I have been aware of strip mining, in one form or another, since I was about 8. That was when they brought the dozers into the Phesant Fields next to the homeplace, to doze up earthen dams, to hold and filter the sludge dredged from the bottom of Mud Creek. So that those who had keeled sailboats and big draggin' inboard/outboards could navigate the creek without having trouble. The property was being re-zoned too, for housing development.
My first stab at public speaking was over that. I was so upset! Mother nutured me, guided me, and when I froze, at my time to stand up to tell the Board of Supervisors about my problem, she gently pushed me into the asile, and quietly said, "It will be ok. Just tell them what you told me." And I did.
Although the dredging went on, it was several decades before they built the McMansions. It was long after I hit the road.
Let me tell you the tale of 25 years after that, and then the one about 45 years after.
Fast forward........
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