Poor Georgie's Almanack: THERE'S SOMETHING HAPPENING HERE, LIKE BEFORE

Of course, the obvious is so obvious it is invisible. The following is happening today in other forms. But first some context.

While doing family research about my wife’s birth family I became “relatively” sure that the first person in her family to settle in what became the United States was an indentured servant who arrived in Jamestown, Virginia in 1608, well before the Pilgrims stepped on Plymouth Rock.

In 1946, her father died just after being released from the Navy following World War II.

Her mother eventually remarried an Air Force Master Sergeant whose family came to the USA in the late 1800s from a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire (Galacia) that had freed the serfs a few years earlier. The Sergeant adopted Susan and her brother.

The key take-away fact is that it appears her adopted father’s family were serfs … and serfs were not allowed to learn reading and writing.

After the adoption, Susan’s new grandfather turned out to be an illiterate Pennsylvania coal miner who quickly learned English and eventually became an insurance salesman.

But, that is not the guts of this story.

The Robber Barons of Wall Street around 1900 wanted to hire smart, strong, illiterate, desperate men to work in their mines, their railroads, steel mills, and many other businesses … so they could teach them what to think. Some were slick, like “Elek.” Most were drones.

In my dreams, I hear the Buffalo Springfield combo from 1966 singing “Somethings Happening Here”

There's something happening here

What it is ain't exactly clear

There's a man with a gun over there

Telling me I got to beware

I think it's time we stop, children, what's that sound