Doc Stevens

Tondeleo: As I mentioned in the last posting, my friend and fellow Brit, Cyril Baptist came to stay with Doc and Marilyn for a few weeks at the end of the Summer. Cyril and I have been mates for yonks, and he has always wanted to come to the States and meet the characters that I tell him about. I have been regaling him with my Doc and Marilyn stories for ages. This past Summer he got to fulfill a dream by coming to the States and actually staying with Doc and Marilyn. Actually more with Doc, because Marilyn is spending most of her time on the Eastern Shore of Maryland and is only in Southern Maryland when they are playing or just because she wants a visit. Or, because Doc guilts her into visiting. 

Here are some more of Doc's reflections on Cyril's visit. These are transcribed from my digital recording.

Tonedeleo: So, Doc, you and Marilyn bought some Camo based outfits and ball caps for Cyril for him to wear while he was here. Why exactly was that?

Doc: Well, Tondy, when you got a visitor you're kind of 'sponsible for they's well bein'. It wouldn't been right to have him hangin' out some of the places where we hang out dressed like an English office boy. People woulda picked on him for sure.

Tondeleo: Weren't you at all concerned that it could have hurt his feelings, making him wear clothes other than the ones he brought? I mean, it's a bit brash, you know. 

Doc: I ain't sure 'bout no brash. But I was more interested in it coulda hurt him more than in his feelin's if you know what I mean. They's guys what woulda first picked on him for how he talked - like a Brit, like you - and then for how he woulda 'sponded when they talked to him and then for how he dressed. You gotta do what you can to help someone.

Tondeleo: I do know that I had a hard time my first visit or two with some of your rural friends due to me being a bit more... umm... cultured than some of them. And I had to learn to just ignore it when they would tall me I talked girly. In fact YOU used to tell me you liked the girly way I talked, Doc! Remember that?

Doc: Sure I remember that! Guess why I said you talked girly, Tondy?  But no, really, they's people here what will pick on someone else whose 'merican 'cause of how they talk. 'Specially down south. They ain't like the way Yankees tall and will let you know it. Me an' Marilyn wanted to make sure Cyril had a good time while he was here.

Plus we ain't made him dress normal everywhere we took him. Like some of the churches we took him to play in he just wore his English clothes but with jeans and tennis shoes [plimsoles]. He just had to dress normal in the places when we took him out where people is more sensitive to how you look. You ain't wanna go somewhere dressed like you think you're better than them.

He got to understand it once he'd been here a while. But he wouldn't take even one stitch of them clothes back to your country when he went home! He said people would either laugh at him or beat him up for dressin' regular like we do here. Well, neither me or Marilyn or no one in the band wants to go to England if you get picked on for wearin' camo.

Tondeleo: I don't blame you, Doc. I mean, who would want to go to a country where you can't where your own clothes?

Doc: That's exactly what I'm talkin' about. I ain't goin'.

Tondeleo:  This past Summer, my friend from South London, Cyril Baptist came to the States to spend a few weeks with Doc and Marilyn and their friends. Cyril is a great bloke and an incredible musician. I have never heard anyone as versatile nor as skilled as he is on the guitar. Plus he is funny, flexible and always up for an adventure. 

The morning after he arrived, he rang me up to let me know that Doc and Marilyn had bought him camo clothes to wear and a ballcap and that they said he would need to dress like that so no one would pick on him. He said it was humiliating, and asked me if he truly had to wear those clothes. I told him that actually,  yes, he'd be safer if he blended in than if he stood out. He was truly not pleased! I had Doc talk a bit, on a few occasions about Cyril's visit. Here is how it went:

Doc: Yeah, this was pretty crazy at first. That boy Cyril wrote me an' Marilyn an e-letter saying he was planning on coming in to Dallas and would just take a bus and a cab to our house, so we wouldn't have to worry about picking him up.

I e-wrote him back and tole him that Dallas is like more than 2,000 miles from Maryland, so he better not be coming in to Dallas. He changed his ticket to Dulles which is in VA but that he was still just gonna hop on a bus and then take a cab to us here. He don't know nothin' about America!

You ain't taken a bus to Western Charles County from Dulles or a cab. You would spend all day, get lost, get on the wrong bus and probally spend a couple hundred dollars after riding six or seven hours. That's why Americans got cars and trucks. It's quicker an' cheaper unless you live  in the city which we don't.

So on the day he is comin' here, he calls me an' says he will  be out front of Dulles and wearing a "petro" blue suit. What the heck is that? We drive the panel truck up there and circle round and round the front of the airport looking for an English kid in whatever a petro blue suit is. After about ten times and no kid, we pull into the pay parking lot and get out of the truck and go inside. Marilyn gets them to announce for Cyril Baptist from England to meet her at the desk.

In my last post, I was attempting to get Doc and Marilyn and Big Dave to discuss the end of the world, the Mayan calendar and survival. You can read how far we didn‘t get in that attempt. This segment is from a few minutes later in that same conversation, such as it was. 

I was trying to explain to Doc, Marilyn and Big Dave how unsettling it will be, according to all the scare mongers, when the next disaster strikes. I didn’t get too far. 

Tondeleo: OK, Doc, I understand that you don’t want to buy the Mayan calendar. And, like I said, there really isn’t a Mayan calendar for you or anyone else to buy. It just was like a prediction or something… but the point is that there are a lot of people saying that people ought to be ready for a disaster or for a zombie invasion…

Doc: Aint no ZOMBIES gonna invade nobody, Tondy! Don’t get your panties in a bunch…

Marilyn: I ain’t scared of zombies, Tondy! I have anointing oil that I got at the church and I would pour it on them and rebuke them in the name of Jesus! A zombie ain’t nothin’ but a demon livin’ in a corpse. I’d cast that demon out of that zombie and command it go to back to hell and the zombie would just be a dead person again…

Doc: Yeah, one more thing for me to bury around here.

Tondeleo: Well, what about being’ PREPARED, Doc? I read you about the “37 Foods You Must Have in a Disaster.” What do you think about that?

Doc: Well, Tondy, it’s a scam pure an’ simple. There ain’t no secret foods. That guy ain’t got no special secrets. OK: you gotta have water. We got a well, so we’re ok. Then you need to have things you can store. But we live like that anyway. You been out here in the winter. When it snows, ain’t no snowplows comin’ down here. We can’t get to the store.

We have sweet potatoes, regular potatoes, carrots, turnips and such down in the root cellar. They keep as long as you need ‘em. Why it’s called a root cellar.

Then we got salt cured ham and deer jerky. We even got some catfish jerky that Big Dave makes. We’re good for meat. We do that every winter and been doin’ that since I was a boy.

Plus, we got guns and ammo and plenty of deer, rabbits, squirrels and possums. We got fresh meat year round – all we have to go is take a walk in the woods.

When we ain’t got no electricity, we play the acoustic guitars… and Marilyn don’t need no electric to play her harp.

We got blankets and a woodstove, and kerosene lamps. That ain’t no disaster Tondy! It’s how all us live out here! Poor people been livin’ like that since the world began!

And you city boys think it’s the end of the world if you cain’t get your Starbucks and the interweb! You better man up, Tondy!

Big Dave: Well, if it IS the end of the world, you’re not gonna make it anyway. You’ll be dead. The world ended, remember?

Marilyn: The Bible says all this stuff is gonna happen in the last days. Tondy, what you need is the Holy Ghost. Then you wouldn’t be scared all the time. Do you want me to cast that spirit of fear off of you? I can do it if you want…

Tondy: No thank you Marilyn. I’ll be all right. I have some freeze dried food and other supplies coming from Amazon. 

Tondeleo: During the course of our discussion on how the rich people expect the poor to support them – and how for some reason many poor feel compelled to defend the rich, the topic turned to the TV preachers. I asked Doc if he ever sent money to the TV preachers. I know he and Marilyn and some of their friends go to church. I have never seen them watching any TV preachers, but I wondered if they sent money to them. Many of the American TV preachers promise that God will make you wealthy if you send them money. And many of the poorest of people do send them money. I have read that the richest ministries in America are supported primarily by the poor and the elderly. People who can least afford it. That is where this conversation begins.

“So, Doc, why is it that poor people feel compelled to send money to these obviously rich TV preachers? These TV preachers, both men and women boast about their wealth and their luxury cars, and their mansions and private jet planes. Yet, these things and that lifestyle came from the gifts of their donors, many of whom are poor and elderly. How is it that people give to them? I don’t get it.”

Doc: You’re right. You’re right, Tondy. But you gotta understand this. You ain’t never been poor. I ain’t never been nothing but poor.

When you’re poor, you know you can’t do nothing to ever have much money. Ain’t nobody want to pay a poor person more than minimum wage. They know you’re hurtin’ and they know you’ll take it. And they know that ain’t nobody else gonna pay you more than that, so you GOTTA take it.
So all you got left is two things.Either play the numbers [buy lottery tickets] or give to the TV preachers and hope that they is tellin’ the truth, that God’ll give you a hundredfold return. That means if I send them ten dollars, somehow God will let me get a hold of… of… of… uh.. ummm…

Doc reaches for a pencil and an envelope to add it up… 10 plus 10 plus 10 plus 10. I don’t want to wait for him to add it a hundred times.

Tondeleo: A hundredfold means you would get a hundred times ten dollars, Doc. That would be a thousand dollars for every ten dollars you send in.

Doc: Yeah, I was gettin' there. The TV preacher tell you the truth in one part. That is that if you plant a seed into good soil, it will grow and multiply. That is true, anyone knows that. If I plant a tomato seed and it grows, it will produce more than a hundred seeds from the tomatoes what grows on the plant. Maybe a thousand seeds. No argument there. That is the truth and you don’t even need to believe the Bible to know that.

But then they tell you that THEY is the good soil! That is like a rat tellin’ you if you plant your corn in good soil you will be eatin’ corn on the cob an’ then have a lot of seed left to plant more corn, which is true, but then that rat tells you that HE is the good soil! 

If you give your corn to the rat, Tondy, it ain’t gonna multiply! You ain’t gonna have corn on the cob! All you gonna have is rat turds.That rat so’t want you to plant your seed in good soil, he wants you to plant it in him so he can eat it! If you give your seed to the rat, you ain’t getting’ nothin’ back but turds.

God don’t nowhere in the Bible tell you to give your money to rich folks. He says to give your money to poor folks and needy folks. But not all needy folks is good soil neither. He ain’t tell you to give your money to crackheads and drug dealers an’ folks that is doin’ wrong or folks what hates God.

He says to give to the poor folks what you know. An’ widows an’ orphans – what is kids who ain’t got they parent lookin’ out for ‘em. Their parent may be alive but maybe their daddy is in jail and they mama is a crack head. Somebody got to look out for those kids.

He tells you to look out for the immigrants too, Tondy. He says help them. He don’t tell you nowhere to hate the immigrants.  

My preacher down at the church says if you give to help a person who is needy and can’t help themselves, the Lord will bless you for it. The good book says that. He says that the person what gives to the poor lends to the Lord and the Lord will repay you. You got to give to poor folks and help out those what needs helping. I marked it in my Bible right here so I could find it again. Got a piece of paper stuck in it. 

[Reading slowly and deliberately] “He that has pity upon the poor lends unto the LORD; and that which he has given the Lord will pay him back.” That is real clear. The good Lord wants us to give to the poor, not to the rich. And that is when God will bless you for helpin’ someone. When you give to the poor.

Tondeleo: And where is that in the Bible, Doc?

Doc: Let me find it again… that’s Proverbs chapter 19 and verse 17.
But God don’t bless you for givin’ to the rich. He said and I got it marked in my Bible… it’s right here. It is Proverbs chapter 22 and verse16. “He that oppresses the poor to increase his riches, and he that gives to the rich, shall certainly come to poverty.”
 
Now guess who that first part is about? It is about the rich people, including those rich preachers who take money from the poor so they can get richer. Those TV preachers tell the poor people that they will get a hundredfold return if the poor people send money to them.
But God says if you give to rich people, whether it is rich preachers or rich politicians, you’re definitely gonna stay poor.
 
You can’t be on TV every day unless you’re rich. It costs millions! And you can’t get to be a politician on any kind of level unless you’re rich. All them people runnin’ for President is multi-millionaires. Every one of them. And God says if you give them money, you’ll end up goin’ broke. 

My mama use to send 10 dollars a month to her favorite tv preacher for more than 30 years. And she ain’t never got not even a one fold return, let alone no hundredfold return. That’s because she was givin’ to the rich. You ain’t supposed to give to the rich. You’re supposed to give to the poor. That’s what Jesus said. She shoulda been givin’ that money to help ohter folks that was havin’ money problems. 

These TV preachers mostly is livin’ like kings on the money what poor folks send in. They is livin’ in mansions and flyin’ around in their jet airplanes. They ain’t givin’ money, they are spendin’ money on themselves. When is the last time you heard of a rich preacher or politician givin’ to the poor? I mean giving their own money to help the poor? It ain’t happenin’ Tondy.
If you’re givin’ to them, you’re not plantin’ your seed in good soil, you’re feedin’ a rat or a pig. If you feed your seed to a pig, you don’t get a return. Well, what you DO get ain’t nothin’ you want to eat. 

An’ Jesus said don’t cast your pearls before swine. That means don’t give your money to pigs. He said they will turn on you trample you. After you helped them, they will not help you, and you will end up worse than if you gave them nothing. 

If you read that Bible, it’ll keep you from sendin’ the money to the rich an’ it will get you to helpin’ the poor, no matter where they come from. That’s what me an’ Marilyn tries to do. Help people.

Tondeleo: Whilst talking with Doc about the Occupy movement and the world’s economy, we got on the topic of the poor and how they for some reason feel compelled to support the rich, and those who are making their millions off of poor people.

I was surprised at some of Doc’s opinions on this. Even after knowing him for years I tend to think of him and his friends as socially naïve and uninformed. And, even though they do tend to be uninformed and naïve in some things, they still are able to come up with some basic wisdom and clear thinking on a lot of the current issues.

Here are some excerpts from one of our conversations about this:

Doc: OK, Tondy, here is what don’t make sense first of all. You got these rich politicians and the rich bankers and heads of the big companies who is all billionaires, an’ they also own the newspapers and TV and radio. They ain’t want to be taxed like the rest of us. So they tell us how we are communists if we ain’t want to pay more taxes than them. 

Well, guess what? I ain’t no communist. But if I gotta pay 30% taxes on what little money I make, and then try to live on the rest, why shouldn’t  a billionaire pay the same thing and live on the rest? This is America where we is all supposed to be equal. Aint supposed to be nobody better than the rest.

And then you got all these old people an’ poor people what believes everything these billionaire vultures tells ‘em and they start sayin’ the same thing! That s jacked up, Tondy! Jacked up.
Like a hound dog goin’ around supportin’ blood ticks. Even my dog, Dale Junior will pull off a tick if he can. He is smarter than a lot of these people what is livin’ on social security and sayin’ we need to give the billionaires a tax break.

Them billionaires and their litle brothers the millionaires has been blessed. More blessed than we’ll ever be. They ought to count it as part of their thanks to the good Lord what blessed them to give to the poor and the old folks. I mean ain’t that why the Lord blesses a person for? So that person can help those in need? God ain’t blessed no one so they can hoard it for themselves. I ain’t that smart, but I can read the Bible.

I know that the Lord’ll bless them even more if they help the poor folks and the immigrants. But these folks hate immigrants! That ain’t right neither, Tondy. The Lord tells you to look out for the strangers and the aliens – not space aliens from outer space, but aliens and strangers is what they was called in Bible days. The Lord says be good to them an’ he will bless you. 

But these folks says you should hate the aliens and immigrants an’ send them back where they came from. Well guess what? Most of these folks what is sayin’ it ain’t exactly American Indians! They all  came from immigrants themselves! Maybe they need to go back to where they came from too! 

What is it all about? I can tell you. It is about the love of money and greed, like the Lord said. He said it was really bad when you love money more than you love people.

Tondeleo: I have been experimenting with Doc and his friends by exposing them to the American national news and then listening to their opinions of what I “made” them watch. 

They would not watch the news on their own initiative, and would rather be playing music or cards, or working in the garage. But, during this visit to the US, I have been staying at Doc’s and having him and whomever else is visiting to watch the news with me, and then we talk about it. 

I have been surprised at some of their insights and opinions. Part of it is because they are outsiders and have been outsiders all of their lives. They see themselves as separate from the “system” and they want no part of the system at all. They just want to live their lives and be left alone. 

However, after having them watch CNN, Fox, BBC, Russia Today and Al Jazeera news on the telly for the  last month, I am amazed at their comprehension. I will try to capture some of it for you.

Doc: OK, Tondy, I can tell you this much. Aint neither the Democrats or the Republicans care that much about America and the people what lives here. They care about America as a place for them to get rich. I mean they don’t want it to collapse ‘cause then where would they go where they could take advantage of so many people so easy, and make so much money.

They care more about hatin’ the other side. The other side is competin’ for the votes and the chance to make big money, so they hate the other side. At least when they is on TV they hate the other side. I think they is all cut out of the same piece of cloth an’ down deep they all have they own fellowship – which is the fellowship of power an’ money.

They ain’t pullin’ together to make this a better place to live. If one of ‘em has a good idea, the other ones is against it, just because of who’s idea it is.

Listen, it don’t matter WHO has an idea, if it is a good one, it’s a good one and we need to do it for the good of our country. And if it’s a bad one, then it is bad no matter who came up with it.

Also, both of them makes the other ones out to be the boogeyman. They try to scare you in how this country would be it you voted for the other guy. Ain’t none of them tellin’ the real truth. It ain’t like all the good people is one side and all the bad people are the other side. That’s just stupid. You can be an American and have a different opinion than someone else.

But both sides tryin’ to work the American people. And they both is actin’ – puttin’ on a show. They pretend that they are gonna be different from the other guy, because he is so bad. But really, they is all the same. They are lookin’ out for themselves and whoever it is that is given them money for all that travellin’ and advertisin’. It’s about greed, Tondy. You can’t run for President in this country without bein’ a millionaire. Even I know that. Greed ain’t a good thing in nobody. Especially not in someone who is able to spend all the peoples’ money what is paid in taxes.

Both sides try to get us scared, And that ain’t right. I ain’t believe in bein’ scared as a good way to think straight. It’s a good way to NOT think straight. And they know it, Tondy, and they USE that to get people to pick someone who is not right and vote for him. Bein’ scared ain’t nothin’ but fear, an’ my preacher says fear is not of God. God ain’t gonna make you scared, so when a man tries to make you scared, he ain’t of God, I don’t care what side he’s on.

These people try to divide the American people. We have a name, the United States, and that means that we are to pull together. Poor people know that. We pull together so we can eat, so we can keep the lights on and so we can keep that tags on the car and all that. But these guys try to make us hate each other and not trusts each other. That ain’t right in nobody’s mind. The good book says that if people can agree an’ work together ain’t nothin’ impossible. TO me, if a man tries to get to the top by makin’ folks scared of each other and hate each other, he ain’t much.

And look what they do, Tondy! They want whites to hate blacks and Mexicans, and for north to hate south, and people what ain’t religious to hate religious folk, and then to hate all the towel heads – and they ain’t all bad. I know some an’ they is just like you an’ me.

What I’m sayin’ Tondy is that if you is Republican or Democrat, you both want the same thing. You want to control the American people and keep ‘em divided so they keep votin’ for you. You want to get rich off the people was is the workin’ poor. You want people to hate other Americans and even some what is not Americans, and to keep ‘em scared of towel heads, Mexicans, blacks, whites, an’ religious people, and if that is what you are about, you are a piece of trash.

And worser than that, if you decide to go out there and make it known, they try to make people scared of YOU! That is what they is doin’ to the Occupiers that we see on TV! I watch the news and I see that it is old people, young people, white people, black people, Mexican people, Chinese people, and then the rich folk say that it is just spoiled college kids that want money for nothin’. That is so plain Ray Charles could see it.

Occupiers look like America to me. They ain’t some [predator] freaks what consume they own kind. They just want things to be fair. So the rich guys send fake Occupiers in to pee on the streets and steal things and make the Occupiers look bad. That ain’t right neither. All of it is tryin’ to make people scared all the time, and I ain’t buyin’ into it. Not for a minute. I gotta get back to work.

Tondeleo: The Occupy Movement in the US is in a sad situation. A sad situation for the people of the US, and ultimately for the government of the USA, I believe. I was discussing this with Doc after watching the scant coverage of it last weekend on the local Fox network from Washington DC. We also watched the coverage on NBC-4.

For some reason, the news media in the US cannot comprehend what Occupy is about. Even when the Occupiers articulate specifically what they are protesting, the American journalists seem to just not get it. And they SAY so. Doc and I discussed this and here are some highlights from that conversation.
Of course everyone knows that the American Constitution gives all citizens the right to protest, or assemble peaceably, but the police do not always see it that way. 

Doc: Well, Tondy, here’s what it’s about in my ‘pinion. You got the rich folks who is totally outta touch with the rest of us. There ain’t nothin’ wrong with makin’ money or getting’ rich because you’re makin’ somethin’ that people want to buy, or you’re helpin’ people in a big way and they reward you for it. Ain’t no one here mad about that.

What this is about, far as I am concerned is these are rich folk that make their money by buyin’ companies what wasn’t even for sale, but they bought up all the things called stocks so they controlled it. Then they sold off everything of value, an’ then sold what was left to another company. And all the workers there lost their jobs. But the first company what bought their company where they worked don’t care. They just wanted the money.

Now these folks ain’t got jobs, so they can’t pay the rent or the light bill or the car payment, so they are put out on the street and their car gets tooken away. That’s what some of ‘em is protestin’ about, and I don’t blame them one bit. It aint right.

Others have made big money by fore closin’ on peoples’ houses what they was tryin’ to buy, but then couldn’t pay for when they hours got cut down at the job, or they got laid off. So the banks take they houses, and lets ‘em sit empty rather than let the people what loved those houses be allowed to live in ‘em til things got better. 

So you got more people outta work an’ homeless, and no hope. But they’s house is sittin’ there empty and squirrels and possums and rats are livin’ in ‘em for free, and tearin’ ‘em up. That ain’t right neither.
Then we got them wars that ain’t right. Them people over there aint no threat to America. If they was, they’d be a threat to Canada and Mexico an’ Braazil an’ all the rest. So why do we think we gotta go over there an’ bomb the bejeezus outta they countries? 

I heard that some of them bombs we’re chuckin’ down over there is two million dollars apiece and some is three million dollars. And who pays for that? All these people over here what already can’t afford to live! What if they cut back by, say, 10 of them bombs a month? That would be… it’d be… uhhh…

Tondeleo: It would be twenty to thirty million a month, Doc. Good point.

Doc: Well, it would help a lot of people to pay off they houses or get ‘em back, and it would help a lot of businesses get back in business so people could work and spend money.

And if a man ain’t got nothin’ to do with his time, he’s gonna catch a bus up there to DC an’ make his voice be heard. 

When I finish up the couple of jobs I got in the shop, I’m gonna go up there myself. An’ I am takin’ my own little crowd with me.

What makes me mad is what I seen on TV, that the cops’ll come in an’ start sprayin’ people with pepper spray even though the people is just sittin’ there or ‘spressin’ they opinion. That ain’t American, Tondy. Ain’t American. 

I got some kids what is gonna protest with me an’ they ain’t care nothin’ about pepper spray! I got ‘em from in front of a buildin’ over to Virgina what was throwin’ ‘em out, an’ we got the preacher up to the church to help us letter ‘em up real good. I can Occupy anyplace I want now, Tondy! I am a one man protest!

I got a picture that Big Dave took of me last week when we was settin’ ‘em up to see how it would go. Put it in your blob about me.

Tondeleo : My last posting was about Gunter’s portable homemade workbench on a wagon. If you missed it, go back and read that post. It is a shining example of what can be done with little money, creativity and a bit of effort. My observation is that one reason that these people can make anything they want boils down to attitude.
Like all of us, they want things that they cannot afford. But instead of going in debt (most of them have no credit), or just whining about it, they have an attitude that says, “I’ll get it, even if I have to make it myself.” And then, they do exactly that.
Today I want to show you a picture of his two story enclosed porch that he made for family activities and an exercise room. He did it with used brick, discarded windows and other used materials, and some other materials that he got very cheaply.
Doc had told me about Gunter on several occasions, and then one day he took me over to Gunter’s house to see firsthand what he is capable of.

I have to confess that I believe that this man is a creative genius. He has an old Mercedes Benz in his garage, from the 1960’s. He has rebuilt the engine himself and has also repainted it there in his garage. It actually looks very nice, because he has hand rubbed the finish to a deep luster. He also has a coupe of old VW’s that he has restored, and several extra VW engines that he has rebuilt, just in case one goes bad.

His house started off as a mid size house and he has added on to it regularly. That is a common occurrence out here in the country. You see houses that began as shacks, and then have had room after room added on, to meet the needs of the inhabitants.

From the front of Gunter’s house, you can see where he dug out the front garden to make a driveway that leads to a two car garage that he added on. It is a very professional looking job. Along the edge of where he dug out his garden is a four foot high brick retaining wall on one side and a two foot high one on the other. He fabricated steel steps to get you up to the level of his original walkway, and he has made storage under the steps for his garden implements.
In the back, Gunter has built a two story porch as you can see in the picture. The ground floor is made from discarded bricks from demolition sites, as well as discarded windows. The floor, as you would have read in my former post is made from bits of 2X4 that he cut and made like a parquet style flooring. 

Upstairs, it is more interesting. As you can see I the pictures, the screened walls angle out. Why is that? Because Gunter got a good deal on 13 wooden screen doors, and they were too tall to go straight up and still give him the desired roof pitch for drainage and for snow to slide off. So he angled the walls out. 

You can also see the inner railings he made so his children and grandchildren won’t fall against the screen doors and get hurt. Since the wind blows from the north, he covered the north end of his porch with transparent fiberglass roofing panels. They let in the light, but keep out the blowing rain.He fabricated the steps out of scrap steel.

On the porch is a porch swing, a patio set, a brick barbecue set up and exercise equipment. And all of this cost him less that $2,000! He spent his Spring and Summer building it a few years ago.

In Gunter’s back garden is a home made garage/shop that also has been built for little money and has been added on to over the years. It started as a shed. He used privacy fencing to build exterior walls, adding three bays to it. Then he insulated the fence panels, added vinyl siding to them, and a roof! Now, he has a very cheap garage and shop!

Tondeleo: I never cease to be amazed at the creativity of some of these uneducated rural Americans. Many of them nave finished secondary school, and are not informed about (and indeed have no interest in) world events and politics, but they can invent and make almost anything. 

Below is a picture that I took of a workbench on a wagon that was built by one of Doc’s friends, Gunter (yes, Gunter, not Gunther). Gunter is handy and creative and always has some new invention he has come up with. 

Gunter is a family man, and like a lot of rural people, he keeps working on his house to improve it so it will be bigger and better for family gatherings over the holidays. He has added on an attached two car garage. He finished out his basement by adding a brick fireplace, a bar and family room. Across the back of his house, he has added a two story enclosed porch with a barbecue pit and exercise room. 

No plans or blueprints were used. Indeed no building permits were obtained. Gunter pictured these things in his head and commenced to build them.

He made a portable workbench on a wagon so he could transport his tools easily and have a work surface to use them on whilst working on his projects.

Doc: Yeah, that Gunter can make anything and fix anything. He’s smart, and like the rest of us, he don’t have any money. When you ain’t got money, you gotta use your brain more. You can’t let it hold you back just ‘cause you ain’t got any money. Country boys can SURVIVE, Tondy!
That wagon workbench of his is really nice. He got the wagon part of it at a tool sale. Then, he took scraps of one inch angle and welded up a little table to fit just inside the edges of the wagon. He put a frame about 8 inched or maybe ten for support, and also to hold the Pepsi cartons that he uses to hold his hand tools.

The Pepsi cartons are held in with zip ties, so he can remove them if he wants. The workbench is not welded to the wagon, even though welding is faster and easier. He bolted it in, in case one day he wants to take it off and do something different with his wagon. 

Gunter has a shop out back and he needs those wagon wheels to get his workbench from the house to the shop and back. Little wheels would get stuck in the mud.

This here picture is made under his porch what he built. Look at that floor! That didn’t costs him even one thin dime! He made it for free by pickin’ up old 2X4 scraps from off of construction sites and then cuttin’ them up into 10 inch sections and layin’ them on the sand what he put under his porch. That’s a good lookin’ floor, for free. 

Gunter’s a smart one, for sure. You ought to show people the picture of his porch from the outside, how he framed out the screening by using wooden screen doors.

He got all kinds of things what is worth writin’ about. He can fix cars, weld, do masonry work, electrical work, carpentry work, all of it. And he does it good. Write about him, Tondy.

Tondeleo: I apologise for the long lapse in posting. Due to the poor economy my travels have been limited. I finally made it back to the US to complete some assignments and I was able to spend some pleasant time off with Doc and Marilyn and some of their friends.

I made several hours of recordings and took reams of notes so I should be able to post regularly again. Also, I was given several vids of Doc and Marilyn and their friends playing music, so I should be able to post them on YouTube soon.

One thing that I’ve noticed is the very clear disappointment that Americans seem to have with their government and the economy. I had thought it was primarily a European phenomenon, but it is widespread in America as well.

A lot of Americans blame President Obama for it and also their Congress. From what I can read, all this didn’t begin with President Obama. A lot of what they are angry about was initiated under President Bush, and President Clinton before him.

I asked Doc why he and his friends feel that socialism (they call it “communism,” by the way) is getting the upper hand.

His answer was actually well thought out and surprised me. Here it is:

Doc: Well, Tondy, I know everybody wants to be happy and the government is s’posed to make sure everyone has the chance to be happy. We learnt that in school.

But not everybody is gonna be happy. For me, I want to work and make a few dollars. I want to play music and be left alone by the government. I just want to live my life.

Other folks don’t wanna work and want the government to take care of ‘em an’ pay all their bills. Well, I ain’t wantin that. And the government don’t really have any money, ‘cept what they take from the people, which is by taxes. So really it aint the government what is payin’ those peoples’ bills, it is me an the other folk what is workin’ that is payin’ for all that.

Tondeleo: I can see where that is a problem for you: You and your friends don’t seem to make very much money in the first place…

Doc: You’re right, Tondy, an’ it’s not only the people what’s on unemployment what we gotta help support but we got wars goin’ on what is also bein’ paid for by the common man. I heard that a bomb costs about 3 million dollars. I ain’t ever gonna see that much money in my life. An’ we are payin the salary of every soldier, every general, every contractor…

An’ we are payin’ for all the ships and jet planes an’ tanks an’ all the fuel what they use! Now how we gonna do that? That’s somethin’ I’m mad about. There ain’t enough people workin to pay for all the wars and bombs and soldiers and their families. No wonder we’re outta money. I caint even pay for the fuel in my panel truck!

It ain’t the immigrants what’s makin America broke, it’s the wars, if you ask me.  

Tondeleo: Well, that isn’t marxism, or socialism, or communism. That’s just part of living in a country with a huge military.

Doc: I don’t know about all those “isms.” An’ I gotta admit, we was trained from when we was kids to share with other kids. We had to share our clothes, our toys an’ all that.

But I learnt that some kids ain’t got no toys cause they broke their toys all up an’ now they want to take my toys so they can break them all up, too. And then they gonna holler for more toys to break. Well, they ain’t getting’ mine.

I gotta few nice guitars what I either made or bought cheap, an’ I ain’t givin’ ‘em to someone what broke his or tore it up. I would more likely give it to someone what took care of his own stuff.

In fact I done that a few times – give away guitars – to people what knew how to take care of ‘em but ain’t had one ‘cause maybe he just got outta jail or somethin; an’ he needed somethin’ to help him get started. But that’s it.

I’ll help ‘em get started but then it’s up to them. I found out this. When my stomach gets close enough to my spine, I’ll find a way to make some money so I can eat. That’s all I got to say about that.

Tondeleo: I am never certain when to take seriously the things said by Americans. They have an inherent love of taking the mickey out of you, and just about the time you are believing them, they begin to laugh and you feel a right fool.

Big Dave showed me a small plastic bag filled with stiff brown and white hairs, clearly from an animal. He asked if I knew what they were for, and I said that I didn’t.

Here is how the conversation developed:

Big Dave: Tondy, this is a bag of insurance.

Me: A bag of WHAT?

Big Dave: A bag of insurance. You carry it in your car or truck, Tondy.

Me: Well, it resembles a bag of bristles, of hairs, Big Dave.

Big Dave: To the untrained eye, that is exactly what it is. But to the expert eye, it is a bag of insurance. Here, look at it up close.

Marilyn: It’s a bag of DEER HAIR, Tondy!

Big Dave: It IS deer hair in its lowest form. Insurance in its highest.

Say, if a man has had a few beers, and ends up runnin’ off the road into a tree. If the cops come by, he’s gonna be in trouble. If he gots insurance, they ain’t gonna pay. BUT! If he kicks a part of his car, say the front fender, real hard, and then spits in the bag deer hairs, they become insurance!

Me: Insurance?

Doc: Yeah, Tondy, insurance.

Big Dave: You spit into the bag of deer hairs, then you take ‘em in your hand and smear a few in the dent you made by kickin’ your fender. Put a couple of ‘em in your headlight rim.

Then you, well, that man what hit the tree, can say that a deer run into his truck, and he hit it, and ran off the road and into that tree. That’s a lot better to a cop or a insurance company than you just havin’ a couple of beers and hittin’ that tree.

Doc: I ain’t never did that, but I heard of people what done it. Lotta people carry a little packet of deer hair in they car or truck. Say it’s good luck.

I fixed plenty of peoples’ cars what had dents on ‘em and deer hair in the dents. A deer can tear up a car real bad. A deer hittin’ your car is bad luck.

Big Dave: But deer HAIR is GOOD luck if a man runs off the road. He sprinkles them deer hair on the dent and it brings good luck, Tondy!

Marilyn: Yes, but it ain’t right.

Doc: That’s why I ain’t never done it, Marilyn. I only hit real deers.

Big Dave: And I pull some hairs off ‘em for good luck. But I ain’t never did it neither. Just heard about it bein’ done by crooks. It ain’t right.

Tondeleo: I am not a hunter. I am an eater, but not a hunter. I don’t want to know where my food comes from or how it died. I don’t want to think about whether or not it was frightened when it died. I simply like to eat it.

Doc and Big Dave were telling hunting stories back in November and this one stood out to me:

When Doc and Big Dave go hunting, Marilyn makes each of them a sandwich and a thermos full of gravy to take into the woods with them to quench their thirst and to keep them warm.

I asked about why they didn’t take tea or coffee, and they both looked at me as like I was daft.

Big Dave said, “It makes you have to water the lemon tree too much.”

I said I didn’t see where that would be a problem, out on the woods.

Doc said that when you’re crammed up into a deer stand, you don’t want to be climbing up and down from it to go water the bushes – and it would scare the deer away. Soup or stew is better in the thermos than coffee or tea.

Big Dave said that a man wouldn’t drink hot tea, anyway.

Apparently Marilyn USED to make soup or stew for their thermoses. One day when they were hunting with Thurman Goodlett, he was drinking stew out of his thermos and got choked on a piece of meat.

It was only Doc, Big Dave and Thurman out there in the woods, and neither Doc not Big Dave were willing to do the “Hind Lick maneuver” to save Thurman. Doc decided that this was definitely the time to call on the Good Lord to save Thurman, if God didn’t rather have him in Heaven just yet. Big Dave agreed.

Doc and Big Dave laid their hands on Thurman and called out to the Lord to save him if He would. Doc said he even spoke in tongues just in case that would give their prayers a boost.

Fortunately, Thurman was so scared – or touched by the Lord -  that he was able to swallow the meat with little or no damage to his throat. Doc said he was real sure it was the Lord that saved Thurman. Thurman’s eyes had rolled back into his head and his face was getting blue. But then, suddenly there was a gulping sound, and Thurman was swallowing and breathing. “Had to be the Lord,” said Doc. “I was speakin’ in tongues out there.”

Since that day, Marilyn doesn’t put soup in their thermoses. Instead she fills them with red eye gravy so they can be warm and comfortable when they are out in the deer stand.

Of course, I don’t know what red eye gravy is, so Marilyn explains that it is made from meat drippings and a cup or two of coffee, some salt and flour until it is just thick enough to be like drinking hot warm silk.

I am not certain that it is better for a person than stew is, but Doc and Dave are settled on “no more stew or soup” when they go hunting.

Big Dave said, “I don’t care WHO it is what’s choking. I am not doing the hind lick maneuver.

Doc: Me, neither. I’ll pray for ‘em and ask the Lord to save ‘em. Or, He can call ‘em home. I ain’t doin’ none of that other stuff. I ain’t no doctor.