A solid comment on my "Growing Older: piece RE -SENT

RE SENT


I've gotten a number of solid comments on my "Growing Older" piece -- but only a few from our discussion lists, however.  I appreciate them all.  I am posting only one of those here, from Mary Ann, former Tougaloo student and Jackson Movement activist, now in Chicago.  My attached response to her serves as a kind of update to anyone interested.  (H)

Thanks for sharing your memories . Approaching 80 - aw shucks you're still a relatively young buck . :)  I'll be 70 yrs. old , come December but I don't look it . The conductor on the Metra Train always question whether I'm really a senior who is entitled to discounted rides. Always tell him that  my appearance is the results of good genes , clean living and my southern background . ;) 


WWW,
Mary Ann


Dear Mary Ann:

Good to hear from you.  You sound as fine as ever.  I very much like your multi-faceted response to queries about your "senior" status.  (A friend of mine who is a little into his 80s, is prone to say, "The '80s are the new '40s.")

We are basically OK here.  A few months of intense heat and drought ended with very heavy rains (but nothing even remotely like Colorado) -- and the onset of Fall is at hand. Seasonal change eventually trumps climate change -- but God alone knows what Winter will bring.  "Night-riders" and such seem to have pulled back to some extent -- at least physically around our place.  They are always inherently cowardly -- quick to sense and exploit fear but also very quick to retreat when they face strength and determination from their "target". We maintain vigilance and I do keep my revolver handy.  I recall you telling me several times about relatives of yours in the Meridian (Miss.) setting who always kept firearms close by.

Our grass is again lush and green.  Nothing like 2 1/2 inches of rain in two hours-- followed a few days later by another inch -- to revive plant Life.

There was an earthquake the other day --  a "moderate" 3.7 or so -- in the not far away Yellowstone area.  We're located on what's called the Yellowstone Fault. But Old Faithful continued to keep its schedule.  "End times" people see massive earthquakes coming out of the Fault, and proliferating all over.  I don't share that gloom and doom view. But, while I am not an earthquake specialist by any stretch, we do keep our State Farm earthquake insurance current. Pocatello did have an earthquake down below our area back in the '70s and statistically Idaho has more earthquakes than any other state.

Well, we all will always keep on, keeping on.  We much appreciate your comments, Mary Ann.  Keep them coming.

All our best from all of us.  And, of course, WWW.

Hunter or John


HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR/JOHN R SALTER JR] Mi'kmaq / 
St. Francis Abenaki / St. Regis Mohawk 
Member, National Writers Union AFL-CIO

Check out our massive social justice website
www.hunterbear.org  The site is dedicated to our
one-half Bobcat, Cloudy Gray, and to Sky Gray:
http://hunterbear.org/cloudy_gray.htm
.
See my  new expanded/updated "Organizer's Book," 
JACKSON MISSISSIPPI -- with a new substantial 
introduction by me. And this book is also an activist's
how-to manual:  http://hunterbear.org/jackson.htm   

And see the related http://crmvet.org/comm/hunter1.htm 
and also "Fifty Years: Remembering Medgar Evers" :          
 http://www.solidarity-us.org/site/node/3876

See the Stormy Adoption of an Indian Child [My Father]:
http://hunterbear.org/James%20and%20Salter%20and%20Dad.htm
(Many photos.)

Our very substantial page on effective community organizing
techniques: http://hunterbear.org/my_combined_community_organizing.htm