Part 4
We heard that one of the states that is doing really good is Oklahoma. Oklahoma, like all states,
is divided into political precincts. I've heard there's about 186,000 such precincts in the nation,
each of which would have an average population of about 1400 people. Every one of those
precincts has an existing political party organization, usually two, sometimes three or four. In
Oklahoma, for once the Democrats and Republicans got together on something and provided
each of their precinct organizations with a packet of information in 1999 about what to do if
things got really bad regarding the millennium bug.
In most areas, people were pretty disorganized for the first couple of months, but those Okies hit
the ground running, with a dozen or more people in each district going door to door and seeing to
the emergency situations, helping people rig for stormy weather, and generally being a calming
presence and a nexus of organization and cooperative effort. Quite a redemption for a political
organization, if you ask me. When I first heard about this, I could hardly believe it, but
apparently it really happened there. The committees had already scoped out their areas -- these
were the places they lived, so nobody downtown would know what was happening there like
these committees would. Thus, they already knew the best places to establish heat shelters,
which were typically schools and churches.
I wish we had thought of that in Missouri. Having pre-positioned information and organizers in
every neighborhood would have been a big plus. Less reinventing of wheels, or even worse,
reinventing of flat tires.
But anyway, we were talking about how we got through in Kansas City. March was lean, but we
had soybeans and wheat and everything we could make from that, plus we had sausage and some
beef (the cattle came into town after the pigs, and while we couldn't afford a whole beef, but we
got some anyway as pay for helping the butcher in the parking lot). I'd say the opening of the
Truman Road Market was one of the real major events of a very busy month. We were all
rapidly becoming generalists, but this doesn't mean that specialization was a bad thing, or that it
couldn't help us journey through. If we hadn't had a butcher, we still would've gotten the pig
eaten, but it would have been a lot harder and the time we spent doing an inefficient job of
butchering could have been invested elsewhere, doing something that we were better at.
Plus, everybody needed something (usually, some things). The stores were closed and empty, the
shopping rush to end all shopping rushes happened in late December & early January (most
stores did stay open, even without electricity, until they had no stock left, and prices went sky
high). A lot of stores had seriously stocked up in the final quarter of 1999, especially grocery
stores. Sales had been climbing all year long (it was a good year to be in grocery stocks,
provided of course you got out before December, hehehe, and then managed to spend the
money). There's no doubt that this last minute movement of goods from producers to
consumers saved a lot of lives. If we had run out of food the last week of January, we would
have been up the creek without a paddle, and it wouldn't be sweet smelling pure mountain water
in that creek either.
So a market was essential to rebuilding our community. Fortunately, a market is easy to
organize. All you need is space, merchants, and buyers. We had lots of space, and everybody
was becoming a merchant and of course, we all were buyers. Never underestimate the ability of
human beings to get together and make deals.
About a week after we put out our little newsletter, some people knocked on our door and asked
how much we would charge to print them 100 announcements for a new market they were
organizing at Truman and Hardesty. So, the famous phrase, "Whattya got?" came into play. As
far as I was concerned, probably the most useful thing for us at this point was livestock, and it
turned out that they knew somebody who had some chickens. So we ended up with a rooster and
four hens and they got their flyers plus I threw in showing them how to make their own spirit
duplicator. The first market was set to coincide with the St. Patrick's Day parade.
We immediately began to plot how we would win fame and fortune for ourselves at the new
market. It's not that we expected we'd become the J.P. Morgan's of Old Northeast Kansas City,
but I had stashed stuff for bartering purposes, just in case. I had quite a bit of extra spices and
sewing thread and other notions, and a bunch of hard candy. We also had a printing press (it
worked at least as good as Gutenberg's), with limited paper, so we would ask more if somebody
wanted something printed and needed paper than if they had their own paper. At that first
market, in fact, we did a brisk business printing, "JOHN SMITH WHERE ARE YOU" and
"JOHN SMITH IS at X ADDRESS". We also printed sign bills for tailors, carpenters, plumbers,
and several other trades. People were starting to put up large sheets of wood at the heads of
streets, and people would come by and tack notices on them. Kind of a substitute for the daily
news on the TV or in the newspaper.
We did a lot of printing business on credit for "favors" (especially the advertising, one never
knows when you will need an expert at something) as this was just before the neighborhood
bucks program began, about which more will be said presently), but we decided we needed to see
some hard goods before letting loose of any of the spices, sewing notions, or candy (other than
the free pieces we handed out as samples). We took a little US money, but if you were paying
with dollars, prices were sky-high, which is another way of saying that the value of the dollar was
low. The government had really let people down, most people figured, and so its money was
suspect.
A barber showed up and was busy all day cutting hair, people were doing hair wraps and weaves,
offering all sorts of "consulting" services, announcing meetings, classes, some people brought
drums, there were a dozen bars operating in various corners of the lot, and of course, there was
all the typical Irish craziness; the end of the world may come and go, but the Irish will party on
St. Paddy's Day. I guess people bought green dye as part of their emergency preparations
because there sure was a lot of it around (grin). . Imagine crossing the parking lot of a Grateful
Dead concert with a St. Patrick's Day parade and throwing in a large flea market/garage sale, and
you'll kind of get the picture. Much more interesting than any mall ever even thought about
being.
The day began with a big mass concelebrated by all the priests of the area parishes, and the
recessional procession of the mass was the initial unit of the parade. Three processional crosses
led by a half dozen altar boys and girls swinging incense and carrying candles, followed by a
statue of St. Patrick carried by the Knights of Columbus (in full regalia), then the priests and
parish banners. There were Irish setters, leprechauns, and lots of clowns, Chinese and
Vietnamese dragons, Native American dancers, Korean drummers, the Guadalupanas were out in
force and we even had a bagpiper. When I heard the skirl of the pipes, I realized that I had truly
forgotten something in my preparations: I hadn't bought any bagpipes! What else had I
forgotten! Anyway, one didn't have to be a rocket scientist to know this was a diverse area, but it
was nice seeing it all together marching down Truman Road. In the afternoon, a military truck
pulled up and some National Guard troops started handing out MRE's; they were liberally repaid
with beer (there were some very potent and raw home-made beverages available). I hope they
didn't get into too much trouble when they got home.
After the day's business wound down, the partying intensified. People brought instruments, and pretty soon there was a 20 piece orchestra carrying on (with minimal direction, but great enthusiasm, and there were some experienced players there), everything from a plastic wastebasket drummer to a flute, clarinet, several string players, and one group even hauled a piano down on rollers, so I got to get in a lick or two. People were dancing, singing old songs, everybody went home quite happy and satisfied. I noticed the next day that there wasn't any trash at the market site either, not even the containers of the MRE's. We were learning about this new world, and it would appear the learning curve was accelerating sharply.