NAME IT AND CLAIM IT - Ladyfisher - November 8, 2010

NAME IT AND CLAIM IT

Fly fishers seem to be a pretty optimistic bunch and that is especially apparent in the current economy. Frankly I?m amazed we haven?t seen more complaining or downright bitterness on our bulletin boards. Sure, I know everyone is pretty much in the same boat - if you have a job you?re grateful and hope to hang onto it. Some have had to cut back on one thing or another, but over all I don?t see the gloom and doom here on FAOL that I?ve seen in other places (not necessarily fly fishing related.)

I've been traveling a lot to fish this year, thankfully. In my travels I've noticed "the recession" more in some fishing communities than in others. It has hit the folks in FL hard. But you hardly notice any ill-effects at all in NC and eastern TN. I couldn't tell any difference in CO or NM. And TX is pretty much the same as usual. The Ozarks got hit with 3 years in a row of very high water on their main fisheries leading into the recession. So they've seen a compounded impact. But being arguably the least expensive world-class trout fishing destination in North America, they are a bit counter-cyclical in terms of economic impacts. They see some attrition when fishing tourism dries up, but not nearly as much as most places with higher price tags. Companies with a low-end-consumer or entry-level focus have reported to me that they have had good years in 2010 due to the economy. Other companies that tend to focus their energies "up-scale," are having a tougher time of it. Overall, fishing, camping, and low-cost watersports sporting goods mfgs and retailers do well when times are lean because people tend to seek their recreation closer to home. The Disneyworld vacation turns into a trip to the lake or national park...that sort of thing. The season tickets to MLB and NFL games get converted into a more feasible tune-up for the boat and weekends on the water. Frankly, there is a silver lining in every dark cloud! More people playing in the outdoors and more families doing it together are probably good for everyone.

Ladyfisher,

I retired early in life. I live on a very tight budget. Its a big trade-off - more money or more freedom. Sometimes the lack of "extra" funds will restrict the distance I am able to travel or even the number of trips I can take locally. It seems that my money supports fewer and fewer businesses that I used to frequent, and more of it goes to utility companies now. I'm not complaining so much for myself, but that other folks aren't getting my business. I've cut way back on the number of outdoor magazines I used to subscribe to, so that I can continue to support groups like Trout Unlimited, Pheasants Forever, Woodcock Limited of Pa., and my local group - Habitat for Wildlife. It gets harder and harder to justify buying many things, because the prices seem to be out of control. If I won the lottery (which I don't even play!) I still would not purchase many of those things. I don't/won't throw my hard earned money away. Although I try not to dwell on the economy, it is and has been, WAY, WAY, underestimated as to its negative impact on the average American and is ripping the people of modest means, a new one, if you catch my meaning! Thanks for the rant. I feel better now! LOL!!!!

Best Regards, Dave S.

LF,

I ride a train to work everyday because my commute is pretty long (1.5 hours one way). Our commuter train line shares the rails with Amtrak and freight traffic. One of the things I noticed early on was that the large shipments of steel seemed to stop almost overnight. Prior to the slowdown, it was not unusual to see a couple of train loads just loaded with steel. I-Beam, H-beams, sheets of steel from my judgement of 3/8" thick to what I judge to be as thick as 2". Not 4' x 8' sheets, these were as wide as the railcar and 1/3 to 1/2 it's length, piled 2 - 4 feet high on average. Now I see them only about once every 3 - 4 months and maybe a maximum of 6 cars loaded, mostly with sheets, very few I or H beams. The rest of the train is made up of other freight, where previously it was the full train.

Paul

Will Rodgers once said, "It is a Recession when the other guy is out of work! It is a Depression when you are out of work!"

I was born in 1949, so I was not born during the last Depression, but I live in the aftermath of it, listen to my elders about what they went through during the dark times. And learning how to survive the bad days is still helping me and my family in todays bad times. Back then....

Families did not have televisions, refrigerators, microwaves, dishwashers, washer and driers, air conditioning. small bedrooms, only one bathroom, small kitchens (no dining rooms), very small living rooms. Larger houses where divided into rental units, and you might be living on the 2nd or 3rd floor sharing a common bathroom with other units on the same floor.

All food was cooked from scratch, no frozen food, because few (if any) had freezers. Monday was Pork Chops, spaghetti on Tuesday, became the casserole on Thursday. Wednesday might be some sort of sausage and sauerkraut, Friday was fish, Saturday was Ox-tail Soup and bread, Sunday was a chicken dinner that mother burnt the pin feathers off the chicken she bought on Saturday from the butcher, and put it in the oven before the family went to church. After the Sunday Chicken Dinner, my father would give me a dime to run up to the corner grocery store to buy a pint of ice cream for the five of us.

I remember sitting at the kitchen table doing my school homework, and when my father came home with his pay, my mother and father sat at the same table dividing the money into envelopes for the house mortgage payment, the house insurance, car insurance, life insurance, food, electric & gas bill, car payments and gasoline, doctor bills, clothing, household supplies, and if there was anything left over we might go to see a movie. There was no money for going to a cabin on a lake to fish, or vacation to some other State.

For entertainment we read books that we got from the Public Library, listened to the radio programs on the radio, or played board or card games. I was born in 1949,We did not get a television until 1956 (used). All my fathers cars were 5 years old when he bought them. We were not rich, and we were not poor, but we still learned do without a lot while growing up.

I guess what I am saying is no matter how bad you think you have it now, it was a lot more barren back then. Things we take for granted now did not even exist back then. Most of the stuff you need, you don't really need.

My Grandfather said "Needs, Wants, Gets; are three different things. Sometimes none of them are on the menu, so you do without or make do with what you have!"

~Parnelli

Wow. Y'all ate a lot of meat! My parents grew up during the Depression, and my dad wouldn't eat rice until the day he died. And one of his favorite meals was beans and cornbread. We got punished for putting more than one slice of lunch meat on a sandwich because that was gluttonous. And my dad bought a freezer with a lock on it and kept the key. Even my mother had to get permission to get meat out of it. I grew up with television, having been born in 1966. But we got our first color TV when my older brother bought one for my parents for Christmas in 1984...the year I graduated from high school. We cut the grass in our 3/4 acre yard with a push-mower, did the weeds the mower wouldn't handle with a sickle, trimmed edges with a large pair of scissors, trimmed shrubs with those big hedge clippers, and weeded the fence row of goat thorns and sand burs without gloves. (men should have tough hands and a high pain tolerance, you see) We ate a lot of beans, pasta, stew, casseroles, bologna, cereal, and peanut butter. We did not have soda or candy in the house. And we knew better than to sit around (even reading or watching TV) until after dinner because that would get you extra chores. So we all stayed busy with extra-curricular activities, hobbies, etc. as much as we could. We all got excellent educations and stayed out of trouble (deep down we KNEW mom and dad would be far worse to deal with than the authorities if we did). Oddly enough, my father was a leading computer systems analyst and network designer as far back as the late 1960's. And we had a home computer from the time the first one hit the market. When I say "we," I mean us kids. But we didn't play games on it much. He taught us programming. And my junior and senior years of high school I taught the brand new computer science classes while the teacher took role, recorded grades, and sat and watched and asked questions. My folks both had violent tempers and abusive streaks...and plenty of eccentricities. But all six of us kids darn sure learned the difference between a necessity and a luxury, work and play, and how to give something 110%. We understood sacrifice, commitment, responsibility, integrity, and that life is not even supposed to be "fair." We learned that we had to EARN what we got, and that even that could be taken away. So our ability to adjust, adapt, overcome, and endure far exceeds that of most of our peers. And for that I am extremely grateful.

What a great thread and article by our beautiful Lady Fisher
I won't add to it because I am indeed one of the few fortunate ones with roof over my head and beans on the table...

But I must say I appreciate and will be a better person for what has and no doubt will been written here...

Thank you!

Be safe..

I was born in the 1940's during the big one...... WW11 .... Growing up we had no indoor plumbing. Water was from a hand pump out in the backyard pumphouse/woodshed. Mom cooked on a woodstove or on the Hearth of our fireplace. The privy was way out in the back yard. Man that seat could be cold in winter. In 1951 we got an electric engine put on the hand pump and a cold water pipe installed in our Kitchen. ( sheer luxury ) so you didn't have to go outside anymore for water. In 1955 the city finally got a sewer system and we hooked up. I still remember the different neighbourhoods one by one in turn having outhouse burning partys as the sewer line finally reached them. TV made it to the valley in 1956 but we didn't get one till I was 20 and bought one for my mom and dad on a payment plan. Black and white TV was $225.00 in those days. colour tv was about $500.0 wages were 75 cents per hour so thats about 600 hours of work for the average person. With no TV in town we had plenty of Sports teams to go see. TV all but killed baseball and basketball In the 1960's as attendance dropped sharply.
Virtually everything we ate was free because we grew it outselves. We had a root cellar in the back yard to store vegetables and fruit over the winter. We had a milk cow for milk, cheese, cream, yogert etc. This was ranching country and most people wouldn't pay for the organ meats. The butcher, ( our neighbour ) Would give us all the organ meats such as liver, tongue, tripe etc for free. We had a small orchard with cherries, apples, pears, peaches, apricots and grapes etc that we shared with him. My mom canned huge amounts of fruits and traded them for stuff we couldn't grow ourselves. I raised about 200 chickens and sold eggs and Pullets for my pocket money and to help out. for sweetener I had 20 hives of bees and we used honey not sugar. I don't ever remember missing a meal or being hungry. The worst thing For us kids was when they straightened the river and made it into a canal then dammed it down below so the 5 types of Pacific Salmon that used to run up it each year dissapeared.
As for now I have a good pension that although it doesn't make me rich it serves my needs really well. Can't complain. Wouldn't do any good if I did anyway.