Shadows Of Sanity And Survival (Old Preppers Die Hard Book 3) (8 page)

His number one gift that he was vowing to search high and low for was for Charlie because it was to be his own personal gift was dang near impossible to source. That is until he found an old box in back of a closet of one of the inlet houses that contained an Englishman’s black bowler hat that he was going to present to Charlie come one fine Christmas day.

It wasn’t the Fedora style hat that he wanted but it would do. His reasoning to find such a gift was he thought about the famous old black and white movies of the Chinese detective Charlie Chan he had watched growing up and his Charlie if he could grow that mustache of the others would make him a dead ringer for him in that kind of hat. Farley didn’t think he would object to it and probably find it pretty cool. Charlie wore old style hats occasionally and if nothing else they would get a big laugh out of it hopefully.

Gifts could expand out into accessories and favors owed though and Farley wasn’t above creating situations that came out in his favor for goods on hand or promised for later
.

It got worse when he showed the bowler hat to Fong and told him that he would like to trade him a rare Eagle feather he had found on the edge of the lake to go in the hat brim for his Uncle. That is if he would pay the price and wash Farley’s dishes for a week. The boy thought that was a pretty damn high price to be asking for a feather to stick in an old hat that his old man probably would not wear anyway. That was of course until Farley turned on the charm and enchanted the boys with tales about how the Native Americans used to get these very special feathers without killing the Eagle.  They would make young boys as a right of manhood to sit in a hole in the ground with brush piled on top and hold up a piece of meat on a stick and wait to grab one of the eagles tail feathers as the bird came in for the bait while avoiding the sharp talons. You didn’t know eagles could be scavengers did you?

In the high country you can still find some old free standing traps

  made from stone rather than pits that special “Eagle hunters” of the tribe used many moons ago. They fasted for days and put special “medicine” on their hands before undertaking such a task..

The price of such a luxury and it’s extreme rarity got even better when Farley said that Fong`s Uncle being the chief of this so-called tribe needed one for appearances sake. It would add meaning and ceremony to the cool old hat and he could probably pass Charlie off to the Lazarus boys wearing such a piece of haberdashery as a real Indian chief because they had never seen one before. Farley loved to mess with the Lazarus boys minds when he could sometimes. It was all in fun and they both learned things about each other and the world.

Everybody living at the resort soon started thinking that Farley was the most commercial Christmas person that had ever been even though he said he hated that aspect of the holiday. This feeling of commercialism was further enforced to them a bit   because when he ran out of presents for them to work for he started asking them what were they going to get for Dump Truck, the Lazarus boys and even that old skinflint down at the trade store, Mr. Barnett. He coined a new word; it was called Farley Favors and damned if he didn’t have a whole list of them for everyone to owe him in some form or fashion to do. When Farley got scolded by Becky and Miss Feng for piling up so many Farley Favors on the boys, he replied simply “That’s what young boys are for!” with a mischievous grin.

Becky remembered the conversation went something like this: “I can already get them boys to do pretty much anything I want because they want to learn things and because ya’ll raised them up well with respect to elders, they listen to me, but I’m making traders out of them boys! That’s the new skill they’re going to need most if we manage to get through all this and civilization restarts.” Farley would say.

“I’m also inspiring in them appreciation for what they have, what they can give, what they earned themselves. I have already given them a bunch of stuff free like a knife and this and that but if you remember right when I gave it to them it came with conditions. That was one faze of their little young adult education.

If they didn’t treat a gun or knife safely or let it rust, it was still mine to take away from them later if need be. When they do enough Farley Favors for something, it’s theirs and they can take care of it or not however they like, it’s theirs. Oh, I will probably bitch at them anyway if they do something stupid like putting a fishing reel down in the mud and saying there was a dozen more at the camp if it did get messed up, but the thing is they learned the value of hard work and the respect for the gifts they give or receive. That’s what we got to talk about today by the way. I got me a whole duffel bag full of crap that’s either on my books being outright purchases or credited for Farley Favors. Also on that lengthy list is what I’m giving folks for Christmas.” Farley declared and watched for the response he was going to get for broaching the subject so early in the season before carrying on.

”That’s another thing, just because I’m out and about collecting all that loot in abandoned places don’t mean I’m getting it for nothing or that trading some of it with Barnett means that I’m getting it for free. I risk my ass for that crap in more ways than one and I’m just starting to open up to you all with the stories of just how actually hard it is. The thing is it’s mine to dispose of how I like. I’m not saying now that ya’ll feel entitled to my occasional largesse occasionally but I want you to value it in a different context now. I want you to think sort of like some Native American tribes do when they declare a yearly potlatch. Have you ever heard the term ‘potlatch’?”  Farley questioned.

“No can’t say that I have.” Becky responded looking over to Miss Feng who hardly understood his southern English let alone Farley’s references to Native Americans.

“Potlatch is simply a tribal holiday to gather the clans and keep peace but it’s done in an ingenious way. Potlatch means to give away what you covet the most because many Native Americans considered the coveting of goods emotionally unhealthy. Kind of like the Bible, don’t covet your neighbors goods, it causes wars or jealousy. An unhealthy feeling of superiority or wealth was shown to cause the most discord or crimes in a community. Therefore, when this holiday was celebrated everyone was supposed to examine their goods and wealth accumulated this year and give something away that mattered to them the most to another in hopes of receiving something similar of importance. The value of the item was not the most important, gold or silver you might say, it was how important it was to a person. Potlatch can be thought of as a gift giving feast.” Farley explained.

“The boys have their version of money and wealth now, that’s hard for ya’ll to imagine when former society said you provided everything for them. Now when they gift give something away by crafting or trading they support the economy of the tribe as well as the soul. Things are looked at differently and each person’s value or self worth is not measured in goods but in the spirit of giving up that which causes the bad emotions we are all cursed with. Now I won’t give up my knives because I need them but I will give up for example, my saws which are some of my most cherished possessions because I’ve had bad feelings about myself  being the only one good enough to use them when I know the opposite is true. I can also cast away by this gift giving, those bad feelings I have or assuage another’s jealousy of me possessing such wealth and not sharing. Some people would take it too far and destroy the property to remove it from the community and the people hoping it would gain respect. I know this makes no sense in modern society, but you have to look at it this way, everyone out here that is not part of a community supporting itself has not crossed the line of that spiritual awareness or personal identity that says the discord or the death usually just comes from just possessing “stuff”. As Ron Foster has said in many of his prepper fiction and survival books, “be prepared to lose everything but your mind!” If you can attain that level you can easily give of yourself or for yourself to others without regrets. If I lose my rifle or my knife in exchange for a lesser weapon or tool, do I measure my survival in the quality of goods or just their function? If someone can easily be gifted with such items once a year at a potlatch, would they wage war on me to steal what is freely given? That’s sort of what it means: every person has to evaluate themselves and I know to the prepper mind this seems a little crazy. But in our little community, those boys look at items as those are Farley’s tools, it’s Aunty Feng’s cooking wok, Becky’s frying pan, Charlie’s hat etc. They need to have their own things but not be so attached to them that they can’t see possessiveness as a possible cultural detriment. Stuff don’t matter; tribe matters.” Farley explained that forgiving debts was also part of the custom of having a potlatch.

“Did you know the Government criminalized potlatch back in the day just like they did their way of dress, language or customs; that’s subjugation, that’s conformity!” Farley stated

“The reasoning to attain rich or better goods if you were just going to give it away later individually changes outlooks and concepts for personal or community attainment. If you are only working for you and your benefit to be the brightest star in the sky, then you would lose out in the experience if you did not help your brother or sister attain the same goal was the reasoning if you know what I mean. Anyway, here’s my Christmas list and it’s not in a sealed envelope and I haven’t quite yet decided who gets to be in charge of it, but it’s listing all the Farley Favors ya’ll owe me just like a tab in a bar.” Which Farley said with a guffaw and Becky and Miss Feng gave Farley the look about appreciating the illusion of bar tabs.

“Here’s the deal.” Farley said back peddling to his audience’s response about his allusions. “I got everybody’s Christmas presents already sort of all put back in my cabin as well as who owes what on credit. This little parlay attempt I am undertaking with the zombie boys and the rest of the heathens out here in their little warlord garrisons and such is not the safest thing in the world to be venturing out for and I sort of want you ladies to see that my wishes are done in case something happens to me. Now hush now, it isn’t my last will and testament or anything, it’s my Santa Claus list if you want to call it that.” Farley said as Feng screeched and Becky moaned for Farley to maybe consider staying home instead.