The Moatman Interviews -S3- No.6 'Club Americana' Featuring @AskAuntieEm1

The camera opens on a busy diner, through the windows a thunder storm can be seen doing its worst, lashing the windows with rain as wet patron after patron enters the diner trying to stamp off their wet coats and clothing. The camera then pans across the diner, passing a busy chief working on the hot plate to following a waitress who is filling up cups of coffee by the red bucket seating in the booths by the window. Near the back of the diner can be seen an elderly bearded man chucking what looks like a giant kebab down his throat, sat opposite a well turned out lady who looks a bit surprised to see the rate at which the food is being consumed.

well then it must be time for another of those Moatman interviews, Boff looks up from his philly cheese steak to slurp some coffee which has been freshly poured, "Hail fellows! and welcome to another of the Moatman interviews, this week coming to you from up state Wisconsin, USA. My Wombles do love any excuse to getting away from blighty for a bit, and it's always ingenious to watch how they manage to sneak through customs being the seasoned travellers that they are.

Today I have the very great pleasure of bringing you a splendid guest, one of the greats of twitter, who's seen her fair share of excitement, a self-confessed hippy who ran away to join the carnival when she was only 15, yes, today's guest is the rather lovely Auntie Em! *Auntie Em raises her mug of coffee to the camera*

Thank you for joining us today, it's a pleasure to be here and I'm looking forward to hearing your story, so perhaps we could start with your early years. What kind of childhood did you have? and were you a rebel? do you come from a big family?

I came from a small family, just mom, step-dad, and me, until I was 22 when my little sis joined the gang. My older stepbrother lived with us for a few years when I was young. I spent time with my biological father on school breaks. He lived near and sometimes in San Francisco. He was a wild man, and I definitely take after him! The first 10 years was basic blue-collar suburban. When I was 10 we moved to a more rural area, which was great fun. I did things like sneak out to go horseback riding at night. I certainly was a rebel. I wanted no part of the “plastic” life, as us hippies called it back then. I mostly raised myself from age 13 on until 17 when I left home.

Hahah I can see Bungo is going to love you, he reckons he's a bit of a James Dean around Wimbledon Common. Mind you he did make the mistake of trying to show off in front of some girls next to some ducks and got badly pecked in a duck rage incident. To be honest I reckon his ego was most hurt than his backside. Anyway I digress,... talking about your early days as we've already learned, you ran away to join the carnival at 15, what was life like living with the circus?

First I need to set the record straight – the circus and the carnival are decidedly not the same thing, though either one can have a freak-show. Think of carnivals as the rides and the dime-joints, the barkers calling you to try to win a prize for your gal. I worked in the dime-joints & souvenir stands. I used to bring all the boys to the joint *wink* Life was about as crazy as you can imagine running with carnies, sleeping in trailers, talking down the odd gun-pointing paranoid speed-freak.

....good grief, that sounds abit hair raising, and in terms of America you've certainly travelled and seen some of the country, do you have any good anecdotes to tell us from your time on the move?

As soon as I was old enough to take the bus alone I would ride the Greyhound from LA to the San Francisco bay area to visit family there. If I had a long layover in downtown LA. My favorite thing to do was play up to the pimps trying to smooth talk me out the door. Get them to buy me food & stuff from the stores and restaurant in the huge bus terminal. Then I’d ditch them and go catch my bus.

I often hitchhiked as a teen, and I had some great adventures, as well as fending off a few overly friendly gents. Once when I was a runaway I was on a bus to another town and I convinced the bus driver that I was 19 (I was 15). I was too broke to go as far as I wanted, so he got me on the bus to Arizona so I could work the Arizona state fair!

As a young adult I often drove hundreds of miles to spend the weekend with friends and extended family. I loved San Francisco, and spent a lot of time there. I liked to flirt with other drivers, and even dated one man I met that way! The fact that I never got attacked was part luck, part good intuition about people.

*another patron comes in, inflating and deflating their wet umbrella all over the waitress, who is less than impressed. Interesting, and of cause you have an affinity for animals keeping a pig and looking after your sister's horses, Have you always had an infinity for living in the country and being at one with the wild?

I’ve always loved nature, the mountains, desert, and ocean, and I’ve always loved creatures. I need nature to replenish me. I really miss having pets around. My ideal home would be rural, but close to a city with lots going on.

Living with the Wombles is a bit like living in a farmyard in itself, well, abit, some Wombles are quite neat and tidy, others are more like living with Taz the Tazmanian. So, anyway perhaps a change of tack, I wanted to ask how you met the father of your children, and did you leave the carnival to set up home as a family?

I met the father of my only child Joshua at a pig roast that lasted for 3 days. The relationship lasted only slightly longer than the pig-roast. I didn’t care, I had my beautiful child.

N'awwwww, I also wanted to ask you a question about your current settings, I think a lot of my European readers will be familiar with the hub-bub of New York and the East Coast, and the sun and beaches of California on the west coast, but are less familiar with 'the middle', so how does Wisconsin compare to those places?

The middle of the country is slower paced (outside of bigger cities), people are more grounded and down to earth. There’s not so much emphasis on your net-worth as it is on the west coast. The cost of living is much lower, significantly so in smaller towns. Pubs (or taverns as they call them around WI) are often social centers. Children are allowed in as long as they are with a parent. It’s not unusual to see three generations in a tavern on a weekend afternoon!

*the waitress arrives with a giant chocolate pudding buried under scoops of ice cream and two spoons. Auntie takes a scoop of chocolate cake while Boff ponders the great and wide span of North America. Mmmmm I also wanted to ask you some questions about your experience of how the States has evolved since your were a little girl, What do you think are the major differences from the USA today compared to the USA of your childhood?

Well, I could write a lot on this. Face it, I could write a lot on any of these subjects! Anyway, I’d say that personal safety was far less of an issue when I was young. There weren’t so many guns. People think it was simpler, but only if you were a working white man. The sexism, racism, etc were so awful. I remember being incredibly angry as a child as people told me I couldn’t do certain jobs just because I was a girl. Everything was segregated racially. I realized as a child that this was also unfair and ugly. The politics didn’t seem as polarized and divisive, even though there was certainly upheaval with the Vietnam War. The way politics is now is unproductive and heartbreaking.

*Boff nods sagely* I heartily agree the modern politics is most disagreeable, in terms of the old presidents, Reagan, the Bushes, and Clinton, who do you think was the best president and why?

I am a progressive, so I hated Reagan. He was a kitten compared to conservatives now! Bush 1 was okay. Clinton *sigh* I had such high hopes, but partisan politics really became entrenched with him. Not to mention his randiness causing too much distraction. Bush 2? I couldn’t believe he got elected, twice. He was an idiot.

I no longer have any faith in politics at all. Parties don’t mean much these days. They’re corrupt & only interested in their own power agenda. It’s pretty hard to stave off apathy these days.

...and what do you think is the biggest challenge facing the people of America today?

Politics, divisiveness, immaturity, polarization, and religious influence on politics have ruined this country. That’s the challenge, how to overcome this? I don’t know.

*the waitress is back again to remove the now empty plate and top up our coffee cups* *outside the rain is starting to ease off even the possibility of a hint of sun behind the clouds* I also wanted to ask you some questions now about your hippy roots, In terms of leading a happy and fulfilled life, what do you think are the key ingredients? and what advice would you give to my readers?

The answers are never external. Never. Love, money, location, religion, drugs, work, sex, whatever, will not advance you as a human. We need less emphasis on these things, more on accepting our individual humanity, having compassion with ourselves as well as others. When you understand that all humans are capable of the best & the worst of any other human, having humility from that, reducing judgment, and the biggest thing, that we are all connected. Even atheists understand that we share a planet, and are interdependent on the earth& all species. I think the connection is deeper than that, but I accept that not all agree.

I see and are there any key things about this world that you wish we could change for the better?

If I could have one wish it would be an end all human violence. That would take care of almost everything else.

Amen to that! well our interview is almost done, although the weather isn't letting up, so I think we'll stay here a wee while longer yet. So finally perhaps a question I've fielded before, you're hosting a dinner party for you and four guests, who would be the other guests (living or dead) and what would you serve them?

I’d love to answer this, but they are too numerous to mention. I think a room full of the great humorists & philosophers from many generations would be great fun. I would prepare a bacchanalian feast worthy of a wealthy roman.

*Boff laughs and sips at his mug of coffee*, well dear friends the weather still sorting itself out, and while the coffee is good and the company even better, I think I'll stay here a while longer. So I shall bid you adieu and see you all again soon for the next installment of the Moatman Interviews.