03768 - Lyme, N.H.
These days it’s getting harder and harder to find work. I don't want the impression made that I'm waiting for a handout. I want a chance to be useful. I can run a chainsaw. I can operate equipment.
My eyesight isn’t what it once was. I have a problem seeing up close. From 1973 to 2003 I worked part-time as a farrier. Hitting that little nail on a moving hoof with a hammer the size of your thumb, you need to see what you’re doing.
Right now I don’t have work. I can’t pay taxes, I don’t know were I’ll find the money. I mean, I’m not proud of my situation, I just don’t know the way out of it.
It’s no longer neighbors we have here, we have people that live across the road. Someone down the road told me that. Nowadays, you can drive from here to Lebanon, and you’re not going to see any farms. There’s what’s left of farm land that’s growing a whole lot of houses. It’s all been sold several times and subdivided. My neighbor, for instance, directly across the road, has two-and-a-half acres I used to mow for hay, now it’s his lawn. A two and a half acre lawn I used to cut hay on, my father grew corn on, that makes no sense.
I’ve never been in my right mind, apparently. I’ve always just thought to work hard was enough. I’ve seen myself as a dinosaur for several years, and most of them went extinct. Nothing in this world lasts forever, except maybe lessons learned.
It’s hard for someone with no income and no financial resources to keep pace with the rest of the working community. How do you get started? I went to an insurance agency and they wanted $800 cash just for a policy that doesn’t cover hardly anything, just so I can tell someone I’ve got insurance and they’ll hire me. Without it, I’m just sitting here.
I guess an old guy that lives in the woods don’t attract much attention for socializing. I just hang onto the thought that well, maybe someday, somebody will come and say they need me for something.
Anything born with a heart is born to die. It’s no worse than it was before, I guess. I’m surviving.