Undercurrents of Lake Side Gossip

This article is true, but so casual without last names to go with the characters in this watering hole scenario, I've classified the script as scuttlebutt.  During the last week there were reports of two senior citizens out fishing who were accosted by Homeland Security and the Coastguard.  One of these men was interrupted by authorities twice in one afternoon.

In a previous report from about a year and a half ago, Ralph and his wife were out fishing close to the Canadian border. Suddenly, here comes a very fast boat headed in their direction.  They came close, and boarded Ralph’s boat wearing sheer black masks that Ralph described as looking like Ninja face gear.

This makes me wonder what’s actually going on.  Some rumors floating around the dot com world show suspicions that go along with our illustrious leader stopping the pipeline which was planned for just north of the U.S. border. As part of this ecological concern, many fishermen feel that the flip side of the coin is to stop sport fishing in the Great Lakes Region.  These are two of the undercurrents of local waves of sentiment.

Getting back to watering hole exchanges . . .  Ray, who is a scientific sort of person, recounted a conversation with someone from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources.  When asked why he didn’t purchase a fishing license this year, Ray gave a fairly blunt answer. 

His first mention was that he has to purchase the fishing license that he feels is over priced.  (Before this age group turned senior citizens, there was a discount for retirees.)   Second, Ray has to buy insurance for his boat.  Third, he would also have dockage fees.  Before this area was inundated with police type agencies, Ray liked to go fishing for relaxation.  Now he can’t.  So that was the answer he gave to the ODNR man. 

“Why should I go out and spend my money on these things just so I can go out and get stopped?”

Another conversation on the same subject:

A talk with Larry, the neighbor down the road, revealed what he was thinking.  My perspective was couched in the preoccupation of selling our house to keep us from financial demise – sort of like whistling in the dark:

“We’ll probably have a lot more people moving into the area with the escalation in security and the new Homeland Security headquarters that they just built, “ I said. 

“We’ll have to see if they catch any terrorists,” Larry replied. 

“From the sounds of it they are pretty good at stopping senior citizens,” I chimed in.

He said no more.  Quite often I get the feeling that people are afraid to speak out.  It’s like an undertow. 

“It’s time for a revolt,” someone at the watering hole said. 

He wasn't afraid to make that statement, but I was afraid for him.  I can’t really explain how I became fearful about exercising my right to free speech. It’s just some kind of subconscious undercurrent that I’ve been feeling over the last three or four years. So I omitted the name to go with this quote.

View from Marblehead back in the days we were all friends with the "coasties."

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