Calamity in America

by Pete Thorsen

  Our dinner date was done. I was way too excited to sit down again. And I certainly did not want to let go of Jack even for a second. Somehow Jack paid the bill and we exited the building and we found ourselves outside.

  I don’t think I was the only one who was excited because once we got outside Jack lifted me up and spun me around and then showed me what a real kiss really was, and not just once. When he finally pulled back I showed him that I was a quick study and kissed him back.

  The next couple of weeks were a whirlwind of activity for both of us. We decided not to have a real wedding. So the following Monday (Jack’s shop was closed every Sunday and Monday) we went to the county courthouse and walked out legally married. It worked out well because the courthouse was only open on Mondays and Thursdays now due to budget cuts.

  While there, we added each other’s name to the deeds of our respective properties. We did the same at the banks where the other’s name was added to each account. While this was going on we had posted signs at the shop and placed a small add in the local paper announcing that the shop would be closed for a week.

  Jack had bought us plane tickets and reserved a room in Hawaii for our honeymoon. I told him that we shouldn’t spend money so extravagantly. That led to quite a discussion.

  “I have a bunch of money from my father’s life insurance policy and the shop still makes a good enough profit. I think we should spend some of it before it is worthless.”

  “Why would the money ever be worthless?”

  “Once again our government (working through the Federal Reserve Bank) has started a very aggressive money printing plan that they call QE5. They have done some of this before but this time they are going all out. Anyone knows that if you suddenly have a massive supply of something the value will go down. In this case we are talking about the value of the Dollar going down. Way, way down many people think. So we should spend the money now while we can still get some value out of it.”

  “If that is true we should spend the money on real things so we have something to show for the money, not just waste it on a vacation.”

  “It’s not a vacation, it’s our honeymoon. And we have more than enough money saved up. And we do have all the merchandise that is in the gun shop. We own that free and clear. I don’t know what else to buy with the money.”

  “We should buy a bunch of food. Like a whole bunch maybe. And maybe we could think of more things we could use. If what you say is true and money becomes almost worthless some things will still be valuable. Like food, because everyone needs that.”

  We talked about it some more and eventually drove into the city and went to Walmart where I used to work. I remembered that there was a section in the grocery area for big quantities of food in gallon sized cans and some in buckets.

  I showed Jack the area and we read some of the cans. The food was freeze-dried and, on the cans, it said it would store for ten to twenty years. We bought most of what was available on the shelves, which wasn’t all that much because the shelves here were mostly bare.

  When we got back home Jack went on the computer (he was into the computer thing) and ordered a very large amount of what we learned was called Long Term Storage food from Walmart. Delivery would be after we returned from our honeymoon trip so that would not be a problem.

  Our honeymoon in Hawaii was fantastic. There were many firsts for me. First time on an airplane, first time ever seeing the ocean, first time on a real vacation, and first time being married. With the crappy economy some things were better and some were not.

  The hotel room was way cheaper than they once were I guess, but the airfare was higher, and the number of available flights to pick from was very limited. The beaches were certainly not crowded but at the large hotel where we stayed we were warned about the dramatic increase in crime. I felt very vulnerable without my pistol but I did bring two knives in my checked bag. Since working at the gun shop I had upgraded from the cheap knives I had originally bought at yard sales to high quality, tactical knives that were specifically designed for defense/offense.

  I carried at least one of the knives the entire time we were there, except when all I had on was my bikini (then one was wrapped in my towel). Jack is a big guy and I think that might have deterred some would-be crooks from bothering us.

  Though I thought the honeymoon was extravagant I loved every minute of it and I am very glad Jack insisted we go. When our time was up I was reluctant to get on the plane to fly home. It was such a wonderful time.

  Once home, the shipment of all the food Jack had ordered came in and we packed it away at our home. We finished moving all my stuff from my place that we had left before the honeymoon. Jack was surprised at all the cash money I had stashed here and there around my place. I did not put it in our bank account but stashed it around his (now our) place instead. And I made sure Jack knew where I put it all.

  We got a bunch of used guns in for the shop also. One of the pawn shops in the city (the one I found out Jack had bought my ring from (smart shopper that he was)) had made a deal with Jack to unload half their stock of guns to him. They now had way too many guns on hand to even display half of them.

  Jack had worked out a very reasonable deal with the other pawn shop and now our shop was plumb full of guns, most of which were used at good prices. Jack said that, except for special orders, he would not be ordering any new guns.

  With all the guns now in stock we decided to place a large order for ammunition during the slow time of winter. Again it was mainly to transfer some of our cash reserves into tangible items. The ammo order was a very large one with Jack ordering double what he had sold the previous year.

  We did the same with a big order of reloading supplies also. The gun shop was now bursting at the seams with merchandise. And very few customers.

  Winter was the slow time for the shop and with the very crappy economy the store was even slower. But we knew and expected that to be the case. We even added a new line of merchandise at the shop. Now we were selling (or trying to sell) survival food and long term storage food. We cared little if it sold or not because we considered it our backup supply for our own future use.

  The winter was a long one and we received quite a lot of snow. The snow really put a strain on the city and county budgets. Snow removal was done, but with the budget cuts by both the city and the county, reduced manpower resulted in very slow snow removal.

  It was not uncommon for it to snow again before the previous snowfall had been removed from the streets and roads. That caused a lot of problems. Years back, Jack and his dad had bought an old pickup that they kept parked in back of the shop with a plow on the front. They never licensed it and just used it during the winter to plow out the store parking lot, so at least our lot was always plowed out.

  Chapter 12

  The winter was a tough one in many ways. The weather was tough and the economy was tough. People were selling their stuff just so they could pay their heating bills. It was not an uncommon day at the gun shop that we paid out more money buying guns from people than we made selling stuff. Actually, this was the new normal situation.

  Our food display that we had put in on a whim was actually selling, which surprised both me and Jack. This made us want to stock more of the food, both the buckets and the big gallon cans. But with buying all the used guns, and with the big overstock order of ammunition that we had received, space was an issue at the small shop.

  We had plenty of storage room at Jack’s place (now our place) but, legally speaking, all shop-owned firearms had to be stored at the gun shop. Any of the other retail items could be stored anywhere, but all the guns had to be left on-site. We did have some items stored at home but this was not always a handy situation. One of our regular customers heard Jack and I talking about our space problem and suggested a possible answer.

  “Why don’t you just buy one of those big shipping containers and set it here for extra storage? With the economy so bad you can now buy a nice one for very li
ttle money.”

  It was an excellent idea and we both told him so and thanked him. It took little time to find a good deal on one of the containers that was in excellent shape. The guy we bought it from said he would even deliver the thing for only another thirty bucks. We ended up buying two of them. And our storage problem was solved.

  We were able to place a much larger order of the storage food and got a big break on the price that way. We decided to store all the guns inside the shop for more security but were able to move enough of the other stored items into the containers, so it worked out fine for us.

  My birthday was during the winter and, even though we had agreed to buy each other nothing for gifts throughout the year (birthdays and Christmas), Jack got me two presents for my birthday. Both were used items that he got bargains on (of course). One was an AR-15 rifle with many accessories that the shop had purchased from someone down on their luck. Jack had bought the whole package deal from the guy at almost pennies on the dollar.

  The second gift was a used treadmill that he bought, I’m sure, for a song because used exercise equipment was now worth almost nothing. Jack had previously turned one spare room in his house into an exercise room with mostly weight training equipment, but he knew I would get a lot of use from the treadmill. He really is nice to me in so many ways.

  With the coming of spring (just like in previous years) the economy bumped up just a little. Just enough to give everyone a little hope for the future. I guessed it was just a temporary boost and because we had plenty of space outside at home I had Jack work up a space for me to plant a garden. Even though he told me we had enough money to buy food I still insisted on having my own garden. He really did not put up any real resistance to this particular demand.

  I had the garden planted just as soon as the weather warmed enough. With the warm weather came a rash of more yard sales with everyone trying to sell anything that they did not absolutely need. We often checked out a few yard sales on our way to and from work. We did not buy much but we did pick up a few things now and then. There were also occasional going-out-of-business sales at stores in town with huge savings where both Jack and I would buy things we could use, either now or looking ahead to the future.

  There were certainly fewer and fewer stores that were still open in the city. Even a couple of grocery stores closed down. The grocery stores which were still open (like all stores) seemed to have limited stock on the shelves. In some cases the stock was very limited. Groceries had been going up but now the prices seemed to level off some but were way high compared to a couple years back. Part of the problem was that now you had to pay sales tax on food, just like everything else.

  Both the state and the city had decided to include food (and everything else) in the base for sales tax. Granted, government entities were in desperate need for money, but taxing food was a pretty low blow to the citizens.

  No one knew where the slow economic slide would end. I guessed we had to be getting close to the bottom. After all, just how much worse could it get? I guess only time would answer that question.

  Over winter we had cut way back on the hours that the store was open and when spring came we never changed the hours back. Jack said we should just close the store because it was not even breaking even anymore. But neither of us wanted to close up. For one thing, we could never hope to find jobs. For another, sitting around doing nothing was not an option for either of us. So the gun shop remained open.

  While summer should have been the time of plenty, this year it was not. Food supplies were very low and even Jack admitted that it was a good thing I had insisted on having a garden. Our food that we had for sale in the shop all sold out and we were unable to restock. The food companies we dealt with were accepting backorders but they had no idea when they would be able to ship. We kept a good supply of the LTS food at home for our own use just in case. By the end of summer we had used a little of it too.

  My garden grew fine and I wished that I had made it bigger. Everyone was growing a garden this year it seemed, and the local farmer’s market was always a busy place. It was often about the only place that you could buy food. I never heard of anyone dying of starvation but I did see more and more skinny people. I don’t think it was just my imagination either. The news stations never even talked about the food shortage.

  This was an election year and normally there would have been a huge amount of advertising for all the candidates but this year was different. The candidates that had enough money to advertise were careful not to flaunt that fact.

  The nation was in bad trouble and the population was mad at all politicians, from the local level all the way up to President. Many Congressmen announced they would not be seeking re-election and many were resigning early. It looked like almost all of Congress would be replaced with this election.

  State and local politicians were in the same boat with most not seeking re-election and many resigning their posts. I think many people wanted to tar and feather most of the politicians at all levels of government and that likely was a big part of the major change that would take place after this fall’s election and was certainly the cause of many resignations.

  Many people had totally lost faith in all the elected officials and I did not blame them at all. Even if we did get an almost complete change in elected positions I wondered if it would really make any difference or if it would just be more of the same again, only with fresh faces.

  Only time would answer that question.

  Chapter 13

  By the time fall came we had shortened the hours at the shop even further. We were now open only three days per week. As soon as small game season opened both Jack and I spent our free days out hunting. Game was not very plentiful. Though no one had really talked about it out in the open it was common knowledge that many people were poaching all matter of game just to try and stay alive. No one blamed them either, but now that Jack and I were out hunting we had a tough time finding either birds or small game.

  When duck and goose season opened we spent a lot of time hunting those birds. Local numbers were way down but the northern birds had started coming down so there were those birds around and we tried our best to get our share of them before they moved on farther south. I was not all that fond of either duck or goose meat but it was available so I kept trying different ways of cooking them.

  Then, it was Election Day. I think the turnout all across the nation was pretty good. When the results were in we had mostly all new people that would be taking the offices. Most of these new people I don’t think had ever held office before. These were fresh faces and we all hoped that they had fresh ideas to save this once-great nation of ours. Overall, people once again had hope that the coming year with all new elected officials would see the nation turn around.

  Deer season opened and we both hunted very diligently to try and get a deer this year. We certainly were not alone in that thought. Deer numbers were way down due to the all-year poaching and the fall woods were full of hunters.

  I was rather proud of the fact that I shot a deer before Jack. It was a small buck but it was deer, and we could certainly use the meat. At the close of season Jack still had not shot a deer, which surprised neither of us. It was something of a miracle that I had managed to bag one.

  With getting only the one deer we still needed meat, so we stopped at a farm that had cattle and asked about buying a beef. We negotiated with the farmer and ended up buying half a beef. We had the time so we did the processing of the beef ourselves at home. We had done the same with my deer. My deer we had made mostly into jerky but we cut, wrapped, and froze most of our half of the beef we bought.

  Going into winter we were sitting much better than most of the US population. We had a fair amount of meat in the freezer (and the venison jerky) along with what garden produce I had canned, and we still had a very good supply of the long term storage food we had bought when it had still been available and the country’s situation had been better. That had been the
advantage of the long term storage food; you could buy it and keep it for a long time until it was really needed without any worry of it going bad.

  That winter was very hard on most all of the population. Rich and poor both had problems. Food was just very hard to find at most any price. Most people had little or no money. There were shortages of almost everything, not just food. The long, drawn out downfall in the economy had closed so many businesses and manufacturers and producers that it finally led to all these shortages.

  People moved in together so only one house had to be heated instead of two or three. I think some houses ended up being packed pretty full of people living together.

  And there were deaths. Many tried different, cheaper ways to heat their homes and this led to many house fires. There were also many people who succumbed to carbon monoxide due to improper installations, using unvented stoves and burners, or using heaters not designed to be used indoors. The list was long because people were desperate.

  And there were still many deaths due to violence. Here in the northland that death toll was reduced somewhat with the winter cold, but there was still violence. And then there were many suicides. People just lost all hope and took suicide as an easy escape. Sometimes it would be murder suicides that would end with a whole family dead. There was a lot to be depressed about.

  The government tried setting up soup kitchens in many cities. This was a big help to many people. The food was mostly bland but it was filling and hot. There was no doubt on anyone’s mind that these soup kitchens saved many lives that long winter. But like many things the government does, the soup kitchens were slow coming and had many faults. But it still saved lives.

  In many of the northern cities people were found frozen to death. Sometimes it appeared these bodies were of people who had gone out and braved the cold in an attempt to get to one of the free soup kitchens. I don’t think there was hardly any public transportation running anymore. Cities were broke. Everyone was broke. And most everyone was suffering, at least to some extent anyway.