community Exchanges. Running between them are the Johnny or Jenny Hucksters.

I haven't told my stories to anyone yet and I didn't even write down any notes in 2023, so I have to flashback. 

I remember driving away from Tennessee headed for Durham and getting in a three hour traffic jam to go 40 miles outside of Chattanooga. That was going to have me coming in late to Asheville. After sunset.

I wanted to check out the Asheville alternative scene and I needed a place to spend the night. I ended up getting there at 8 that evening and finally staying at an RV friendly Cracker Barrel after a visit to the Waffle House. 

            After five hours of sleep, I needed a rest room. 3 am there were none. Wait, there's a Waffle House. Then I figured I could just pullover on the Blue Ridge somewhere and get a couple more hours of sleep, so that's what I did. I drove out of town then slowly up the Blue Ridge Parkway to Mt. Mitchell which was my #1 goal. 

It was raining up on the Blue Ridge but not foggy, which was a great relief and I found a pullover that no one was going to bother me at . Well, there was the big heavy storm at that time, closing roads and whatnot. Headline news. It was the 18th of June and I was catching up to the storm as I drove eastwards. 

I woke up three hours later to three inches of water in the parking area.  I must have slept through a downpour. Lucky to have my Crocs on. But it was all good, 6 o'clock and I was a half hour from Mt Mitchell.

I was up to the parking area at 6:45, even before the employees. Too foggy for the big view, but dry enough to hike the moss covered trails.

Hiking comfortably amidst massive moss at 6300 feet, I noted on FB that people on Mt Washington at 6288 feet were probably pretty cold. And that, after the harrowing drive up the thin laned and precariously curved mountain road. 

There was one facebook friend who posted pictures of them and some friends in their Parkas with piles of snow in the background. All smiling after not sliding off the dangerous icy road to the summit. It was late June and 60 degrees on Mt. Mitchell to start the day. Extremely recommended if you're down that way, Mt. Mitchell has an easy drive up, and a spacious parking area.

Johnny Hucksterism is a lifestyle and I lived it in 2023. 125 days on the road. No notes so I'm going to indulge my memories. This is a manual for laying out your future. "van life" as some call it. #Houselessness is trending and I never considered myself homeless. I was building a business model. It was also one last adventure perhaps, as I approach 70 but still enjoying sleeping in a cot and looking up at the stars from my tent, or the HHR Moon Roof. 

One theme. I go where the good weather is. Or I been hella lucky. 

            First of January in 2023 I went to practice my camping at Fort Drum for five days. Trying the patience of my calves and triceps as I dragged everything I needed six tenths of a mile to the campsite. I counted the steps. 2500. So in a five day stay I walked it 12 times, let's say. Mostly to charge the phone back at the car. 14.4 miles in total and my back never felt better sleeping on my borrowed cot. Legs and arms felt strong when it was over.

glad I saw the Georgia Guidestones before they were blown up by the local snowflakes. Illuminati boogie man you know.

In April, I went to Georgia to paint a house. A twelve day, all expenses paid, cannabis friendly, biscuit-fest. I also began tearing up a sidewalk of interlocking pallets. They were slippery and dangerous but kept the walkway above water. We made a plan for finishing in July. 

             Twelve days deep in the forest in Georgia within sight of the Alabama border and then back to work in Florida. No one was even aware I was gone. Going to Carolina for a week I told a few people since I am expected weekly at most of my jobs. 

                  At the time K was done renting a room from B and she wanted to get the heck out of Florida before it got too hot. So we shared a camping spot at Donald McDonald Campground for 8 days in April 2023. Ten dollars a piece per day. Then I went to site #14 by myself for four days. Beautifully managed, foresty place. 

So, I was literally in the forest for the entire month of April with the combinations of jobs and situations I found myself in. This felt like what I was trying to accomplish. 

And you bet your bippy I was wore out from camping, cars and couches for an entire month. 

It hurts. Sometimes everything hurts. But I'll tell you what, there are going to be many thousands like me looking to avoid the high rents and make an attempt to live and work out of their car. So let me recall as much detail as possible and try to explain the business model i am trying to create.

 

             Stayed with ex and son till June 14th and then a planned house and dog sitting gig was on deck in Durham. 

Streamside in Lynchburg Tennessee 

                        Sturdy inside. Has electric. Be a nice site for a 

COMMUNITY PRODUCT AND SERVICE FACILITY. We can do it folks. Create a new small business economy as if the old one doesn't even matter.

There was a brouhaha about some Fathers day slippers I was supposed to deliver, but I already had plans.  I had three hundred pounds of some very fine, rich people paver rocks to deliver. Some medicine to deliver to Tennessee. Great weather in Georgia again last June and then Tennessee. Summer hadn't hit yet. In Lynchburg Tennesse I stayed in a newly purchased plantation home that was getting renovated. Asked about a painting gig there but they got it all done themselves.

Two barns on site and fencing for Sheep. Some really fine hundred year old trees. A creek was nearby and giant slabs of rock appeared to have been moved by the currents during extreme washouts. (see photo above).  So much Birdlife it seemed; like I hadn't seen since my childhood when birds were always flying out of the brush all day long.

And fireflies. So many and a family of Cardinals were feasting on them. Fireflies is bird food with lights on, so it was moonlight madness sittin' on that . 

       So far, staying in the forests in June and July also. 

In Durham North Carolina, I had a dog/cat/house sitting gig in a nice 60's style house in the Parkwood Section. Close to downtown. Importantly, one of the most nicely designed neighborhoods I've ever seen. Most houses were off the main road but close enough for easy access. So much safer and every house looked different quite unlike Indian River County and its ticky tacky gated communities. There was a really swell Mideast Market with some unique selections to create recipes that was near the community garden.

     Amazingly, there was an Ancient Forest trail that started within view near the back yard. So me and Baloo, the lovable Pittie, would hang out in the back yard. Anyone walked by and he'd be off barking. Don't need a no trespassing sign with Baloo on duty. 

The picture below doesn't do the Ancient Forest trail any justice. Very nice hiking trail that started next door and a community garden that was flowering prolifically at the other end of the trail. The weather continued to stay cool till about the 4th of July. At the same time I saw the smoke and haze from the Canadian wildfires roll in. 

Two days we stayed indoors. Hot and Smoky. Summer of 2023 finally caught up with me. In Florida, where I normally would have been, it was fully summer with its debilitating humidity. It was also Mango season and I had brought a bunch with me. People going ewww when I posted a picture of my Spam l'mangue. Organic Mango, locally sourced peppers and Spam.

I managed to stay out of state for a month and check off the last thing on my bucket list which was seeing the Rhododendrons in bloom in the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Parkwood  Durham NC

  

So, another month on the road. 3 weeks in Durham and a week in Georgia finishing the walkway project. Sixty five days so far. I didn't go back either time to re-supply at my storage space. I was totally contained, then switched back to a working vehicle on July 15th and stayed with the ex and my youngest till October 15th. 

Customers seemed all right with me being gone for a month and it was a most triumphant moment to have finished a second full month as Johnny Huckster.

You don't see the homeless till you are homeless or houseless yourself. I stayed at truck stops for $5.35 and saw the homeless on their bicycles and some with their young children and I listened to stories about conflicts while standing in line. 

I stayed at a location that will remain a secret for now. Cost $0.00. A little outside of town but nice dark sky to watch the moonrise of see the stars. Listen to the distant sounds of large bird life. Big hooty Owls. Trying to figure out what noises were alligator noises, and did I just hear a pig getting caught by a Panther or Coyote? 

      Another thing about memory. What do you do as you see your own facilities decline? Many elderly will be homeless or already are as the squeeze continues to bleed the middle class, and the long time essential workers of the lower middle class. 

This is the core of my business model. How are people going to move around? Where will we live? It's concerning that predatory male creeps are everywhere and the safety of women trying to be Jenny Huckster is in jeopardy. 

And where are all the Black People? They have to be overly cautious with all these crazy, heaven-bound, gun crazed White people around. Not to mention the knuckle dragging white nationalists and racist police.

In St. Lucie County there is a gigantic rest area, but you are only allowed to stay there 3 hours. THREE. Florida state law.

But I felt I was an advantaged homeless. I had a car. And money for gas and I have work commitments. But I was running out of places to be discreet. My luck that this area has been noted for its notoriously over priced rentals.

Now it's 2024 and I need to expand on this. 

addentia

The whole economy is doing an inversion. It looks like the paperwork parasites will be on the run since Artificial Intelligence can easily replace them. 

Non-profit banking and non-profit insurance companies can bring the cost of housing down tremendously. Have hope, there are ways for nearly all Americans to achieve home ownership.