I know that I’ve spoken about the time an old monk told me that I owned everything in the sky-that no matter what and no matter where,as long as I could see the sky it belonged to me.
It was sort of a weird argument that began earlier that day. I had said in a conversation that I owned five acres of land-this old monk said I owned nothing. Then,later on that night,I am looking out at the sky,and this old monk comes up and says that my land was something people could take away from me-but no matter where I was,the sky was always mine.
This is a very rural place where my home is. I’ve lived out here long enough to see the road go from a two track lane that wove between black jack oaks to a county maintained grade-and now the road is paved.
Up at the very dead end of the road is a 10 acre tract of land that once was home to an old curmudgeon that kept an eye on a large group of pigs-living in a cabin alone and completely isolated because then the two mile trip was extensive.
All around my old friend then was a herd of hogs being raised for a sausage plant in Alachua (long since closed-Copelands)-he had class and ate off of the cheapest dish sets you could buy at Woolco,the then Wal-Mart,and then he’d toss them like paper plates. But other then that my pal lived in a 10 x 10 shack of sorts.
He had a power pole out there (out here,now-for me…but then…) but it only came up to a certain spot-where my pal kept a lawn chair and a milk crate,and every night he’d drag his black and white TV and a coffee percolator and his Pall-Mall cigarettes and he’d sit and watch the set until the last show-all this being plugged in to a sole power pole in the middle of no where.. You could drive out there at night (this guy loved company) and from a distance in the dark you could see the glow of that TV set with an erie blue light penetrating the darkness in the woods.
I was about 19 the few times I came out here to visit this old boy. I still find it amazing that I ended up living out here-long after my hermit friend made his money off of the proceeds of hog hide and moved on.
My place is about the spot where the lawn chair and TV set once sat. The ten acres that was once his is another tenth of a mile west.
So living out here these thirty plus years and seeing it go from not much more than a trail to a now paved road-I’ve seen a lot.
It is easy to understand that because of its secluded natural side-being surrounded by state forest property (all wooded) the neighborhood tends to draw an element of dubious nature. Not always-and not every one-but there does seem to be a sense of security for those who have a desire to stay out of the way.
A few years ago this fellow from Wisconsin bought the ten acres where the pig caretakers cabin sat and the eighty acre tract next to that.
Now in between the time the pig caretaker moved on this property changed hands several times. One of those owners began a house ,this man from Wisconsin finished it and also set a big double wide up on the hill on his eighty acres.
There were a few occasions that I got to talk to Bill. He seemed like a man who had something going for him where cash was concerned. He told me he owned a tree farm out on 335.
Bill never just stopped and talked. I only would see him when ever I walked out on the road-these last few years that hasn’t been much.
When ever you saw Bill he was always nice and polite-but never got out of the big cab F-350 diesel he drove.
You could tell Bill had a touch of a snobs flair about him-he seemed above you, perhaps that was because of the truck sitting sort of high. But-you could sense he wasn’t wanting you in his world yet he wasn’t going to be unfriendly about it.
What ever it was he had going on it seemed he had enough to do it with. Often you’d see him pulling a back hoe or other equipment-all which seemed to fit his tree farm project. Everything seemed new-his trucks and trailers and tractors.
Yesterday I started to read the local newspaper online and the headline read…”Largest indoor pot growing bust estimates1.9 million dollars”.
That was not what got my attention…the by-line read “bust on county line lands four in jail”.
County line? I live on a county line!
I begin to read and as I read it becomes obvious that this is my road they are writing about . The story tells about this big metal building being used with an extensive growing system with diesel generators and grow lights.
As I scrolled the page there was a mug shot of a fellow from Central America…a real tough looking sort. Then I scrolled down more…and another tough looking man. He too from Central America.
And then the next mug shot was Bill’s.
I lay in my bed last night-my two chiuauas-Max and Sweetie-all snug up in the blankets with me. I was looking out the french doors at the foot of my bed and I could see the stars. I was thinking about Bill and his wife (I never met her…she got a mug shot too) and was in amazement about the thought of it….them in jail, and me laying here listening to the tree frogs sing and staring at the stars.
Bill never in a million light years seemed to me the kind that had it in him. He seemed meek and nerdy and like the country club type….a level above.
And now-here I am….richer then him.
It seems sometimes we take things into a perspective. Like the old monk said-I own nothing, but yet the sky is mine. And me? I took in perspective that Bill was upper class and I was just the guy living in the mobile home down on the corner lot….hmmm.
I’m still stupid.
(news link for story at top of page)
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