The coastland times. [volume] (Mnateo [i.e. Manteo], N.C.) 1947-1959, 1958-09-19
DOWN
TO
EARTH
By
CARLTON
MORRIS
WE ARE ALL DEPENDANT
ON OUR CADETS
Editor. The Index
Goiesville. N. c.

Last Thursday afternoon sud-
den cloudburst and electrical storm
hit our town and the power went
off with very little warning. Ow-
ing to the black. overcast sky, no
one could see how to do any office
work, even thought it was only A
pm.
Folks came out on the streets
and stood around helplessly until
the storm broke in all it's fury.
Then they went inside to wait it
out.
All of which just goes to show
how dependent we are on the
gadgets we have invented during
the last few years. Why we can't
work, cook OF even get drink of
water or go to the bathroom with
out electricity.
1t is true that we have much
better life, and while l am not in
that category, most people have
great deal more leisure time to
enjoy living due to the many lux
uries that we now take for grant
ed. Con the purely personal side, l
am either going to have more
leisure time or l will change my
way of making living in the
near future.)
While life is very much better
for us than it was even 25 years
ago, we have become slaves to
these very gadgets. We spend our
lives trying to keep up an auto
and TV set and in most cases
we would be happier if we didn't
have either. Every time we touch
the starter on the auto it costs US
money. Then we hop in the car
and take off to far places to see
the world, and when we return we
can give only blurred impressions
of what we saw as it streaked by
our windshield.
We have lost the art of reading
and talking and family get-togeth-
ers are only held once a year as
we spend our lives gazing upon
the artificial boiler-plate world of
make-believe that is television.
And even when we do get together
for a brief Sunday afternoon, we
must hurry and be off to see the
world or hurry back home to see
Maverick or to gloat over the
never-ending wealth that is dished
out to few people who can tell
the world better than anybody,
what type of G-string the natives
of Timbuktu wear, while our
mouths water from envy and our
eyes water from strain.
Yes, it's great life if you don't
weaken. Now we take to the water
purely for pleasure, but one of
my fondest memories concerns an
old skiff that l rowed many weary
miles before day on winter morn
ings. Papa and I once built
house about five miles from home.
We climbed out of bed at A am.
and with a cold moon peering
down at us, we walked a half mile
to the boat landing and usually
papa rowed us some two miles
across the river. Then we contin-
ued on a couple of miles to our
job and we travelled by shank's
mare. After 10 to IL hours, de-
pending on the amount of day
light, we walked back to our boat
and to me fell the task of rowing
us back home again, and most
times the self-same moon was
peeping down on us before we had
supper and fed the mule and hogs
and got in enough wood by the
light of kerosene lantern to cook
breakfast and keep the house
warm. l though it was a good life
then, and only one thing puzzled
me. was almost grown before /
could understand why my dad pre-
ferred to row over in the morning
while he was rested and made me
do the heavy work after we were
exhausted from a day of labor.
Life is a great deal like an in
surance policy. Some companies
take benefits off one end and stick
them on the other and they usually
end up about the same. So it is
with life. In those days of hard
work and little profit, we never
even heard of indigestion and ner-
vous tensions. We didn't have time
to go to rest homes for our nerves,
and / still believe that day or
two of hard manual labor will
ease off most nervous disorders.
Nerves were something we
couldn't afford before we got cleo
tricity and started going to the
bathroom in the house.