The Road Behind

Some are grieving a way of life that  is disappearing.  A reader sent me this lament and, on another thread, Ernie compared the changes in the Grower’s life with that of the Logger.  I got misty eyed over both comments.

I Really do not Like the Thought of Weed Being Legal

I so much miss the old days, cause I am old school.

The excitement of hugging a tree not because I love it….but that I loved the fact that it was hiding me from the black helicopter hovering over my head….

So many small timers are going to go down hard because of legal weed.

I know that it should have been legal years ago.

[Still] Some people have no education for one reason or another, some have ADD and could not find their way in life. Some are [50 plus] years old and still cannot spell, or concentrate well enough to read a whole book.

Some people love the excitement of breaking the rules without breaking someone’s heart. If weed is legal, ..the big guys will happily walk away from their payments on their property, with a hand clutching a large suitcase full of money, saying good bye to Humboldt County [and]

Small Mom and Pops will do everything to hang on to a life style very few were privileged to have, only to realize they cannot.

Small trucks will roll down a country road with male pollen dusting the acres of Costco weed growing in the fields 200 yards away.

Stores WILL crash , families will move,  and a lifestyle will slowly fall…

I miss the old days, cause I am old school…..

I miss being 14 sitting behind a 7-11 smoking a Mexican joint cause it was fun and exciting.

I really do not like the thought of weed being legal.

I am tired of change,

I am old school,

I miss the old days.

As someone who watched logging dwindle to a ghostly occupation, the following comparison by Ernie nearly broke my heart.

My opinion is that legalization will be passed in 2010. It’s coming like a steamroller, and there is nothing that we can do to stop it. Unfortunately, because marijuana is Garberville’s main industry, that steamroller is going to run right over us. Our choice is, to take it face up, or face down. With pretty much the same results.

To take a lesson from the lumber industry as they were squeezed out. Many moved into road construction. Some went to work at McDonalds or similar jobs, but most found other work. The average lumber industry worker now works harder and longer and makes less that half what they used to make.

Some diehard lumbermen tried to stick it out, with the hopes that log prices would raise enough for them to make a little money. It was the siren that led them to the rocks. They make enough to eke out a living, but they never made enough to pay for new equipment. Most of them made it to retirement and sold the equipment to scrap iron dealers. There is little logging in Garberville now. When ever I see a logging truck go by, it yanks at my heartstrings, and I feel like saluting.

I really don’t feel that Boutique Marijuana is going to do much better that boutique logging did. Remember that this is the only place in the world that Redwoods grow, yet the price of redwood is in the basement and not very many loggers are able to sustain their industry. Marijuana can be, and it is, grown all over the world by anybody that wants to do it.

My suggestion would be to look toward something else to make a living. I know full well how the growers feel about what they do, they love growing Marijuana. They love being their own bosses. They wake in the morning and say “God, I love the smell of Marijuana in the morning”. It’s in their blood.

Not many know the sweet smell of a logging operation in the morning. Before the equipment starts and the dust kicks up, but I can tell you it is the sweetest smell that you will ever smell. I left logging to become an electronics engineer, but left that for refrigeration, two good options that would work even today. The loggers that went into construction did fairly well, because they utilized already inherent skills.

Boutique marijuana is the siren to the rocks. (just my opinion, I’m often very wrong) Finding another industry that might suit your talents would probably work better.

Sorry.

You can always buy your weed.

I buy my lumber now.

The culture is changing.  I love what we have now.  Will I love the future?  Probably, but today, in the rain, I’m mourning a way of life that will disappear forever.