Only In America – The Legend of Bigfoot
The Night of…. 1643
Today’s 5 Am wake up call was very difficult. We rolled out of bed and started moving. You know those movies where the hero is beat down to the point where most humans would be dead? That was how We, (Mind & Vessel) were moving this morning. We finally overcame the morning weakness and got to doing the AM core work.
The Friday forecast predicted rain. 75% positive.
“Good,” we thought. We can use a break. Still sore after yesterday on the Monkey Bars.
No luck. We got out just before high noon. Here’s a trick, (or a “hack”) – take away any responsibility, expectations, stress or anxiety from your Mind by telling yourself that you will be satisfied with going to the park or the playground or the track-whatever, and basking in the sun. This way, you don’t lose. You can absorb some vitamin D, and if you get restless, just start twisting or something. Dance, wiggle – jiggle (and don’t forget to giggle). And the next thing you know, you’ve had a workout. Maybe not the workout you envisioned, but you got some movement in.
We didn’t go to the park to run today. Then we saw Carlos. We met Carlos at the park a month or two ago. He was trotting around the track.
“Okay” says Mind. ‘We’ll do the minimum. Five laps.” That’s a mile.
We worked for every step of that mile too. But we got it done. We registered for the 5K in Philly for November. We were once able to run a 5K in about half an hour. It might take a bit longer this time. I had this issue about running in boot camp. That was “only” 2.25 miles, so for a long time I had an aversion to running. Then I met this group of running humans. Three ten milers later – We still have an aversion to running. Not so much running. Cramping in the legs is the issue.
This is why we recommend skipping this part.
Understanding “America”
Just a note, we are going to refer to the United States of America as “America.” But don’t be surprised if I drop US in there from time to time.
To understand America – not completely by a long shot – you can start by exploring a couple of past times that could – I dare say – only flourish in America.
First of all, Demolition Derbies.
Americans have a fascination with destruction. We have a lot of space and after not building automobiles during the war years, there was a boom in auto manufacturing through the 1950s. In a truly humanly myopic way, no one figured out what to do with all of these cars when they got “old” or obsolete by design. Junk yards emerged.
But then someone, I don’t know who, had the idea of making these old heaps run, and then crash them into each other. And charge humans to watch.
Your humble scribe, admits without shame or guilt, that I grew up watching this “sport,” enjoying it and never questioning it. This is one of the results of “abundance.” We had (and still have) so much stuff in this country that we can crash automobiles into each other, on purpose.
[We did a rant about this and it will be coming up in the show, but it probably won’t be soon.]
My guess, is if someone from outside of the US were to tune into a Demolition Derby, (yes these events were televised but usually locally. They were held mostly in rural areas and a lot down south…) they might think that we were crazy and wasteful – which we are.
Even if you live in the US and were born in this century you might not have heard of Demolition Derbies. The way cars are build today, I don’t think they’d be good for Demderbies. Back then, cars were made of steal and they were big and heavy. I can remember sticking magnets to the fenders of these monsters on my way to school.
Speaking of Monsters…
Monster Truck Rallies.
You may not believe this, but there was a time when “Monster” and “Truck” weren’t words that appeared together … at all!
But then came “Bigfoot.” This little bitty pick up truck jacked up and sitting on these big-ass tires. And it roared. (All cars will roar if you remove the muffler. It’s amazing what those gizmos do.)
I cannot imagine anybody from Europe, South America, Japan, or even Russia building a Monster Truck. Why would they? How could they? This thing didn’t come out of Detroit. It was born in St. Louis. (I haven’t done the origins of Bigfoot.) The reason – or one of the reasons that this could only happen in America, is because we have the space. We have the time. We have the ability to do it. But we don’t have the sense Not to do it.
But just like the Chicken Little Sky Fall story, there is always someone out there that will figure out how to make money from it.
The monster truck rally was born. Monster truck rallies are like World Wide Wrestling for machines. You get a whole bunch of these junk cars. Line ‘em up. And the Monster Trucks roll over them. But then that stops being enough. Just like WWF, you can’t just throw your opponent to the mat. You must power dive on them … from the top rope. So we’d see Monster Trucks go over a ramp. Get air born and land on a pile old Datsuns. [LOL.]
And the crowd would go wild!!
Great fun for the whole family.
In Philadelphia, these rallies were held INSIDE!! I went to one “in” the Spectrum, the same place sporting events and rock concerts are held. Monster Trucks make monster noises and pass fiery monster farts. (The kids love it when the trucks spew flames.)
What we Americans take for granted, that might astound anyone that didn’t grow up in the era, (kind of the post muscle car era), is that was a multi-million dollar industry. If you couldn’t see Bigfoot in person, Tonka made a toy monster truck.
Oh yeah … One more thing, these trucks had names – just like the wrestlers. They even created Monster Truck trading cards!!!
There’s a “Golden Era” of Monster trucks from the mid 1980s to the mid 1990s. The AI research bot claims that Monster Trucking never ended. Its focus changed to - ”racing.” Well, we already have racing.
The monster truck era is probably over, because there’s that human creativity element to it.
Like most crazes, especially in the US, this monster truck phenomenon happened accidentally, according to the AI historian.
There are so many more elements to the “exceptional American” and the wacky stuff that’s created here, that could only have been created here. It started out as a big 4-by-4 pickup truck with nickname and it became an (international?) icon.
Sheesh.
Have you heard of Bigfoot? Ever been to a monster truck rally? Maybe you’ve built one or own one. The history of Monster Trucking in America is easy to find. If you're curious do your own research.
Just to wrap this up and get into America’s Labor Day weekend – We might post a few episodes of our show on Substack? What do you think – (even if you don’t happen to be reading this on Substack.) Let me know.
SUBSCRIBE