by Ron Foster
“When you going up to visit them again? I got two horses up there on Roland’s place I would like to get. Well my horse and Beverly’s, we board them up on his place and go riding and stay in that pond cabin sometimes” Boudreaux said dumping the water out of his kettle and then refilling it with oil.
“Well depending on this party’s outcome, I might do it in a day or two. I got some business to discuss with them maybe” I offered.
“I heard about your lowering the prices thing, I don’t think it will work but I agree we got to establish someway to trade some hard money around here. I understand the part if you said gas was ten cents silver, that would be about $2.50 a gallon based on melt value, but I think you want to make gas 4 cents a gallon? Or at least that’s what that old shyster you got working the crowd is trying to do or explain it that way. Anyway he is offering 20 cents for 5 gallons which seems too cheap to me; course up here silver is rarer than gas, so maybe there is a point to it all.” Boudreaux said and we went to get a glass of the joy juice Jack and I had mixed up that was in the cooler next to where Donnie was still trying to explain our banking structure.
“Get Donnie to explain it in more detail to you later, I got to go through the same song and dance with Roland and Bernie if he gets everyone in agreement” I told him not wanting to try to wrap my head around how complex it was just to get started on my plan at this moment.
“Let’s go check how much time they got left on those garbage can birds. A lot of watches don’t work these days and I want to know how they’re timing them.” I told Boudreaux as I walked over to where Frank and Jeremy were standing watch on them.
“Hey Frank. Who is official time keeper on cooking those birds?” I said watching the heat waves coming off the cans.
“I guess that would be Jeremy, there an old wind up alarm clock he has over on the table there set to go off at an hour and a half. Its the only working time piece we got and we are not sure its even right, He set it by the sun at high noon one day and that’s been official time over on this end of the lake ever since. I am guessing we got about 15 minutes or so until we have our first look see.” He said and asked Jeremy to go check the time.
“Hey David we don’t have but a few old silver coins on this side of the lake. We got some old gold jewelry that the women folk may or may not give up and I haven’t had time to sit down with Donnie and figure out what the hell a Bernie buck is yet, sounds like a scam to me.” Frank said regarding me and watching Boudreaux acting like he was trying to use x-ray vision to see the baking turkeys.
“ Its not a scam, we can call the currency that our silver backs whatever you all want, that’s just a name we picked for it to kind of honor Bernie for all his help to us. Look I tell you what; here is a five dollar roll of mercury dimes. You are now the treasurer on this side of the lake for now. That represents 13 Bernie bucks that the underlying roll of silver backs or 130 hours of labor or equivalent trade goods. The going rate on Bernie Bucks is 1 hour of labor for 10 cents redeemable in silver when ever called for. No leveraging your Bernie Bucks. There has got to be enough silver on hand at all times to back them up. If you need more hours of work or trade goods, then you have to come to our bank so we can create it. The bank makes a fee on that but it will be nominal. You take those $5.00 worth of dimes and distribute them equally to the heads of the households represented here if they want some credit to buy that beef Donnie brought with him. Write their names down in a book what they owe in Bernie Bucks and trade them amongst yourselves or whatever. Donnie will tell you the details” I said while Donnie looked at the roll of coins unsure if he wanted to get involved in my scheme.
“How much is your beef?” Boudreaux asked
“ 20 cents a pound in Bernie bucks which equals two hours work or say 4 cans of tomatoes or whatever we decide they are worth” I said still trying to figure out an easier way to do this.
“So to cash in my Bernie bucks for 1 silver dime how much is it?” Boudreaux asked making me scratch my head for a minute much to his amusement
“Uh 2.6 hours I make it. Let’s see 5.00 silver equals 130 hours work, divide that by 50 coins in a roll. Yea that’s right” I told Boudreaux
“There has got to be an easier way to figure this” Frank said
“I know, I agree with you, but we are limited to the cash we can circulate around here and still make things affordable. Today lets eat and we figure it out later.” I told them totally frazzled by the conversation.
Donnie wandered over and said it was just too complicated to do things with the Bernie bucks and said we were probably just going to have to say 10cents an hour was 10 cents an hour silver and be done with it. I said I agreed but wanted to talk about it more. And was glad the alarm clock went off signaling the turkeys were done.
We pulled the cans off the birds and saw that they were cooked to perfection. Tender and juicy and about falling off the bone while giving off a wonderful aroma. The unveiling of the birds made everyone come over and stare at the sumptuous spectacle. We transferred the turkeys via garbage can lids to a sheet plastic covered concrete table and the ladies of the assembled groups organized a line that swung by the turkey table and over to the other table holding the fixings that went with it they had prepared and after a man named Samuel lead a little prayer of Thanksgiving for today and tomorrow, we all dug into the feast as Boudreaux wandered around eating off his plate and telling everyone to leave room for his Cajun fried turkey but his words feel on deaf ears as everyone wolfed down the meal that was unforeseeable until today.
“I got to go get Jack, and swap out the duty” I told Sherry
”I hate you gotta go so soon ,they say they going to play some music later and we can stay with them overnight if we want to and they would make a place for us” Sherry replied wanting to stick with the festivities for the evening.
“I don’t want you to be trying to sail that boat at night so stay over if you want. I will make Jack spell me later on and comeback for a bit, so save a dance for me, if you will. If you don’t mind, will you fix Jack a plate, while I say my farewells?” I told her and went to check on my mom.
“David, I’d just soon sleep on my side of the inlet tonight unless everyone is staying and Lois feels the same way” Mom said to me and getting weary from the heat and all the activity.
“That’s fine, Jack will be coming back to swap out with me in a few hours or you can come back home with me now if you feel like it.” I said thinking it would be best if she just came on with me.
“If Jack only stays a few hours, I just soon stay here a bit longer and get to know everybody better, these are some really nice folks David.” she said having missed talking with new people since our group departure from Montgomery.
“I am sure he will go along with that, I am sure Lois will want to settle in by then too. Well have a good time.” I told her and gave her a kiss on the cheek to make her happy.
“Boudreaux, save me some of that special turkey you are fixing, I am going after my chow hound buddy. Are you staying the evening or are you needing to get home tonight?’ I asked him trying to coordinate my shuttle service.
“Beverly and I are going to use one of the vacant houses over here for the night, I saved your buddy some crawdads he said passing me a Ziploc. Look at that dog over there, he loves kids but I don’t think he can keep up anymore.” He said pointing to the hound who had his tongue lolling out of his mouth sitting in the shade watching the youngsters who like most kids of their age had boundless energy for running around in any kind of weather.
“I will take you back in the morning and see you a bit later on this evening. You can tell me where you caught those crawfish, I am not familiar with what is creek and what is lake around here” I told him and grimaced at the amount of red pepper he had seasoned them with as I stole one of Jacks crayfish.
“You need me, I be there.” he said and held up his 30-30 to make a point.
“I appreciate that Boudreaux, all the best”
I responded and headed down to the dock and cast off and headed for the compound.
Jack must have been looking my way with the binoculars because he was Johnny on the spot waiting for me on the pier by the time I got to the center of the inlet waiting on me.
“How goes it! You got everything all cooked yet?” Jack said catching my bow line.
“Yeah, everything’s done and lots of it, I got you a plate Sherry fixed for you and a bag of crawdads that a man called Boudreaux fixed especially for you if you want to tie on the feed bag before you get there.” I said passing him the chow I brought.
“ I will sit with you for a minute” he said and took a seat at the umbrella table we had out on the dock and pulled the foil off his plate and opened his bag of crawfish.’
“Go get me a fork or something, if you don’t mind, that is if you didn’t bring one already” he said starting to peel a crawdad and looking hungry.
“Oh here,” I said retrieving one of those little utility packs everyone saves from takeouts.
“Damn that’s some spicy crawdads, taste good though. What else did he season them with besides the pepper?” Jack said trying to identify the underlying flavors.
“I don’t know, he has a bunch of “File`” (sassafras) in it though, I recognize the taste, something citric but I don’t know what it might be” I replied watching him grabbing a bit of turkey with his hand next and forgoing for the fork he had asked for.
“This Turkey is good! You weren’t kidding about how tender it would be.” He said and finally opened his utensils from the package and grabbed a fork, Yum I like these beans too, what kind of meat they got in them?” he said going after the molasses heavy pile in front of him.
“Sherry chopped up some of the backstrap off that deer in them for you. I tell you what; everywhere you look over there somebody is working on cooking something. It’s a shame we don’t have any refrigeration because there is going to be leftovers a plenty even with you coming for a visit” I told him while watching him doing a magic trick by making the food disappear almost before I got done talking.
“This is the best we had in I don’t know when” Jack said ready to be off and get some more.
“Hey Lois and Mom want to come back home in a few hours, you got any problem cutting your time off short? Also I was thinking about staying the night over there” I said for him to consider being the all night security for the compound.
“Alcohol must be flowing free over there; sure I’ll stay no problem.” Jack said grinning and jumping into the boat.
“I appreciate it Jack, go have a good time and find someone named Beverly who is hanging out with that Cajun, she has some peaches that she put up that are as sweet as honey” I told him and he cranked the motor and looked like he was in a race to get to the other side of the lake.
I need to enlist Boudreaux to teach me how to navigate this lake. I know there are several small towns I can get to by water and possibly do some bartering at, but I don’t have a clue what condition I will find them in. Maybe I could just trade at different parts of the lake and not bother with getting too close to what might be dangerous territory I debated with myself.
I better start my patrol now and walk my perimeter a bit I decided and grabbed my AR and started wandering the shoreline. I was careful to keep an eye on the water so I could spot the perch and little bass moving about so I could get a feel for their behavior patterns when next I went fishing. I saw a big bass jump out in the channel and it always bugged me we couldn’t cast out that far. That light on the end of our pier now should help matters some. I probably ought to think about turning it on tonight as a boat guide but it was pretty early yet and wouldn’t even get dark until about 7.30. It’s been a good day all things considered.
It sort of restored my hopes in humanity to see everyone enjoying themselves and making future plans. I had no idea what the fate would deal us or how long it was going to be before civilization as we knew it could get rebooted and back to normal, but one thing was sure the reconstruction was on at this end of the lake. I shouldn’t even worry about trying to trade so much, regular barter would work for most things we would need in the short term, but the prepper in me said I must plan for the future still and if they did get the grid restarted I needed to try to build up some money of some sort so I could go back to the rat race of trying to survive the old way.
Roland and Bernie I guess had similar notions I imagine, it seems mans need for accumulating wealth to be more comfortable in someway never ceases. People all over the world measure wealth in different ways. Some people keep cattle or sheep etc. while others make the land produce more crops. I guess my tribe was rich in many things that others lacked and for that I was extremely grateful.
I walked back down the shoreline and looked over at Donnie’s house to see all was well there also. I really need to explore this side of the inlet more so I can figure out if all this security is totally necessary. I guess there is really no telling if or when we might ever have a problem. I never thought having neighbors like they did over on the other side of the lake had so many potential possibilities for community efforts but I still liked our little arrangement here.
I took the binoculars and scanned the inlet to see if anything was going on and except for the geese making their slow rounds swimming the shoreline it was all quite and peaceful.
I began to think back upon my trip from Atlanta and wondered what stories everyone I had encountered on the way home had and if they were safe or being able to find enough food. The old solar system sure put a whammy on the earth. Well not really the earth, if just gave mankind a big attitude adjustment.
I worried a bit that more people would be moving further and further out from the cities and might bother our little sanctuary here. No sense worrying about that now, we were here to stay and I couldn’t imagine having to pick up and go into the unknown somewhere else. I had some experience and knowledge but we were awful lucky to have the amount of supplies we had to give us this edge to transition into this new way of trying to get by.
What the hell is that noise? Someone is coming down that gravel road it sounds like and my dumb ass is out here sitting on the dock like I am on vacation. I hurried off the dock and went to the side of the girls’ house to peer around and see who it was.
Dummy, you left the radio sitting on the table on the pier I thought when I reached for it on my belt; too late now.
Horses, I hear horses, could it be? YES! It was, Roland was riding a horse and Bernie was driving the wagon with John and Sarah as well as another couple riding in it.
“HELLO! Good to see you.” I called as I rushed to greet them.
“HI David. Where’s the rest of your clan?” Bernie said climbing down from the wagon walking forward to greet me.
“Across the inlet, I will tell you all about what’s going on in a minute” As I greeted Roland, John and Sarah and got introduced to the other couple.
“David, this is Fred and Mary, they live just up the side of the slough back there” Bernie said gesturing.
“Oh the mystery sign people from the next point” I said and explained we had seen their sign and left the house unmolested to which they were most thankful.
“I explained to them you might have raided it a might, but I am glad you thought it through and didn’t mess with it. No sense starting out on the wrong foot if you can help it with new neighbors.” said Roland joining us after seeing to the horses.
“You come on a great day, we are having a party at the boat ramp” and I explained how we managed to put together our little impromptu Thanksgiving celebration and extentended an initiation.
“I better call over there on the radio and tell them to expect more guests” I said and proceeded to do so.
“Jack says he will be over in about an hour.” I said and invited everyone over to my house for a drink.
“Everything alright on the home front Roland?” I asked as we walked towards the house.
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�We are doing well, Mary and Fred walked up from the interstate about two days ago and we had a nice visit before we brought them home. Maybe you can help them get resettled” he said knowing we would be happy to assist in anyway we could.
“We sure will, glad to have you for neighbors.” I declared to Mary and Fred and helped get everyone’s drink orders together.
“Hey Bernie, I need to give you the short version on a Bank me and Donnie are trying to create before you get to the party” I told him and proceeded to explain what a Bernie Buck was to the best of my capability.
“Ha, I like that, Bernie Bucks! You didn’t know you had the new Federal Reserve living with you, did you Roland.” Bernie said while Roland tried to get a better handle on what we might be proposing.
“We are sort of finding it too complicated to do it the way we originally thought but if you two horse traders could hang around a day or two I bet we can come up with a workable plan for everyone to agree on” I said and after getting their assent to give it deliberation we went back to casual conversation and explanations about what was on the menu across the inlet at the boat ramp before I left.
“Fred tells me things have started to get out of hand in Tallassee. The Sheriff there got a bit too uppity about martial law and got shot the second day after he declared it.’ Roland said giving Fred a chance to speak.
“Oh it’s horrible there, gunshots going off at all hours of the day and night and you don’t know why. The stores are all cleaned out and the few National Guard trucks that are bringing in a tiny bit of supplies always have a problem with the mobs. Me and Mary said the hell with it and packed what we could and took off one night with a wheelbarrow and what we could carry on our backs. I am glad it didn’t take us but a few days to get to Roland’s or I don’t know what might have happened.” he said patting his wife.
“I never walked so far in my life, I am not sure I could have gone much further” A still weary looking Mary said.
