Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/01/15/this-64-year-old-describes-why.html
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It’s shocking to think that EVERYONE used to live this way. Savages!
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Why does he reference the Vietnam war? He was 20 years old in 1975. Seems irrelevant.
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Reading the article, as soon as it’s cold enough to freeze water overnight, he gets under shelter. Right now it’s a camper van with a wood burning stove in it. He also makes use of the local food bank and library, where he uses his laptop with the free Wi-Fi.
TL;DR he may be living in a tent for part of the year, but he has a lot of stuff.
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This all sounds rather too whimsical and ethereal to be entirely true. Bit of literary or poetic licence here, I feel.
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Some places along the highway offer showers but they cost money and contribute to ecocide, so I clean my crotch in the creek occasionally.
Now THIS is what I call a green new deal!
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Interesting!
I’ve been reading The Stranger In The Woods, about the infamous “North Pond Hermit” in Maine, and a lot of people still think he’s lying, that he had help or that he stayed indoors during the winter, but the police who interviewed him insist he’s telling the truth (he openly admits to stealing, rather than lie about it, and describes how he suffered horribly in the winter, but preferred that to coming back to society.)
This guy in Alaska might be using some poetic license, but I think most of what he says is true, and that most of us here could hack that life if necessary, it’s just that we’re used to our modern conveniences so this sounds too far-fetched.
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Instead of washing my clothing – layers come cheap from thrift shops – I air it out, hanging it on a tree branch for a snowstorm or two, then turn it inside out and put it back into rotation.
Smelly has a way of wearing on a person…
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I wonder if he will go back to hated society when he gets an abscessed tooth or a kidney stone. Living as one with nature always sound wonderful until reality hits.
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Granted, most people didn’t live into what we now think of as “old age” back then…
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Speak for yourself. There’s no way I could hack it. I’m definitely zombie fodder.
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I was 18 in 1975 and the war played a very large part of who I was back then. I wasn’t drafted but it was very important. To a veteran of that war it probably never loses its relevance.
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There is one modern convenience that I cannot live without (quite literally).
Disability and primitivism do not mix well.
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That’s nice. You have to be the only guy doing it though, if you don’t want to starve. I wouldn’t think his handyman-barter economy would survive the addition of even a dozen guys all wanting to paint the same fence for beer money. And how many more hollow stumps filled with human poop? He says he doesn’t want any more hobo neighbors because they’ll die in the winter. Yeah, sure. It’s nice out there because we’re in here, donating shirts to the Goodwill. Anyway, good luck to him.
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I think he will, he admits to using parts of society as needed. He’s open about this being his choice, and doesn’t once condemn everyone who hasn’t made the choice as less than him. Furthermore, he kinda discourages other people from following his lead as it can be a tough life. There’s no hypocrisy here, just a guy who chose a unique way to spend his time. I’m always happy to read about that.
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I don’t know, my teenager appears to be impervious to his own reek. He literally does not believe us when we tell him that he smells.
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Give him his American Indian name, Foul Wind in Teepee
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a quibble: just because you were in the military during the occupation of Vietnam doesn’t mean you actually served there
The phrase used was “navy veteran of the Vietnam era”, which my father-in-law is also, except he was stationed up in Alaska on Adak Island. My father was Army, stationed in Germany during the war as well.
