The old is no more

Back when I was a kid, my Grandpa Piihl and Mom and Dad and Mick and I used to go down to a big sand bottom lake called Lake McConahay. It was 4 to 5 miles wide at the face and stretched about 22 miles west. At one time it was the largest earthen dam in the United States. Beautiful sandy beaches. Water so clear you could see the bottom.

We'd go down to the dam and fish. Dad and Grandpa would bait up their rods with worms or minnows or both and fish for white bass or walleye. Now and then maybe catch a catfish but mostly walleye and white bass. And back then there was virtually no one who fished the dam. Most of the time we'd be the only ones fishing in No Name Bay. But this was true for much of the lake.

Fast forward 50 years and the dam has turned into a zoo. People everywhere, and crime and fights and all the rest. It got so bad the Conservation Department in Nebraska outlawed alcohol there. None. They also began to limit the number of campers around each beach. You have to book where you want to camp and when. When the quota is full, then no more campers.

I mentioned this to my sister, and she said everywhere is like this. The Grand Canyon 40 years ago had very few visitors and this is true of the Black Hills in South Dakota. My sister said this was true of the giant redwoods in California as well. Even the Faces. When we went as kids say 50 to 60 years ago to the Faces there was next to no commercialization. Now it's ridiculous. People everywhere with many out to make a buck. Doesn't even sound like fun.

But this was true even before this. I've read about mountain people or country folk who went west to escape civilization. Daniel Boone kept traveling west to get away from all the people back east. When we moved to Scott City, we lived in a subdivision with people everywhere. We found a home with several lots and lots of yard space so we bought the house and moved. Then a few years later some land came available out of the city, so we bought it and moved again. We were wanting to escape city life and people everywhere. When we were in Russia on a mission trip we drove out of Moscow and every little ways there would be a small plot of ground, maybe 1/4 acre, along the road where city residents would go to on the weekends to raise a small garden and get away.

So what does the future hold for all of us? Towns are spreading out, and farmland or the countryside is disappearing under concrete and people sprawl. Used to attend a church camp down East of Tryon, Nebraska, and as you sat worshipping in an open air tabernacle the cattle would graze by or stop and listen. That's gone.

I wish I could take our grandkids back to the dam when I was little and let them experience it like I did. Or take them bullhead fishing at a little Nebraska lake. But honestly they can probably handle all the hustle and bustle of the new world where I have trouble. We drove back to Nebraska several years ago and drove through St. Louis and Lincoln and Omaha, Nebraska. Don't ever want to do that again. Way too many cars and lanes of traffic and people who were driving like idiots. They probably wondered who the hick was from the sticks.

I really don't know what to say. I don't have a solution. But I do miss the simpler way of life and the people back then. One thing we old timers can do is be an example to our kids and grandkids and even neighbors of how it used to be. Maybe build a small fire, get an old gallon coffee can and boil up some cowboy coffee. Then just sit and talk.