I was going to go to sleep...

[natty bumppo 297]

It's still very easy to cross the border, just too many thousands of miles of desolate tree covered land. So if you are a terrorist, have enough brains not to use the airlines. What separates Wisconsin from Canada is a dotted line on the map across Lake Superior, you don't see to many guard stations in the middle of that lake.

submarines maybe?

[MrsCat 6]

I buy canned peas. They were on sale for $.39 yesterday. I also am considering stocking up on cigarettes. I don't smoke but think they will come in handy when trading with those that do.

Excellent plan! Though the only thing here for $0.39 is canned water chestnuts.

[peejay 327]

The story I got is my grandmother was from Poland, my great grandmother, a maid was forced to become intimate with a French lord, grandmother was an only child. She had some defect in her eye where only a surgeon in Milwaukee at that time could repair it. So this lord with his money sent her here when she was around 13 years of age. But she never returned but met my grandfather also in Milwaukee and had a bunch of kids, like ten of them. My mom told me my grandfather on that side was very secretive about his past. But he did live a long life here dying at the age of 92. We can do a lot more tracing on my Italian side. Yeah, I know that makes me a mutt.

Made me jealous of my German Shepherd dogs where I could make a thousand bucks by breeding them, couldn't get anyone to even give me a penny for breeding with them. But then, I am a mutt, not a pure bred. But didn't have to pay for it either, am I bragging? Ha, just bred with another mutt.

It was a fluke that we resumed our contact with my mom's relatives in the USSR. My grandmother's brother and my grandmother immigrated to Texas before WWI and their 2 sisters remained in Belorussia. My grandparents died in the late 1960's and my grandmother's siblings over there and here similarly died in the early 1970's. My mom and aunts never knew their aunts or their cousins in Belorussia, so the contact died out after the old ones died. One of my mom's Belorussian cousins was an English teacher in Belarus and she had only one old address of my mom's American cousin in Houston. During the glastnost period of the Gorbachev era of the Soviet Union my mom's Belorussian cousin felt comfortable enough to write a letter to him. That contact eventually culminated into us visiting Belarus after the USSR broke up. My mom died in 1994, but I have continued to maintain contact with my relatives and visited several of them in Belarus and Russia. This is how I met my wife. We tried to find my grandfather's relatives, but learned they fled the area during the chaos of the Nazi invasion of the USSR. They never returned to the area after the war and we don't know their fate. Belorussia was totally devastated and in ruins after the war. My grandfather had 2 brothers (out of 10 siblings) that immigrated to Argentina after he immigrated to the USA, but no one knows anything about them either.

So I know it is not so easy to trace people that live in foreign lands. After a certain point in history it is even difficult to trace my dad's American ancestors.

[JeanneVictoria 55]

I buy canned peas. They were on sale for $.39 yesterday. I also am considering stocking up on cigarettes. I don't smoke but think they will come in handy when trading with those that do.

Wish I could find peas on sale here. Never thought about cigarettes.

I do have a "disaster kit" in my car. Will rummage thru it and see what's good

to trade!

[Peikko 1,575]

Chocolate! ###### though you don't have good chocolate in the US

[Scott & Lai 12]

Flee to Petra.

And that worked so well for the Edomites...

[CDAgirlMI 51]

I don't know about other states, but in NY, you can get an enhanced driver's license or state ID. It is for the very purpose of returning from Canada without a passport. It just requires that you prove citizenship when you receive your license. Birth certificates are fine.

Same with a NEXUS card. Except with NEXUS you have your own lane & by-pass regular travellers.

[spookyturtle 9,466]

Well when only 24% of your country has a passport, with even less actually traveling abroad, it's no hard to understand why we have so many loonies here.

Welcome.

[Usui Takumi 1,562]

I'm digging out my crawl space as we speak and will be creating a steel and concrete bunker. It was originally to protect against the zombies or the chance that terminators are real, but it will work for this too.

[MrsCat 6]

I'm digging out my crawl space as we speak and will be creating a steel and concrete bunker. It was originally to protect against the zombies or the chance that terminators are real, but it will work for this too.

- in the most recent installment, I think they hated Jeeps cause they got blown up a lot, make sure your get away vehicle is something else. Perhaps a Toyota, a sticking gas pedal might come in a handy in a getaway.

[NickD 203]

It was a fluke that we resumed our contact with my mom's relatives in the USSR. My grandmother's brother and my grandmother immigrated to Texas before WWI and their 2 sisters remained in Belorussia. My grandparents died in the late 1960's and my grandmother's siblings over there and here similarly died in the early 1970's. My mom and aunts never knew their aunts or their cousins in Belorussia, so the contact died out after the old ones died. One of my mom's Belorussian cousins was an English teacher in Belarus and she had only one old address of my mom's American cousin in Houston. During the glastnost period of the Gorbachev era of the Soviet Union my mom's Belorussian cousin felt comfortable enough to write a letter to him. That contact eventually culminated into us visiting Belarus after the USSR broke up. My mom died in 1994, but I have continued to maintain contact with my relatives and visited several of them in Belarus and Russia. This is how I met my wife. We tried to find my grandfather's relatives, but learned they fled the area during the chaos of the Nazi invasion of the USSR. They never returned to the area after the war and we don't know their fate. Belorussia was totally devastated and in ruins after the war. My grandfather had 2 brothers (out of 10 siblings) that immigrated to Argentina after he immigrated to the USA, but no one knows anything about them either.

So I know it is not so easy to trace people that live in foreign lands. After a certain point in history it is even difficult to trace my dad's American ancestors.

My mom died at an early age well before her eight sisters and single brother and told me that story about my grandfather. She claimed he only told her because she was his favorite daughter. She was far better looking than any of her sisters, who am I to judge. But a town never was mentioned and perhaps my grandfather assumed an alias. I questioned my aunts and uncle on this subject and repeated what my mom told me, either replied I never heard about that or that is ridiculous. But none of them knew anything about their father.

But they all knew the story about their mother being an illegitimate (can't use the other word) daughter of a French lord, but not one of them knew his name, so another dead end. So no root tracing there, but sister went way overboard on this and got nowhere. Get a little bit curious about our roots. Italian grandparents are different, we can go way back, even have the immigration papers for my grandfather, back then, he became a USC only after six weeks here after he arrived at Ellis Island. Then, the immigration officers filled out all the papers, very neatly in hand print. After meeting my wife, can certainly see the change in immigration today, tantamount to a nightmare. All my grandparents had to do was to sign the bottom line after saying the oath.

[peejay 327]

My mom died at an early age well before her eight sisters and single brother and told me that story about my grandfather. She claimed he only told her because she was his favorite daughter. She was far better looking than any of her sisters, who am I to judge. But a town never was mentioned and perhaps my grandfather assumed an alias. I questioned my aunts and uncle on this subject and repeated what my mom told me, either replied I never heard about that or that is ridiculous. But none of them knew anything about their father.

But they all knew the story about their mother being an illegitimate (can't use the other word) daughter of a French lord, but not one of them knew his name, so another dead end. So no root tracing there, but sister went way overboard on this and got nowhere. Get a little bit curious about our roots. Italian grandparents are different, we can go way back, even have the immigration papers for my grandfather, back then, he became a USC only after six weeks here after he arrived at Ellis Island. Then, the immigration officers filled out all the papers, very neatly in hand print. After meeting my wife, can certainly see the change in immigration today, tantamount to a nightmare. All my grandparents had to do was to sign the bottom line after saying the oath.

Yes...we are now in the 21st century, but in many people's minds (including politicians) they fantasize about some sort of 18th, 19th, and early 20th century romanticized notion of immigration that fails to account for 21st century reality in a modern 1st world welfare state that didn't exist when my grandparents arrived. My grandparents lived in the USA for decades without needing a Green Card. They didn't have Section 8 housing, AFDC, food stamps, ESL classes, bilingual education, nor were my mom and aunts anchor babies either. Somehow they managed without it...even during the Depression.

The government started requiring foreign born aliens to register during WWII (for obvious reasons). I'm old enough to remember the public service announcements on public TV in the early 1960's reminding foreign born aliens that they were required by law to register and get a Green Card to legally reside in the USA. My grandmother never became a US citizen and dutifully renewed her Green Card every 10 years after being required to register, but my grandfather did become a US citizen in 1943 so he could work in restricted areas of the Port of Houston during WWII. No papers...no work.

As far as being a nightmare...I blame the spineless PC politicians for the mess they have created with their own malfeasance, incompetence, and cluelessness.

[Rito 28]

Life is too short to believe in conspiracy theories. People in love should know that more than most.

[peejay 327]

Life is too short to believe in conspiracy theories. People in love should know that more than most.

Conspiracy theories? It's more like a dose of reality. As Tina Turner sez...what's love got to do with it?

[scandal 951]

Conspiracy theories? It's more like a dose of reality. As Tina Turner sez...what's love got to do with it?

As the Beatles said, "All you need is love!"

A decent bankroll doesn't hurt, though.