Class of 1963, 60th Reunion

 

On a stifling 100-degree Thursday, 24 August at 4 p.m., the 1963 graduating  class of Aquin High School convened at The Corner Taproom/Happy Joes in Cascade for a reunion. There was among the group widespread, wide-eyed—in some quarters even—outraged disbelief that we could actually be his old and out of school this long—60 years. Damn it? Are you kidding me? Us? No way!

            Well, come on, Honey. It is not as if our bards and poets didn’t warn us. The elegantly wise Leonard Cohen (RIP) who walked among us until a couple years back assured us: Many loved before us; I know we are not new. In city and in forest they smile like me and you…He-ey, that’s no way to say goodbye…as to say goodbye we all must sooner or later.  Many of us have all done our best to stave of thoughts of it, but as it nears, less successfully.

The year I lived in Israel, touring a kibbutz once I fell into a conversation with a four-year old boy (He and I had about a comparable level of Hebrew!) and he told me he wanted to be an Air Force pilot when he grew up. “Then,” he assured me, “I will be a great old man, like the one going there.” A withered, thin but still fierce old gentleman in a kippah (skullcap) dottered by as we spoke, “just like him,” the boy said. “Just like him!”

An impressive encounter with this incredibly young child who saw himself from such an early age in the ancient circle of Jewish life. So, growing up in a young (American) society with a 300-year old tradition, I was flabbergasted at a small boy from a society with a 6,000-old tradition.  We are what we are, and so the class of ’63, left the Corner singing as ever: Those were the days, my friend, we thought they’d never end. We sing and dance forever and a day. We’d fight and never lose, oh those were the days, my friend, we thought they’d never end… Those were the days, my friend, we thought they’d never end.

 Many thanks to Kay (Peiffer) Tauke for organizing the event and Monica (Noonan) Recker for the photos.

 

Fractious Bradley Border Talk at Library

 A group of about 60 people gathered Wednesday evening, August 23 at the Cascade Library to hear Representative Steve Bradley relate his observations of a recent trip June 12, 13, and 14 along the U.S.-Mexico Border between Brownsville and McAllen, Texas. Being the southern-most cities on the border, this area has a visible backlog of would-be immigrants. 

            Bradley shared slides of the parts of the 3 fences in the area built by U.S. presidents (Trump, Obama & Bush) and the extensive razor wire, perhaps the dominant feature of the border there. According to Bradley, “the most serious problems are drugs and human trafficking. Drugs are a one-time sale, but a person can be re-sold.”

            Both drug/trafficking cartels and the Border Patrol employ drones to scan the area—the patrol looking for holes in fences; cartels and coyotes to find them and get their cargo across.  The Representative also said, “there were 30,000 Chinese and Haitians waiting,” camped along the Rio Grande and showed images of a sea of tents beyond the razor wire on the U.S. side of the Rio. He further pointed out, “the Border Patrol doesn’t have enough people.”

He also met with a couple ranchers in the area, who said the constant pressures of people crossing their property, sometimes in vehicles, costs them crop and property losses.

            Representative Bradley continued, “This constant flow of people is processed, given a court date—in 2027, perhaps now in 2028 the courts are so packed—and then admitted to the country.” Typically, they are picked up by a NGO (non-governmental organization) like Catholic Charities, which receives $1,500 for 3 days from the U.S. government to integrate immigrants.

(There are nine of these organizations, most religious, which receive funds for this service: 1) Church World Services, 2) Ethiopian Development Council, 3) Episcopal Migration Ministries, 4) Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, 5) International Rescue Committee, 6) U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, 7) Lutheran Immigration & Refugee Services, 8) U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, which funds Catholic Charities, and 9) World Relief Corporation.)

Here, the meeting became a bit fractious with people shouting that immigrants were good workers and the U.S. needs them, with which Bradley agreed and pointed out that he had “worked to make human trafficking a felony.” At which point, History Teacher Mike Sconsa pleaded with the audience "not to make this polarized like every other discussion.”

Several people including Sconsa asked questions and made observations including a description of some of the Mexican students as some of the hardest working and best at the local high school and reiterating the value of immigrants to U.S. society especially as workers. Representative Bradley urged listeners to focus on pursuing legal status and forcing employers to vet their workers to solve our immigration issues.

Cascade Pool Motor/Heater & Pipe Kaput

 

Like most people I presume streets and infrastructure the newer parts of town are in better shape, and though the older parts get less, they need more attention. So you can imagine my consternation at the Park Board Meeting Monday 14 August to hear that we have to buy a new pool (pump, motor and piping. The pool has been in service 3 years, 1 a Covid year in which it was only open 2 weeks)

The problem was caused by a bolt of lightning that either cut the electricity or caused it to surge during a recent storm. That shut off the pump but not the heater. With no cold water, the heater went nuts, and essentially blew out not only the pump but a length of pipe, which has to be replaced as well.

 For all the raving about the wonders of computerized new technology, the equipment is very sensitive and cannot withstand shocks like electrical fluctuations due to lightening, which causes many of my newer appliances to go out and need their clocks reset, etc.

            As it just happened, City Administrator Lisa Kotter gave no estimate of the cost of replacing the pump, heater and pipe.  She did, however, inform the Park Board that the city’s insurance won’t cover replacement because "We have a $5,000 deductible."

 

A Shocking Kindness

 Late Thursday afternoon, a tall man in jeans and a green seed cap appeared at my door and identified himself as Mike Rea. He said he had contracted to spray the field behind my house, wanted to notify me and would phone before he started.

A shocking kindness really, that has never happened before in the 36 years I have lived here.  And, after my set-to over the CAFO at the east edge of town last fall for the article in Free Inquiry, certainly improved my impression of the farming community. The spray, he said, was to combat three different kinds corn diseases, he named but I can’t. Moreover, he would try to select a day with an east wind, which would blow the residue across the river, and if it went that far, onto the lots back of Main Street.  

I calculated it would land in the river, sooner or later, with which he did not argue. That very morning my houseguests and I had checked it out and it looked pretty foul. He insisted it has been like that for a long time, with which I could not argue. I pointed out we humans have befouled all the surface water in the state.  We are pumping the aquifer dry.

“What are we going to do when it runs out?” I asked him. “Go out to Jake and Jackie’s and drink out of their pool?” He didn’t know. I don’t either, but I am certainly impressed with his thoughtful kindness.