A Southern Ambience: Ramblings of a ‘Working Man’

By Holt E. Glenn

New book shows America from a working mans perspective A Southern Ambience looks at social, economic concerns of the blue collar workers in the South
WINNABOW, N.C. Author Holt E. Glenn takes readers on a blue collar odyssey set deep in the soul of the South in his latest book A Southern Ambience: Ramblings of a Working Man (published by AuthorHouse).
Using what he calls good old rural common sense, he sets out to address many of the issues facing the South and America today, while weaving a funny, often quirky semi-autobiographical tale. As he says, Some edumacation is in fact not all in all a bad thing.
I live in the blue collar world now, but it has not always been that way, for I have known the world of Country Clubs and the privileged, Glenn writes. Both social/economic spheres have features that inspire and intrigue me. I have come to see that there are snobs on both sides of the fence!
Subject matter such as obesity, governmental dependency, obesity, illegal immigration and gun control are touched upon.
A Southern Ambience By Holt E. Glenn

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Jan 23, 2013
• ISBN: 9781477294642

Holt E. Glenn

Holt E. Glenn resides in southeastern North Carolina, where he and his wife own and operate a painting contracting company. They spend most of their days on Bald Head Island, accessed by a ferry, and split their time between their home in the Winnabow area and up in the mountains of North Carolina, where they own a 70-year-old farmstead. Glenn is also the author of “A Disagreement In Idaho.”

Book preview

© 2013 Holt E. Glenn. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 01/21/2013

ISBN: 978-1-4772-9466-6 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4772-9465-9 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4772-9464-2 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2012922292

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Table of Contents

Coolers, Gas Grills & Night of the Living Dead

Damn Constrictions

The Nobel Quest

Simply Southern

Piled High with Difficulty

Political Ponderings

Manufacturing Woes & Opportunities

I Call It the D T’S

The Feel of a House

Rural Realities

Names

Funny Wunny Money

The Beauty of America

Missing in Action

They Be Watching You

Mountain Joys & Misnomers

We Just Don"t Get It

Immigration Ideology

I’m Country Green

Esse Quam Vider

Disabilty Disillusionment

What Makes It All Work

Obesity Obstacles

Don’t Wait Too Long

A Slip But Not a Fall

Salt Spray

When Free Men Shall Stand

Misery Abounds

Vanity Vexations

Close Calls

Careers & Other Such Endevores

Be That as It May

Our Tenuous Right

Duty

It’s All About the Numbers

Closure

Meandering

Short Rows

A proper splashing of some edumacation is all and all not a bad thing

Coolers, Gas Grills &

Night of the Living Dead

I found myself driving down to the Wal-Mart Store Saturday morning a few months ago and as I walked back to the automotive department to look for some wax for my Jeep, then over to sporting goods for a couple of boxes of steel shot, I was struck by all the blank stares I was seeing from everyone there who was shopping. It was early in the morning; but not that damn early.

They had a huge display of coolers over toward the garden section and I had to pause to check them out. I’ve always had a thing for coolers, and I might add for grills as well. Part of it is they represent a sign of affluence to me; the more you have the better economically off you are. I suppose that makes little rational sense and perhaps is a bit weird, but that’s just how I am put together. This does not mean that I am a hoarder or am afflicted with obsessive compulsive behavior concerning this or any other inanimate objects. At least I don’t think it does.

Once I got my visual fix, I strolled over and had a look-see at their gas grills. They really don’t have much in the way of high end grills, but I had to go over there. It is amazing what one can spend on a gas grill. I’ve seen some that go for well over six thousand dollars. I don’t own an automobile that cost that much!

Some of these high end infrared type grills produce internal temperatures that exceed 1500 degrees, and can quickly cook meats and such. Most of these grills do not like marinating sauces that are used on chicken and ribs and such, which can do damage to the ceramic cooking surfaces. I currently own a mid-range Master Forge gas grill that has a ‘searing cooking element’ off the right side of the main cooking surface that I use exclusively for cooking steak. In some respects it mimics infrared, but at the fraction of the cost. Once I had looked over the grills, I then walked over and picked up a case or two of beer for the weekend.

These blank stares were really beginning to bug me. I strolled over to the food section and picked up some flour for biscuits along with a package of bacon. I was planning to pick collards from the garden later in the day and cook up for supper. The bacon drippings would aid quite nicely in the seasoning.

What the hell was going on here? I looked up at the high ceilings to those shiny black globes and large metal air flow systems that were staring down at me, and I began to wonder if this was some clandestine experiment the store was conducting by emitting some barely audible noise or gaseous fumes designed to affect one’s senses. I could detect no such phenomenon. Besides if they were, why wasn’t it affecting me?

You might be wondering, why would they want to do such a thing? Simple, my intrepid friends; if they can numb you, they can also stimulate your senses bringing on an uncontrollable buying frenzy. The next thing you know you’ll be standing in front of one of the checkout lanes with a cart filled to the brim, wondering what the hell just happened.

Retail establishments incorporate a variety of techniques in order to make the shopping experience more enjoyable. Certain colors are warm and soothing, as are types of music. Specific odors relax us and put us in more of a mood to buy. Lighting plays a large part in enhancing the shopping experience. How goods are displayed and stacked also impacts purchasing, as do price points. We laugh about it but $24.99 does sound a hell of a lot less expensive than $25.00. Who says our buying behavior is always based on rational logical thought processes.

Why is it that so many Americans have become unrealistic when it comes to many of their purchases? This growing trend is both baffling and a bit disturbing. I was in a local department store about four years ago trying to buy some additional hunting tags I needed for a hunt I was going on, when I saw a middle-aged white couple walk back to the sporting goods department pushing a bicycle that had a flat tire.

They began a rather interesting conversation with the manager. We bought this bike from you a while back and this tire never has held air properly. The man pulled out the crumbled up receipt and rudely handed it to the manager.

The manager smiled and bent down to examine the tire. Standing up he walked over and got a hand pump and began pumping air into the tire. It didn’t take him long to find the hole in it. It appears to have a puncture hole.

It was like that when we bought it, the man said, who could have used some lessons in personal hygiene.

I can assure you that we would not have sold a bike with a flat tire.

Well this tire was defective from the beginning, the man said.

Why did you wait almost three months to bring it back to us?

We live way out in the country and our truck’s been broke down for a while. This is the first time we’ve been able to get to town.

The manager smiled. I’ll be glad to sell you a new tire, but you seriously cannot expect us to warrant a tire on a bicycle we sold that long ago.

Why the hell not? the man snapped.

We just don’t, sir.

The wife chimed in, You’ve got this same bicycle on sale now, and its twenty-two dollars cheaper than what we paid for ours. That just doesn’t seem right. She paused a moment then added, We think you should refund the difference in the two prices in order to be fair.

The manager remained cool as a cucumber. We cannot conduct our business that way, Ma’am. If we did, we would never be able to have special sales and promotions.

I could hardly believe what I was hearing here. The sales manager ended up giving them a new tire for the bicycle just to get them out of the store.

After they had gone and he was able to help me, I commented on what I had witnessed. You handled it far better than I would have.

He smiled. It’s simply amazing how people act now. They expect us to bend over backwards and give’em exactly what they want. Contrary to how many believe, the buyer is not always right.

People don’t like to hear the word NO, I replied.

You got that right. I tried to explain things to them, but they just wanted something for free.

I understood exactly what he was talking about. Much of my background has been in sales where I have seen a growing sense of entitlement among some of the citizens of this country. When I was in the real estate business as a licensed broker, I became largely immune as to how some people behaved.

I believe that it is important that we periodically place ourselves in buying situations. Picking out a coffee maker at the store is not what I am talking about either, nor am I talking about purchasing something via mail order or on the internet. What I am referring to are situations where we actively engage in negotiating with someone for a product or service face to face. Besides being fun, these skills you learn will become invaluable to you as you go through your everyday life interacting with people.

My wife and I made an offer on a used Ford Escape five years ago at the local Ford dealership. We were hoping to trade in her older Escape and buy this one which was three years newer. Once the deal was struck through the salesperson, we were sent to see the finance manager. We worked out the financing and came to terms on the interest rate and then he tried to sell us on an extended warranty. I’m not a big believer in such warranties, even though I understand that in some cases they might make sense.

We will finance the warranty, and it will only increase the payment by eighteen dollars.

Don’t want it, I said, adding, It’s not worth $2200 to me.

Once he realized that I wasn’t going to give in he said, "Well, if I were to give it to you, would you accept it?"

I shook my head. That wouldn’t be fair.

He looked at me strangely for a moment.

I added, I can’t accept something of that value, and not pay for it.

Our eyes met and he smiled and slightly nodded his head. We concluded our business, and soon enough we were driving home in my wife’s new Ford Escape.

Back to matters at hand: Do I honestly believe that Wal-Mart would employ such sneaky measures in order to manipulate their customers? Even though I am not a fan of that retail giant, who appears at times to be China’s personal marketing agent in this country and seems to be hell-bent on running all the small independent stores out of business, and wishing not to be involved in some extended litigation concerns……… NO I DO NOT.

So I return to my early question. Why did all these people appear to be so mindless and empty inside of themselves? Minus the blood and guts and ghoulish appearances, images of the zombified villainous people in that classic black and white film ‘Night of the Living Dead’ came to mind. What the hell was going on here? This question haunted me and as I walked outside to my Jeep, I knew further investigation was indeed warranted.

Damn Constrictions

I suppose what has been the motivation for attempting such a book is that none of the political pundits, TV lawyers, journalists, social commentaries I see in the public arena as they discuss current political and social events, are approaching their subject matter from a blue collar/working man’s perspective. And NONE of them appear to be Southern bred through and through.

Hells bells, as things stand now in this country, to say that you are a proud Southerner is construed (yea I know a few big words) in some quarters as a form of bigotry and subtle racism.

Go figure that dung?

Back to matters at hand: This is not in any way or fashion meant to diminish what they have said, and are writing. It’s just that in my opinion they by and large are frankly clueless as to how the working class American feels about the direction of this country, and what has been really happening to us during these most arduous economic times. By and large they reside in the large urban areas of this country (Washington, New York, Atlanta, Chicago) where the hub of our nation’s news is generated from. I am not diminishing the West Coast in this analysis; but that’s just the way it is in America.

I live in the blue collar world now, but it has not always been that way. This provides me with (at least I think it does) a rather unique perspective. My feet have been planted firmly in both the country club world and the blue collar world and I am comfortable in either, because both of these social economical spheres have features and aspects that intrigue and inspire me.

I love trucks and four-wheel drive Jeeps and work boots and old jeans and work jackets and not shaving for a week at a time, and skipping a shower from time to time, and prefer sleeping in my down sleeping bag over a bed adorned in fine Egyptian cotton sheets and flannel bedding. I’ll go out of my way to take a dirt road over one that is paved and smooth. Lava Soap is the skin moisturizer of choice in my world and if I could, I would wear long johns each and every day.

Yes, I actually know what a cashmere jacket feels like because I own several, along with camel hair and worsted wool. I know how to properly set a dinner table and how to knot a silk tie, but I also know what an axe, maul and pick-axe are intended for, because I use them. I know how to rig ladders for working safely above the forty foot level, and I know what it means to be so sore after a hard day of physical labor outside in cold weather when the only relief can be found in the sanctuary of a hot Epsom salt bath.

I have worked in many gated communities and I understand the desire and benefits of living in such an environment, while on the other hand I can understand why some people might see it as an arrogant manifestation of wealth and exclusivity. Not far from where I live is such a gated community that is largely occupied by transplanted people from New Jersey. Some five years ago, they petitioned their elected officers to approached the local grocery store and ask them to close one day a week and only allow them to shop there, so they wouldn’t have to come in contact with any of the locals. I think we all can agree that this was a bit much. As you might imagine, the grocery store said they would not ever consider doing such a thing.

With all that stated, I personally know snobs on both sides of the fence: On both sides. I know so many blue collar people who are prejudiced against those who have wealth and privilege and are quick to condemn them. A point of note is in order here- many of them have jobs only because of the wealth of these people.

Likewise, I know people with wealth who arrogantly look down their noses at those of us who earn a living by a trade. That’s just the way it is, and has always been, and probably always will be. I’m cool with that.

Are you?

People were drawn to these lands that were coined the ‘Americas’ in search of new territories to claim for their prospective countries. Those that followed came for personal freedom, economic freedom, and in many cases for the opportunity to own land. In most of the countries they hailed from, private land ownership was largely unobtainable.

The word freedom is such a glorious word. Indeed, we don’t say it enough. We exalt the word when talking about other countries, such as Iraq and Afghanistan and Cuba, but here in America the word is not spoken enough. Why is that?

Some of you are probably thinking, You dumbass, we don’t say it because we already have it!

Do we?

Do we as a collective society have freedom? I would readily admit that in comparison to most other countries in the world we have larger degrees of freedom than they enjoy, but compared to previous generations in this country I would suggest that our freedoms have eroded. How much of our collective freedom has been lost is objectively and subjectively open to honest debate, but I do know this: Our freedoms are not expanding, and unfortunately are trending in the opposite direction.

In this context freedom means-absence of undo restrictions and the opportunity to exercise one’s right and power.

Freedom is a wondrous thing. The Declaration of Independence sums it up quite well. We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among them are Life, liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

Reading further down, this document tempers itself by saying, That whenever any form of Government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organize its powers in such form, as to them shall see most likely to affect their safety and happiness.

That simply means that we citizens not only have the right but the obligation to cast off a government that does not adhere to the founding principles on which this country was based. All three branches of the federal government need to be reminded of that. In calmer moments of reflection, I am quite certain many people in the federal government know of this wordage. It is their hope and designs that it is you who do not.

Isn’t it interesting that our founding fathers included those two credos so close together?

We in fact have the right to cast off and overthrow this government. What is not spelled out is exactly how. Of course we have the ability to amend the Constitution, which I suspect they were partly alluding to. We also have the ability to change our government through the peaceful transition process called elections. But I believe the constitution implies we do have the right to overthrow the government, by way of force if need be.

I got off track a bit here. Freedom; that’s what this grand experiment The United States of America was and is all about, and what else?

Responsibility.

Now we’re getting somewhere. Freedom and Responsibility. They go hand in hand and one cannot truly have one without the other. It was George Bernard Shaw who said, Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it.

Well, I’m not as cynical as Mr. Shaw was, but I do understand what he was implying. Some people just can’t deal with responsibility and would be better off having someone (or some entity) telling them exactly what to do. One hates to make such an admission, but that’s just the cold hard ass truth of things. As a citizen of this country, it is imperative and prudent to for us to keep our freedom antennas all the way up at all times, for there are forces at play here that seek to restrict our freedom. Government –whether local, state, or federal is always trying to chip away at the foundations of freedom. It’s the nature of a governmental bureaucracy to expand its power and control, and about the only way it can achieve this is by taking freedom from the citizenry.

Taxes, regulations, fees and laws are the pillars that the State uses to impact you and your freedom. One would have to be labeled irrational to believe that government has no constitutional rights whatsoever in impeding our freedoms. To foster such beliefs, a person would have to totally discount and ignore centuries of magna law, our Constitution, and almost two hundred years of precedent case law in this country. So with that admission, allow me to proceed.

There are those who predict that this country is heading to what can only be described as the ‘Balkanization of America,’ similar to when the Soviet Union Empire began to fracture and break apart into independent sovereignties.

Could such a thing possibly happen here in this country?

With the massive amount of money that flows down from the federal government to the states, I’m not sure that there would be much financial incentive for a state (or group of them) to attempt such a break away. But with a growing disconnect felt by many of the citizens and states, who the hell knows what might happen? Many now believe it is impossible to rein in the massive control and spending that reaches literally all corners of the earth and beyond, and they believe we have passed the point of no return as the citizens of this country are forced to fund and finance thousands of federal agencies and mandates.

It is interesting to watch some congressional sub-committee meeting where our elected representatives are questioning a person who works for some particular governmental agency. We have before this committee today the Under Deputy Director of the Federal Trade Commission for District Nine.

Say what?

Yeah, that’s about what we’ve got going on up there in our Capitol these days.

What about a Constitutional Convention in hopes of somehow amending the constitution to force the federal government to adhere to a balanced budget requirement, or at the very least cap spending to a percentage of GNP?

I hear this often lamented these days. The President and Congress have been ignoring laws and charting a course that is in direct conflict with the Constitution!

Such charges have been levied against previous administrations; nevertheless, you don’t seriously start talk about overthrowing the government because of these excesses. There are other legal options available to us.

The President is going to manufacture a crisis so he can declare Martial Law and enact one of a handful of horrific Executive Orders that will take all our rights away, even the right to move around freely, and to have a garden and grow our own food.

Could this really happen here in the good ole’ United States of America?

Up until three and a half years ago, I would not have thought so, but given how things have unfolded at the federal level and how much of the citizenry and the press have merely shrugged their shoulders and barely raised an eyebrow, I sadly must concede that such a thing is much closer to a possibility than I would ever have imagined. To me at least, this demonstrates just how fragile our Republic really is.

Taxes take money out of your pocket, which restricts your economic freedom. For those of us left in this country that actually pay federal and state income taxes, it is appalling just how much of our hard-earned money is being taken away from us, and if recent history is a barometer of things to come, the burden upon us will only increase. There has been some talk coming out of Washington about a Value Added Tax. The VAT would be placed on many if not all goods, and would in essence be another sales tax on top of each state’s prospective sales tax.

Regulations control what you can and cannot do in many circumstances. Just one example of this in North Carolina and elsewhere is this Clear Air Mandate through the Automobile Emission Inspection Program many of us must now endure, which requires an annual OBD (On Board Diagnostic) on newer automobiles built after 1995 that are registered in certain high-density populated areas.

This new regulation has placed much hardship upon the citizens. It took my mechanic over a month to get the engine light to go off so my truck could pass inspection and I could finally get my new tag, and it cost me over $800.00 in mechanic fees. I know many people who can no longer legally drive their vehicles because they can’t pass inspection. I want clean air, but this regulation cost