The Crackerbarrel

I enjoy reading blogs, much more than I enjoy writing them.

Seems that the last few months or so, I just don't  think it matters that much to me , or perhaps very little interests me motivating me to write about much

To me the blogs are sort of the Crackerbarrel of the old days, where a few gents in those days would sit around....women were too busy taking care of the house and kids while the gents would chew the fat. I certainly won't write about politics, since that is a no win situation, nary minding whose side you may or may not choose to be on.

I've been surfing around various blogs seeing what other people are writing about. I still enjoy my regular ones, often finding valuable information or entertainment value to my small world, so to speak.

I remember years ago where I would hang out with a group of people in the city, during my stint as a news cameraman. A group of us would hang out at various venues that would put up with our group often numbering up to a dozen or so.

It was a group of guys, reporters, news cameramen, new photographers a freelance photographer or two and occasionally a new groupie. Sometimes a tow truck driver, and occasionally a few reserve firemen...it was a diverse group, to say the least.

Sometimes we had a ambulance chaser photog hang out, but he would never return very often since his money was made by selling photos of complex accident scenes, which there weren't too many of between
 the hours of 8 and 4 in the morning.  I didn't seem like there were that many drunk drivers around.

Most of our stories were of fires or homicides, drug busts or out of control parties, disturbances and an occasional big news story like a kidnapping or hold up of a liquor store or two.

We would hang out drinking coffee or cokes, listening to the police radio and or the dispatcher from the city desk or assignment editor of the various medias.

During our breaks we would usually discuss anything but the stories that were of interest to the rest of the world. Talk of favoritism of staff, side deals that union shop stewards would do for people, various gossip of who in what department was seen with whomever, and sometimes the gossip carried over to whom in the public spotlight someone had seen or heard something juicy of.

Things were a lot more discrete in those days, there were codes that people just didn't cross. Now it seems that everything is a free for all, the more garbage you can dig up on someone the better and more sensational the story is.

I guess there was always juicy stuff going on,  but people seemed more civil or considerate of other peoples feelings and would consider whether or not it was something that would be beneficial to the story or not.

I guess you could call it that it was a kinder and gentler time.....or perhaps people were more polite and manners were practice more than I observe nowadays.

We always had a fun time sitting around bullshitting with the guys, no one ever got so mad as to get into any violence.....maybe because we had seen a lot of it during the course of the shift, maybe not.

I remember that I would see more people holding doors open for people, more people giving the right of way to drivers and people seemed to have time to discuss things without being called racists or homophobes.
Hell, I don't even thing the word homophobes was invented yet, or perhaps maybe it was just that the topic was "in the closet"?

But that was a long time ago in reality, but it seems that it was just a few years ago........in memory.