Asclepius’ rooster and other nonsense

Have you noticed? Halloween candy is all over the place. In the aisles. On the shelves.

Candy is even being flung at you, and I mean during parades, like the one for Indian Days at Alamo last week. But hang on, the 49ers parade is not far behind. It’ll be rolling down California Street this Saturday morning, and hopefully, the weather will be true to form.

This particular parade – New Mexico Tech’s homecoming commemorating the 135th anniversary of the founding of the School of Mines – goes back years and years, evidenced by the home movies from the collection of Gary Jaramillo. Those old black-and-white films go back from, I believe, the 1940s through the mid-fifties, giving us a rare glimpse of the way the 49ers parades were back then.

Sometimes I wonder if all the parades throughout the year are keeping the candy companies in business. I mean, we like to talk about what Socorro needs, like a bowling alley or a skating rink or whatever, but I’m thinking that if somebody started a hard candy factory here, there would be no more worries about economic development. Or my sweet tooth.

The theme for 49ers this year is Ancient Greece, but something tells me it’s a thinly veiled excuse to throw a toga party.

Interestingly enough, also this Saturday is what you might say is the other end of the historical spectrum, what with the Trinity Site open to the public. Think of it: a 2,500-year technological span from Greece in 399 BC to the nuclear age in AD 1945 (as opposed to the decidedly secular version BCE and CE, but that opens up a whole new can of triggers).

I was trying to remember what life was like in BC, you know, Before Computers. I don’t mean way back to the era of room-sized Univac computers, but, say, just personal computers and the like.

The world was, in a way, easier to understand, and if there was nothing to do, you had to find something else to do, like read a book, write a letter, paint a picture, exercise, and other semi-productive things like that. That was back when going “viral” meant something bad. Or a cell phone might’ve been something in prisons. Or when a browser was someone who didn’t buy anything. When Java was a cup of joe. Or Spam was just spicy ham in a can. Or a website was where a spider lived. Or hashtags might’ve been something smothered in gravy at Waffle House. Yum.

I like to think before computers, life was relatively peaceful and pleasant, and the world wasn’t so overly digitized. On the other hand, I like being able to boot up my Fire tablet to check the weather forecast in the morning or make sure my checking account hasn’t been hacked yet.

I have to confess that when I reminisce about going back to the days before USB ports, I hear in my head the Borg’s mantra, “Resistance is futile. Your life, as it has been, is over.”

Correct me if I’m wrong, but I think I saw that quote posted more than once during this election cycle.

But I digress.

One 49ers Ancient Greece float I’d like to see is Pythagoras in front of a chalkboard explaining his theorem (complete with pointer), or maybe Epicurus tossing out, not candy, but empanadas and biscochitos to folks on the sidewalk while philosophizing on the virtues of good food and simple pleasures.

Better yet, how about a float portraying poor ol’ Socrates, sentenced to death for defying the government religion and corrupting the youth of Athens by drinking a cup of hemlock, entreating his friend Crito with his dying breath, “I owe the sacrifice of a rooster to Asklepius; will you pay that debt and not neglect to do so?”

Speaking of philosophers, Tuesday was the birthdate of Friederich Nietzsche, who was born on October 15, 1844, and I only mention this because even to this day, you will catch people quoting him whether they know it or not. It was Friederich, as I recall from my philosophy class, who gave birth to a million Facebook memes by proclaiming, “That which does not kill us makes us stronger.”

But that’s not all. Nietzsche also said, “Without music, life would be a mistake.”

And, “I’m not upset that you lied to me; I’m upset that from now on, I can’t believe you.”

He also left us with the sobering, “Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.” (Another Facebook meme this election cycle.)

Me, I’ll wait until November 6 to decide on drinking a cup of hemlock, that is, after I’ve sacrificed my rooster.