Emergency, 9/11

June 11, 2006

I met Mel when I left my bike against the drive-through window of what I have learned to call a "gas station". Cyclists don't need gas but they need coffee and sticky buns and gas stations are where you get them.

Mel came looking for the owner of the bike and found him in the shade of a tree. He pointed out the error of my ways, then went back to his porch and his rocking chair. And there he rocked as though he were pumping up the national electricity supply and he contemplated nothing much in particular behind a coffee cup printed with the image of a dollar note.

"Don't do much else these days," he said. "Used to have that store over there by the gas station. Had it 17 years, right up to three years back. Had to stop then, 'cause I hurt my arm real bad and doctors ain't been able to put it right."

He pulled back a sleeve to show a long scar inside his elbow.

"Heart ain't too good either." He tapped his chest to remind me where his heart would be.

"Used to live in Arizona, then came over this place, where I was born, when my dad got real poorly. Course, he's gone a whiles now but I'm still here." He pointed at the single-storey wooden house behind the fenced verandah where he sat and I wondered if he'd ever noticed how similar it looked to his old store.

"Prettiest place in the country, this state," he said, and when it came to south-eastern Missouri, I was prone to agree.

"But things ain't been the same with the business since I passed it to my son. Not his fault, though I'm glad I got out. Takings are right down since 9/11. Down a third. Everywhere's the same. Seems people just ain't got the money any more, or leastways don't want to spend it."

He pointed across the road at a car dealership.

"Been the same over there at Lady Queen. Same ever'where. People just aren't spending. Knocked the confidence out of the country, I guess. Never thought it could last this long, but it has. Course, there's been a bunch of other things as well, like New Orleans. But it seems that just generally the economy's down and staying down.

"I ain't got an answer for it. Heck, just wish I did."

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