THE KIDEATER

THE KIDEATER

My sister lived on the west edge of town, nearly in the country. Twenty First Street was the last named street and also the city limits. Her house was what we now call “cracker box”. The walls were thin, by today’s standards, and covered on the inside with wallpaper that was hand glued to the wall with homemade paste made from flour or starch and boric acid, if I remember correctly. On windy days the paper on the ceiling in the corner of the bedroom, that had become loose, would move up and down as though something in the attic was breathing. My sister told us that a “kid eater” lived in the attic and would eat anyone that didn’t do as they were told. I can’t tell you how well this worked. What more could you want than a babysitter that will eat children that don’t mind.

My parents owned the place and they also had a couple acres of land, with the house, that the whole family used as a vegetable garden. Corn, squash, okra, beans; all kinds of good stuff to eat. Nearly all our food came from that garden along with the chickens and eggs that were there too. I was the youngest by twelve years, with three older sisters that were more like extra moms than sisters. The two older sisters had children that were more like sister and brothers than niece and nephews.

All of us kids would play around the house while our parents took care of the garden, hoeing and weeding. We would hide and play in the tall weeds around the chicken pens and the edges of the property. Most of the time the games involved hiding and “pretend shooting” at each other. There were no televisions, so most of what we knew of the world we learned at the movie theaters, news reels of the wars and cowboy and indian movies. The theater was air conditioned , a real luxury. Our house only had a water cooler in the window and anyone walking past it would turn toward it, raise the tail of their shirt to allow the cool air in and make a sighing noise.

I guess it was the late ’40’s or early 50‘s, after WW2 and Korean “Police action“. My brother-in-law was a Navy veteran and I guess a role model and hero to me. He was now a cabinet maker and worked as a civilian, at the airbase in “The City”. We would go fishing or, in season hunting nearly every weekend and holiday. In those days we considered these activities, along with gardening, as “survival skills“. Gun safety and hunting ethics were also considered survival skills. “Every gun is loaded” and “Never point a gun at anybody, unless your intend to kill them” , “Never kill an animal you're not going to eat”, were common “sayings“ that seem to hold the high ground. No one could imagine there would be a time when there would be no place to hunt and the water would be so polluted you can’t drink it or eat the fish. The American countryside seemed so vast and the opportunities so great that humans could only scratch the surface of its resources. Survival skills would take on new context that we could not imagine, at that time.

Today “survival skills” are somewhat more complicated. Saving yourself means saving your neighbors as well. It’s all for one and one for all, like the Three Musketeers. Conserving energy has taken on a new meaning. It means that most of the energy that we use, no matter what form, starts with the burning of carbon fuels and contribute to global pollution. It‘s the electrical plants that burn coal or fuel oil to supply us with lights and air conditioning. It‘s the fuel our cars and trucks burn to get us to work, and get our other life essentials to market. The very things that sustain our lives are taking our lives. The arts of growing your own food and “doing for ones-self” are buried in the past. The very things that support our lives have become the “kid-eaters” in the attic. The unseen menace that threatens life as we know it.

I know that, as I sit here at my computers keyboard in my well lighted air conditioned house, I am adding to the problem. But, I tell myself , “I am one person and there is nothing I can do”. I can’t change the politics of the world, I can’t change the cars to fuel cells or switch my house to solar or wind power. These things are to expensive and will require high technology and many years to develop.

In the meantime, there is something I can do. I can remove the pollution that I’m responsible for putting in the ecosphere. By planting enough trees, I can remove the CO2 greenhouse gas from the atmosphere and replace it with my favorite gas, oxygen. I can counteract the damage I do and become “Carbon Neutral”.
MAKE A DIFFERENCE...PLANT A TREE.