When Everything Fell Apart

When Everything Fell Apart



It didn’t take that long for it all to finally fall apart. Though the economy had been declining rapidly for some months the bottom seemed still some time away. We knew it would get bad and that we all would adjust, certainly it would not get as bad as it did. Those of us intelligent enough to know our history could conjure up images of ‘The Great
Depression’ from history books and film reels, living this new wave of global demise was not even in our vocabulary.
Everything fell apart. The auto makers went first. I know, some say it was the housing and financial companies but they were somehow separate from the everyday life of Americans. It was the wealthy who lost their money. Once GM, Ford and Chrysler went belly up it was like a bell tolling somewhere. The ripple effect was worse than any stone thrown in any pond, anywhere.
It was no longer companies needing a bailout, it became towns then cities, then whole counties. Eventually it was states. The meltdown spread like a virus in an already ill society taking out anyone and anything it infected. It was only a matter of time before the government stepped in to, well ‘help the nation’. After all we had just elected a new President that we all hoped would be the one to lift this nation. I do not think he, like the rest of us were ready for the Mexico Invasion and the bombing of L.A.
I was struggling myself to stay afloat in the job market. My wife and I both worked and tried to balance our needs and our commitments. Lucky for us we paid rent and had none of the worries of property taxes and mortgages that all went stratospheric. Food and fuel became our main concern and they were nightmares in and of themselves.
Money was actually starting to run out. I do not mean for me and my family, I mean for everyone. America had borrowed so much and the world economy had gone so badly that nations were calling in debts. Everything was on credit and with the crash of Wall Street what was the United States to fall back on? Even our gold reserves were swallowed up by the huge oil producing nations we sucked dry. Timber was worthless because homes were being foreclosed on instead of being built. Steel was mined here but no other nation had a need for the raw material to refine it. No one wanted cars (especially American) because oil was over $250.00 a barrel. The great hope of hydrogen cars and/or electric cars was a myth and when the first few were marketed they were too small, too slow and never lasted on a charge as long as they were billed to. As things got worse cars were literally left abandoned, tanks empty. Those that remained in driveways soon became shelter and were pushed off the lots as more and more homes fell to the banks to eventually be absorbed by the government. Electric companies shut off so much power to homes and companies that could not pay their bills that National Grid had to shut down whole sections of the nation or face operating at a loss. Going green? No one was interested in ‘green technology’ either. When people are concerned about tomorrows dinner they could care less about saving the environment.
Eventually the government just started taking everything over in a futile effort to save what they could of our way of life. It was pointless. We were out of money therefore the government was out of money and our debt was being called in by China and Saudi Arabia. Our way of life was over and the ruse that we were fed as a nation and as a world that “..only government is strong enough to weather this crisis” would destroy everything that used to be and impose upon us something from a frightening, nightmarish science fiction novel.




I will not change the names in this story to (as they say, ‘protect the innocent’). This is the story of us all and anyone reading this can easily interject their own names and families because we are all going through this. No one is innocent from this demise of modern 21st Century life to an almost feudal existence. It is funny, actually, most doomsday scenarios talk of a world in the future and how it moves forward. This is not that story. Everything seems to be going backwards. Everything we do now is like a movie of some western, or historical drama, or an epic about life in 14—whatever. The only difference is the juxtaposing of what we know now slammed into the way things were done centuries ago and what we must face. An oxymoron live and in color.
I remember coming home one day after work. A typical week of hours cut back, customers not calling the business I worked for, to find an empty house. She had left me. What was worse she took our daughter with her. Another man would have been angry beyond control. I understood. We had argued about this before and always she had the last word. She was right anyway. I could not support my family anymore. Going to her father in Arizona would be best. He was secure and had an ample home and Amie would be loved and go to a good school. My only concern was of the recent news reports of gang violence along the southern border by Mexican Drug Cartels. Rebecca’s father lived as a drug and alcohol counselor on the Hopi Reservation and if anyone could protect their land and people who sought shelter there it was her father and the American Indian.. So,..I understood and felt some comfort.
It didn’t change things for me.
I was still poor and trying to make ends meet and, they were not.
The days, weeks and months that followed are dissolved in a blur of everyday life, trying to get on with things that we all dealt with at that time. The first news that shook me into a gut fear was the announcement that all three of the “Big Three” were finished. I was fearful, yet why? I knew this was coming. Maybe, like all Americans, we (I) did not actually believe it would happen.
It did.
I watched the news as if it was 9/11 all over again. One piece of bad news followed by another.
Like an avalanche, the Stock Market crashed from its low of 4000 to ZERO!, in fact it actually went negative! We owed people money! I almost puked with nausea. We were all in deep shit.
The country, need I repeat history, went out of it’s fucking mind!!!

Let me slow down here a minute. Did you, like me, try to place a call that day?..
I thought so.

This was not your typical Market slide. Remember the ‘ripple’ thing I mentioned?
With the last bastion of manufacturing left in the United States now in the toilet it was open house. The White House switch board lit up like Rockefeller Center on December 24th. It was not economists, or other Senators or even citizens. It was investors from every nation we held debt with.
Time to pay up!

The next evidence of ,how should I say, ‘things going wrong’ was when Fox News had the Finance Minister from Saudi Arabia cut into its normal programming. When asked about the events in Detroit he launched into a tirade about America’s war debt in the Middle East and our multi-trillion dollar debt in oil purchases. Normally, we, as viewers would have given him a collective middle finger.
Only this time we could not.
Fox News went dead off the air……..

This brings me back to the phone call. The lines were jammed. How the hell in this modern world of satellites and cell towers every mile could the lines be jammed? Something was not right. I still had my old HP and tried to get Becky on the internet. I was able to ‘send’ a message but the return came back after a few minutes as ‘unable to send’. Tried again..Refresh..Send….wait…’unable to send’.

OK. Don’t panic..I remembered 9/11. We all panicked. We knew things were fucked up and soon they would correct and we could all get hold of those we love and be at ease.
It took eight months before I was able to get any word from Becky and Amie that they were alright and it was in the form of a letter..You remember? Letters?

By this time it had all gone to hell. Airlines were grounded, mass transit had stalled, not a cab anywhere, the telephones worked one day then not. Gas was in serious short supply. Fights had broken out at gas stations and the price ran up to $11:00 a gallon. The National Guard had been called into certain cities. Television; and I think this scared people the most, was still off the air. Only that “BEEEEEEEEEEP” and the station ID on the screen. The postal system still worked and only because the bills now came in tenfold. Letters were all we had. The news we got was months old. My mailman told me that letters were on the bottom of the list of priority mail for now.
Rebecca and Amie were fine for now. The Reservation had always grown food and subsisted on its own for a century. Amazingly, the desert was full of game. As for money, they ran out long ago and Indian entitlements were the equivalent of homelessness anyway. Rebecca worked with the children in a school that Amie attended and everyone just pulled together as Indian tribes had always done.
In the letter I received a picture of Amie, after she turned 13. The letter was posted on the two dollar stamp from six months ago. All I could do was cry.
That’s all I wish to say about this.



My only source of employment had imploded and I was out of work. On a waiting list for benefits I stood little chance of getting I did what I could to eat and survive. My gas and power went off and I just camped out in my apartment. Rent was no longer due because my landlord also was camping out. Bread that cost three dollars on Monday cost eight dollars on Friday.

The rumbling was in the back of my dream. Like a TV left on after you fall asleep affecting the strangeness that are dreams to begin with. The accelerating and decelerating was not rhythmic and eventually woke me up. Thumping sounds next door. Voices. I yawn not even aware..What the hell is the neighbor doing now?
Shit have they started trash removal again? Finally? Did it snow last night? Is that a plow? Where did the town get money to fuel a plow truck?
My kitchen door pounded.
What the fuck?
More pounding.
YEAH, YEAH,YEAH!!! I was already dressed due to the cold and slumped downstairs.
From a time gone I peered out the window towards the kitchen to get a hint of my intruder. I stopped cold in my tracks..
Bradley Fighting Vehicles and Humvees?
At my door was a soldier in modern digital green and gray his M-4 at the ready. I stood back and pulled open the door afraid it would be kicked in at me.
“ Do you own this property sir?” The soldier inquired. Demanded
I lied.
“No..no..I rent here..”. I hadn’t paid rent in months. ‘Whats going….”
The soldier held up his hand and nodded me silent.
“Identification please sir!”
Now where the hell was that? I asked for a minute to look and stepped away from the door. I did not notice the soldier motion to his partner. I opened the desk to find my ID and heard the ‘cluck-clack’ of firearm hardware behind me.
“It’s just my driver’s license”. I said slowly presenting it.
The lead soldier moved under cover from his partner to me and snatched it into his hand. I just stood there and held up mine. Wise thing to do when a US soldier has an M-4 pointed at your head.




II


“Do you have any other ID sir?”
Actually, I did, my old Coast Guard ID and Search and Rescue card I held on to for nostalgia. It was over a year old and past expiration. What the hell it had my info and DOB. I handed it over and the lead soldier exited leaving me under gun point.
Outside I heard radio chatter with my License and CGID numbers called in.
‘Great’, I thought. Past due taxes and child support. This is it..The time passed like eternity.
The lead soldier returned and handed over my cards. Relief.
“Sorry for this, Lieutenant we are doing a sweep of citizens”. Being called LT snapped me into old form.
“What the hell is going on?” I finally asked. The second soldier had shouldered his weapon.
“Mexicans, sir, they came across and invaded from California and Texas in a ‘Hail Mary’ with units of regulars and drug militia”
I froze..Amie..Becky..
“My family..They are on the Hopi Reserv…”
“Southern Watch stopped them cold”. He interrupted, “Border police, National Guard, ranchers. We lost people but the wetbacks scattered”.
I fell into the kitchen chair. Fuck me sideways..

That was all. The soldiers departed and continued on. No gile no fuss. They were soldiers. On to the next mission. God Bless them.

Things got worse. No mail at all. Still no TV. Power..yeah right.. We watched the busses line up for deportation. I did feel sorry for the kids. They, as always, are innocent in any situation like this. The adults did break the law and all I could focus on is what would happen if we did this somewhere else in another nation. We would be lucky to get a bus home and not a firing squad.
People in the neighborhood started food collectives. Growing food. Niel next door got a cow from somewhere and started milking trading milk for, well, anything. We started looking at other areas for a Bull to mate and get more calves. Trees and landscape shrubs started disappearing ending up in wood stoves. Well manicured lawns became farms. I did well pulling siding and framework from empty homes to burn. I would walk miles to the woods in the next town to bow hunt anything that moved. I had always fished and the bounty was plenty. Everyone found their favorite spots. Each time I would cook bass, I would remember Becky.
“I am not eating that”. She would say. Amie would catch the fish but never ate them either.
The funny thing in all this was how people still held on to cars. As if someday things would return. They were covered, locked up, chained, driven round back and hidden. Believe it or not, horses started to appear on the streets. You have to imagine M-1 Abrams Tanks, Humvees and Striker vehicles alongside horses and carts..Almost surreal. Troops were everywhere. Government handouts were a travesty with desperate people clawing at what little came on the one truck for over a thousand people.
Then LA happened.




It had been a good year since I heard anything from my family. As I said, mail was prehistoric slow. All we knew was the military was on alert. We saw it everyday. The old Armory up the street had been turned into a barracks and a perimeter had been set up closing off whole neighborhoods within a half mile radius. I was literally on the edge of that ‘Security Zone’ and watched each morning the convoy move out and rumble down Main Street.
I, actually, was relieved to see them. I believe in our Armed Forces. The past year of daily interaction with them. All of them have families somewhere, hoping, struggling. Our farms had actually been helped by them with seed from UN supplies. We traded small stuff like cigarettes, coffee, MRE’s. The music broadcasted from Humvee loudspeakers, with armed sentries at the perimeter on a Friday night. Niel’s milk was like gold to them. They would even smuggle letters from afar bribing some one somewhere up the chain of command to forward word from families.
I may add here, those who chastised our troops in the war on terror, suddenly understood who and what they were. Neighbors, friends, protectors.
This day was different though. They pulled out early and we did not see them return. People brought out their weapons and set up a citizen’s watch as night fell. It lasted a month.








II.5

It is hard to tell people all the details. This story could get lost with all the, ‘well what happened here?’, what did you do about this?’ We just survived that’s all.. Neighbors started doing things we thought would never happen. We forgot our petty bullshit and banded together. Elderly were helped and we all took turns in that area. Food was harvested from large yards and the school baseball field. We even made a decision to keep the kids happy and kept the park clean and held summer softball games from the equipment we stole from Town Hall. For the first time since I was a kid. Children actually roamed the neighborhood freely and got into trouble riding their bikes and playing in the vacant streets. They biked to the lake and fished and swam and did things that kids should do. Forts, hunting, finding something to smash open. Teenagers no longer bugged by cops.
I remember, in the past, all the worry people had developed about child molesters and predators stealing kids. We kept our kids indoors and heavily supervised. After a few years of this we asked why our kids were couch potatoes..DUH.. Now they did as they pleased and we could see the results. Happy, healthy filthy kids needing a bath from a day of exploring and being who they should be.
We didn’t even worry about other neighborhoods. They were all in the same boat and we all traded and kept relations sane. The school was no longer operational but we used it as a forum to get the parents and kids together to play, learn and have a sense of life going on. Old DVD’s played powered by a generator. The horses and wagons lined up outside the building were a scene from a western.

The army had still not returned and we were very concerned. We knew something was wrong yet had no news at all. All infrastructure was gone. Mail, TV, power, even a simple two way radio was out of the question.. We held a meeting.
It was decided two people would go to Hanscom Field Air Force Base. We saw the jets from time to time and heard the faint staccato of live fire exercises when we traded with the town of Bolton. Hopefully, they would concur what we thought. Some one up there would have an answer.