We finally made it to Okeechobee Lake. Here’s Wallace beside a stand of eradicated Australian Pine (Mallelucca, and invasive species) on the south bank. After a couple of crib games at Panera, one victory each, we decided on a day trip to see the central area. We bumped into other tourists whom I had the unpleasant duty of telling them you cannot see the water from Clewiston or Moore Haven, nor any of the “scenic routes” along the sixty-foot levee that surrounds the entire lake.
This is a trip to wilderness, around a hundred miles from town, through areas of large and desolate farms, cane fields and swamp. The only sign of progress was miles of sedimentary rock dredged up by the hundreds of tons that looks like it is to reinforce the dikes. We stopped for coffee in Moore Haven and looked at real estate prices. The hitch to buying in that area is it is fifty miles too far away to commute. There is really not much in those towns except Mexican farm laborers.
Rather than circumnavigate, we backtracked to Belle Glade and north to Pahokee, a place I have never visited in the summer before. We stopped at what looked like a classic view of the black water (it was muddy brown from being at record low levels), we were instantly attacked by clouds of Angelflies. I’ve been warned about them. This was a first. Every footstep brought forth swirling masses of these bugs. We both got them in our eyes.
On the return, we stopped at a roadside vegetable stand. The prices were around a third of the supermarket. All told, the trip was six hours and close to 250 miles, Wallace bought the gas. I bought the vegetables. A lot of what we could do or not do was determined by Millie-Belle, who also accounts for us only getting out of town once since Wallace arrived. However, I specifically advised him not to bring her along if he was planning anything like the level of activity of last year.
Instead of backtracking, w
e took the freeway back during a subtropical rainstorm. We stopped at Jimbo’s, then Jackie and we went up to Boston’s. There was nothing there, including Johnny D’s show. Who remembers my prediction of how the pub would cut back on entertainment once they got a steady clientele? From six nights a week to two, and both are very late shows, ending past midnight.
We talked philosophy most of the day and Wallace has to be one of the last hold-outs of those who believe you can get ahead through hard work. I have never personally seen it done. On the other hand, tons who were born fabulously wealthy will swear they are self-made. You are not anything like poor when you were raised by a considerate, supportive family just because they don’t give you any actual money. What about those with families that kick them in the teeth?
Wallace also maintains once you are 18, you are on your own and should forget the past. I say the reality is that offspring since 1950 are not independent until an average age of 28 and those who forget the past are condemned to repeat it. Wallace is so hilariously Canadian he does not even know it. For example, he thinks that people who work with their brains rather than their hands all have “a soft job”. Or that any wild subject that pops into mind automatically becomes a relevant part of any discussion. (This is the source of the Canadian misconception that Americans are dumb and can’t "follow logic”.)
CBC, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation is a prime example of what I mean. Back in the early ‘80s, I lived in the USA and worked in Canada. One could tell from the car radio when you crossed the border, because the “liberation” of Grenada became the “invasion” of Grenada. I am particularly qualified to judge that issue because I was in Barbados when the event occurred and personally witnessed what was going on. I had lunch with the officers of a nuclear submarine in the harbor. There were 180 soldiers billeted at my hotel. JZ was one of the medical students on Grenada at the time. One thing I did not see were any CBC reporters. Canadian Brainwashing Corporation.
I know there was no “invasion”. The troops were American, yes, but they acted in agreement with other western nations, and indeed could not have been on Barbados soil to launch the operation without collective cooperation. They were enforcing the centuries old Monroe Doctrine which clearly disallows the establishment of any European style military bases in the Americas. And finally, the troops did not permanently occupy Grenada (the very definition of invasion); they turned around and went home afterwards. I saw it myself. There is no garrison on the island. Liberation and invasion are two completely different animals. Unless you adhere to gospel according to CBC.
On that happy note, that said Canadian radio announcer described how the Americans were “straffing” the airfield. Straffing? Is that anything like strafing? That word comes from the German expression “Gott strafe England”, where strafe means to punish. Later it was taken to mean any heavy shelling, particularly by an airplane. The CBC often refers to the embargo of Cuba as a "blockade", but I've flown across Cuba many times and there are no ships blockading the island. None. Not even one.
