Whom do you serve?
pond cleaning and dissident radio
Here in Montana, the sun is setting on the spring/summer pond cleaning season...
…which means it’s time to get BBR off the back burner!
Folks are asking, “Who’s lined up for your next interview?” and all I have been saying is, “Uhh, I got a long list but nobody is scheduled yet.”
October was busy at Perky Pelican Pond Service. Lots of locals in the valley wanted a final cleaning before the snow and ice appear. And we took another road trip to the Flathead to clean and landscape a beautiful, two-pond property up there.
Sometimes I wonder about the nature of the pond job. I think about our clientele. I was down in Darby a couple weeks ago, filling up at the station after a long day at a multiple-week project where we were creating a sandy beach on a previously very overgrown, huge pond. It was quite an ordeal, with heavy machinery and a big crew doing all kinds of stuff: shoreline cattail removal, rooted weed removal, floating weed removal, shoreline landscaping, excavating, bulldozing, putting in liner, adding rock and sand, beach topography sculpting, aeration installation, etc.
As I was squeegeeing the windshield an Illinois pickup with a camper trailer pulled in. The driver, a guy in his late 40s, got out and asked us about a good place to sleep and a decent restaurant. Joe was a hunter who had been out in the wild for a couple weeks, in SW Montana and east-central Idaho, getting away from the madding crowd. He looked at the magnetic Perky Pelican ad on the side of the truck and said, “You guys clean ponds?"
-Yep.
-So how does that work?
I told him a little about how we take a stagnant water environment and make it like a lake. Some people are mildly opposed to this artificial process of partial ecosystem destruction in order to beautify a body of water and its surroundings and make it pleasant for humans. I get that and certainly if we were ruining the wetlands wholesale I’d have misgivings too. But I’m not bothered because 1) I’m partial to lakes over ponds, 2) We don’t use chemicals (hello golf-course-pond-maintenance-Roundup-guy), and 3) We’re creating a new ecosystem that’s friendly to other (more pleasant) types of animal life. In short, we’re removing the snakes, leeches and slime to make way for fish, ducks and kids in swimsuits. I’m also not opposed to the removal of scrub, rock and gopher holes in the hills of Switzerland to make way for green pastures, milk-chocolate producing cows, and Heidi, ‘nkay?
Joe had a skeptical look on his face, but his beef wasn’t with the eco-system alteration. “So, you guys work for the rich, right?”
I paused briefly, and thought about the job we’d just did that day, and had to admit to myself that no middle-class person could afford that pond or our work. Now Fred, the 1/2 owner and founder of the company would say “We pray blessings upon this pond and the owners, but in the end we serve the Lord with our work.”
I’m all for that but took Joe’s question to just mean, “Who are your clients- the rich?” and so I answered, “Yeah, pretty much.”
He looked out across the road, and with a whattya gonna do look on his face said, “I guess those are the folks who are gonna own a pond, right?”
I shrugged, nodded in agreement, then looked at the trailer and big, fairly-new F250, considered Joe on his two-week vacation far from home, and thought, “Well Joe, you aren’t doing too bad yourself.” And on the drive home I thought about all the contractors in this valley. You see them at the Super 1, emerging from their pickups in the morning getting their coffee and donut, and in the evening, tired and dirty, buying dinner. I imagine a good chunk of them are working on projects for the rich.
My uncle Bob in Seattle is all for “a more just society”, where the rich have to share the wealth by living under a 90%+ marginal income tax rate like they had in the 50s. Nevertheless, Bob can see the trends and has advised me to steer my kids toward the upper classes. “We’re splitting in two and it’s gonna be a banana republic. May as well encourage your kids to be among the haves. I mean, whattya gonna do?”
I guess I’m gonna keep cleaning ponds- at the least not burn my bridges. I like the job, out here in the Montana Rockies. But in the mean time winter season has arrived and starting Monday I’ll be full-time at the studio. The truth is for everyone- rich, middle and poor.
Dissident Radio here we come!
This was a genuinely enjoyable read.
Well, the fact of the matter is that we all work for those who pay us. Why else would we get up in the morning?
Nevertheless, we don't have to work for those who pay the most. We could be satisfied with a smaller salary and a meaningful job, which leads to peace at night--maybe. Unless you have a wife who demands more than your salary provides.
If you are not happy at your work, then you should quit and find something else to do.