"I wonder how many Halloween masks this year will feature the faces of Wall Street executives such as those who run AIG? Those modern-day Frankensteins can really make your hair stand on end. They may change our way of living for the next 10 years or so.

We have to hope things will get back to normal soon, but it doesn’t look good.

I’m not bitter, but I do feel helpless.

Like a lot of people, I’ve worked more than 40 years. I don’t have any retirement to brag about, but I do have a lot of family. I don’t know if they’ll be there to catch me if my pitiful parachute deflates, but I have faith.

What does the national economic meltdown mean for my future? For example, if a Great Depression II were to come about, would electricity cost so much that many couldn’t afford it?

When I grew up on the reservation near White Shield, N.D., we didn’t have electricity, but we also didn’t have an electric bill. We used kerosene lights, and they were nice but could be awfully dim.

Our water came from one of three springs, and it had to be hauled to the house. It was good, cool water, probably better than our tap water today. Every other week or so, the uncles would go down to the spring and fill two wooden barrels. Toward the end of the week, the water had a woody taste, but we were used to it. I don’t even know where you’d get a wooden barrel today."

Get the Story:
COLUMNIST DORREEN YELLOW BIRD: Thinking about a kerosene-lit future (The Grand Forks Herald 10/18)
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