JUNE
2008 READER'S STORIES
Ya-Mon!
Ocho Rios,
Jamaica, an island city where street vendors are offensively
persistent, pushy, and
overwhelmingly in-your-face. Where one vendor leaves
off,
another picks up the harassment. Its like a tornado of
repeated
“Yo-mon! Wha you lookin for? Some-ting special? How
‘bout dis? Is qua-li-ty. Come-on mon,
what you wanna
pay for dis?” When your done fighting the vendors
off, the
whispers of illicit drugs are murmured at you as you walk by,
“Eh-mon, wanna buy some...?” Or they call
out through
a fence dangling beads or asking your assistance to hand them a shell,
only to bring you closer to make the same whispered procurement
offer. The entire people scene squelched the beautiful
scenery to
a point of never wanting to return to visit Jamaica again.
--- No More Ya-Mon For Me!
Road TO Nowhere
Many many years ago, a friend of mine invited us to visit the tiny town of Trona, CA, located in the Searles Valley on Hwy 178 in the Greater Mojave Desert, where he worked and lived. At that time, Trona was a one industry town out in the middle of nowhere that takes like forever to get to. It’s impossible to get lost, one long boring two-lane paved road where you’d be lucky to see another vehicle in either direction the entire route. The directions given us were simple, “When you get tired of driving and watching a seemingly unchanging landscape for miles on end, you’re almost there!” Did I say it was long and boring…to a point that we stopped in the middle of the road, got out and took turns lying down on the double yellow line to take pictures of each other on the hot pavement for entertainment. This unique off-the-beaten-path town, where the railroad just loops around to return the same way it came in, isn’t your ordinary western desert town. It smells like rotting eggs and is filled with out-of-the-ordinary features. To give an example, our friend was renting a house that had a huge four-foot diameter concrete water pipe standing on end with a large oval cutout on one side that served as the entrance to his indoor bathroom shower. Part of his job, the one and only “Mayberry- Andy Griffith type” patrol officer, was to go out and blow-up ancient sweating sticks of dynamite found laying around in old mines out in the desert. To say the least, after we arrived, we visited his home for two hours, took a tour of the town that lasted about two minutes, and then set out again on the road FROM nowhere that just disappeared into the distant sunset.
--- Unforgettable
Construction Abduction
When I was much much younger on a trip with my family, I came to realize that having lots of money doesn’t make you smarter or for that matter sane. This realization came as we were touring the bizarre Winchester Mystery House in San Jose, Ca. Stairways into ceilings, doors opening to brick walls, and other doors opening to thirty-foot drops; a window built into a floor, and upside down posts…none of it made sense then, and now that I know the cost of construction it makes even less sense today. The lady that built this mansion, Sarah Winchester, kept the carpenters hammering away 24 hours a day for 38 years! Undeniably, she was a crazy nut case; however, to me the construction guys were brilliant. There’s no doubt in my mind that the old saying, “A fool and her money are easily parted!” started in this strange building.
--- Gotno Money
Ocho Rios,
Jamaica, an island city where street vendors are offensively
persistent, pushy, and
overwhelmingly in-your-face. Where one vendor leaves
off,
another picks up the harassment. Its like a tornado of
repeated
“Yo-mon! Wha you lookin for? Some-ting special? How
‘bout dis? Is qua-li-ty. Come-on mon,
what you wanna
pay for dis?” When your done fighting the vendors
off, the
whispers of illicit drugs are murmured at you as you walk by,
“Eh-mon, wanna buy some...?” Or they call
out through
a fence dangling beads or asking your assistance to hand them a shell,
only to bring you closer to make the same whispered procurement
offer. The entire people scene squelched the beautiful
scenery to
a point of never wanting to return to visit Jamaica again. --- No More Ya-Mon For Me!
Road TO Nowhere
Many many years ago, a friend of mine invited us to visit the tiny town of Trona, CA, located in the Searles Valley on Hwy 178 in the Greater Mojave Desert, where he worked and lived. At that time, Trona was a one industry town out in the middle of nowhere that takes like forever to get to. It’s impossible to get lost, one long boring two-lane paved road where you’d be lucky to see another vehicle in either direction the entire route. The directions given us were simple, “When you get tired of driving and watching a seemingly unchanging landscape for miles on end, you’re almost there!” Did I say it was long and boring…to a point that we stopped in the middle of the road, got out and took turns lying down on the double yellow line to take pictures of each other on the hot pavement for entertainment. This unique off-the-beaten-path town, where the railroad just loops around to return the same way it came in, isn’t your ordinary western desert town. It smells like rotting eggs and is filled with out-of-the-ordinary features. To give an example, our friend was renting a house that had a huge four-foot diameter concrete water pipe standing on end with a large oval cutout on one side that served as the entrance to his indoor bathroom shower. Part of his job, the one and only “Mayberry- Andy Griffith type” patrol officer, was to go out and blow-up ancient sweating sticks of dynamite found laying around in old mines out in the desert. To say the least, after we arrived, we visited his home for two hours, took a tour of the town that lasted about two minutes, and then set out again on the road FROM nowhere that just disappeared into the distant sunset.
--- Unforgettable
Construction Abduction
When I was much much younger on a trip with my family, I came to realize that having lots of money doesn’t make you smarter or for that matter sane. This realization came as we were touring the bizarre Winchester Mystery House in San Jose, Ca. Stairways into ceilings, doors opening to brick walls, and other doors opening to thirty-foot drops; a window built into a floor, and upside down posts…none of it made sense then, and now that I know the cost of construction it makes even less sense today. The lady that built this mansion, Sarah Winchester, kept the carpenters hammering away 24 hours a day for 38 years! Undeniably, she was a crazy nut case; however, to me the construction guys were brilliant. There’s no doubt in my mind that the old saying, “A fool and her money are easily parted!” started in this strange building.
--- Gotno Money