Recovering the Dakota Headliner

My dad was not a car person. Truth be told, he hated to drive and he never did any maintenance work on his vehicles. Dad’s “Cousin Georgie” had a garage; he took care of dad’s vehicles for many years. There was a falling out, and dad found a garage that treated him very square. They thought so much of my father they sent flowers to his funeral. With that as my history I had little chance of assimilating the skills required to work on cars from my home environment.

I grew up riding a bicycle and depended upon my 10 speed Raleigh to be my main transportation till I was 23. That was my age when I finally had to break down buy a vehicle in December of 1975. That car was a 1975 Duster… fondly called the “Crop Duster”. I used to joke at work it ran on DDT! That old car was so basic. The only extras it came with was an overdrive on the manual transmission and hubcaps. There was not even carpet on the floor, it was a rubber mat!

Slowly I learned the ins and outs of doing some of the basics of maintaining a car like changing the oil and basic stuff. There really is not much major a backyard mechanic can accomplish anymore what with all the electronics and computer controls involved with vehicles today.

It boils down to basic economics. I noticed at the boathouse Monday night the fabric on my headliner was hanging and peeling off at the windshield. A closer inspection showed the entire fabric lose. Right now the last thing I can do is take my truck into a body shop and have the headliner replaced/recovered. I have the time, what do I have to lose? I’ll fix it myself!

Today I recovered the headliner of my old truck. The original gray fabric was hanging and peeling from the disintegrating foam. This is the longest I’ve ever been able to keep a vehicle. I guess this kind of thing just goes with the territory.

Using information gleaned from the internet, I was able to visit enough chat boards and sites to ascertain what to expect in taking the headliner down and the best type of adhesive to use. I’m constantly in awe at the wealth of information available by simply using a Google search.

Back in the B.C (before computers) I would have gone to the library and searched up possible reference books using the card catalogue. Time would be spent in the stacks trying to locate those books and then more time spent reading through said books to locate information. Now I just type a query into the search engine and more factoids than I can digest is at my fingertips in seconds.

I was able to glean enough knowledge to boldly tear into this headliner project. It was a pretty straightforward

The results speak for itself. The total cost was some $20.00 for the extra strength spray adhesive. The material I already had on hand.

I think I can guarantee my truck is the only one in town with this headliner design.

Removing the fabric from the headliner

Removing the old foam from the headliner

The recovered headliner installed

Odd Jobs

I need to get back to chronicling my boring life and putting the big stuff I can’t control on the back burner. The past week has been doing catch up on nagging small jobs that have piled up.

Before Billy arrived in June I was doing a much needed cleaning. Underneath a record cabinet I spied piles of “pellets” meaning the worms were back to work. Hundreds of records are piled up on the floor as I have been working on remedying the situation. The bottom of the cabinet was removed and put out to the trash. Term-Out termite killer was pumped into all the holes I could find. A skinny hose with a needle end is attached to the nozzle. You insert the needle end into the “exit hole” the bugs defecate from and squirt in the killer mixture. This really makes a mess. There are channels in the wood left by the bugs. These fill up with the poison and can erupt out anyplace on the wood. This stuff destroys the finish. There are a lot of drips and runs that will have to be blended in.

I covered the infested wood with black plastic and kept it in the direct sun for a few day baking those little bastards! The bun feet and small pieces of wood were placed in plastic bags and stored in the freezer for a few weeks freezing out any bugs present.

I have had the cabinet raised off the floor on plain white paper. There has been no evidence of droppings since this treatment. This afternoon I cut fresh wood to fabricate the new bottom pieces. That was glued up this afternoon.

The faucet on the kitchen sink started to leak. I don’t even know what the brand is. My kitchen cabinets, sink and faucet were used as model displays in the Buffalo Chase Pitkin Home Improvement Store. Back in 1997 Homo Depot and Blowes were opening in the market. Chase Pitkin was an offshoot of the Wegman’s Supermarket chain. Rather than compete they just closed up. A friend worked for them and got me a steal of a deal on the display.

Once I was able to tear into it, I realized it was a Delta faucet so it was a pretty straightforward repair. It is so nice to not hear the drip of water into the sink.

I was finally able to locate the Hunter Fan Oil at Blowes. There were three tubes in stock. God knows how long they have had it. Two of the tubes were only ¾ full and the blister packs were drenched with leaked oil.

The heavy ceiling fan was torn into and cleaned up. The oil bath was replenished and it has been running 24/7 ever since. The left over oil topped off the other Hunter ceiling fan and the 45 year old box fan in my bedroom window. I was saying my mantra… “Never buy new, mend and make do!!”

There have been some good buys on E-bay lately for me. I was thrilled in being able to replace a broken Deldare Plate at a very reasonable price. The broken plate was the result of a horrible, amateurish packing job by an E-bay seller. I was sick when I opened that box and saw the beautiful pottery plate in pieces. The seller made good and replaced it with another plate of another scene. She did not want the broken plate returned. I could not throw it out, and was able to glue it back together. From a distance it looks acceptable.

Deldare pottery was the high end product line of Buffalo Pottery that was produced for only a few years. The color on the plates was painted on by hand. The painters had to adhere to strict color schemes. Kind of like a paint by number picture. The only opportunity for the artist to show individuality was painting in the clouds. Compare the two plates and there is a distinct difference in the cloud cover of the identical scenes. The artist who painted the good plate must have enjoyed painting clouds!

The rowing club is having a “Learn to Row” clinic this week. Monday night was orientation at the boat house. If some of the guys who showed up are competitive I think we might have enough to make a mens masters racing team. That would be so awesome!!!

Next week the “newbies” will be out on the water every day to learn the basics. I’ll be out helping. I always pick up so much from these clinics. I tried to open their eyes as how it is so advantageous to learn to row both sides of the sweep. Being able to do that usually gets me a spot for filling in on the days I’m not scheduled to row.

The weather is still wonderfully cool. I’ve finally given up and am letting Stumpy stay outside all night long. He has worn me down, that goober! I lock the back gate and screen door to the back yard. That door has the cat entrance. The French door is propped open so Stump can get into the house if needed.

His favourite spots are under the truck or on one of the wicker rocking chairs on the porch.

Sunday I was working around the house trimming the ratty trees and vines that separate my driveway from my neighbor Michelle. True to form I was wearing just my Utilikilt, do-rag, shoes and socks. There is a house down the street from me that has been getting a new roof for the past few weeks. It turned out to be a major undertaking. They have been working seven days a week to finish this job. As I was wheeling the clippings to the curb I could see the roofers who were taking a break staring at me! LOL!

Monday night as I was leaving for the boathouse I noticed the headliner in my truck was coming loose. At first I thought it was just coming unglued. After researching the topic on line and checking it out I realized it was the foam disintegrating. Great, I’m going to have to take out the headliner, clean it all off and reinstall it with new fabric.

I’ve never been able to keep a vehicle for as long as I’ve had this truck. I’m trying to get used to this kind of aggravation! LOL! I have some wild Art-Deco upholstery material I plan on using. That way I’ll just have to buy the spray adhesive. There is never a dull moment here.

Uncertainty

My dad was part of the “greatest generation”. He was raised during the Depression, fought in WWII, got married during the war, returned home, settled down and raised a “typical” family. He worked for GM before going into the Army. GM held his job for him; so he returned to employment after the war. There were some rough times, but there was a certainty working for GM in those days you would always be taken care of. As was typical in my home town, dad was able to “pave the way” to me getting interviewed and finally hired into GM.

Without going into a lot of detail, let me just say my early experiences with GM were not pleasant. Pretty much from day one I had a cynical view of the corporation. I realized the paycheck and benefits from my job allowed me to have a good life style. I also understood if I wanted to realize meaning and purpose in my life, it was not going to come from the factory floor.

During his life dad could never understand my attitude towards GM. The company in his eyes had always treated him square. So much of his identity depended upon his employment at GM. It was not till his final days he conceded to me, “You were right Jamie: that company does not care about you. I’m glad you have lived your life for yourself.” Nothing boosts your ego more than being told you were right. Having it happen in the hospital room of my dying father was a hollow victory.

My hometown of Lockport, NY was a GM town back in the day. In the late 1970’s over 10,000 people were employed at my plant. Even though at the time inflation was runaway, the factory was full of workers. There were Sheriff Patrols to control the traffic at shift changes. I guess because I pretty much supported myself during the early 1970’s with wage and price controls and then the gas crisis I was always on guard. There was always a feeling of uneasiness for me working at GM.

The bottom fell out in the early 1980’s. I spent a lot of that time being laid off. I returned back to my “clincher” for good in the spring of 1983. There were hundreds of people who lost all their seniority and were never called back.

Changes were made to the union contract that allowed GM to move workers between plants. If a plant was closing, those workers could be shifted to another plant that needed people. That pretty much stopped local hiring “off the street”.

The year I hired in back in 1976 was one of the last my plant saw of getting fresh blood for some 15 years. When I was working on transferring south to our “sister plant” in Tuscaloosa, the union fought tooth and nail so stymie the transfer. When we left the employment at the plant would drop below 5,000 causing changes to the internal workings of the union.

It was sometime in the early 1990’s GM renamed their parts division Delphi, to separate them from the car assembly plants. We workers were assured this change was “in name only” to make for easier management. My gut feeling was this was NOT in my best interest.

I finally transferred south in May 1998. This was a contract year and an ugly strike occurred at a parts division. Once again I had a gut feeling we workers would get f—ked from this action.

Sure enough in 1999 it was announced that Delphi would be spun off from GM as a separate “stand alone” corporation. Delphi workers had till the end of the year to flow back to another GM facility. My first reaction was to make that move. However, the move from Lockport, NY to Tuscaloosa, AL literally nearly killed me. There was no way I was emotionally up to move again.

I started my online journal in 2001 which documented the eventual closing of my Tuscaloosa plant. I had a window of opportunity to flow back to GM in 2004. I jumped at the chance after learning the solvency my pension would be at risk. I was considered a Delphi worker; GM had no obligation to fund my pension in the case Delphi folded. If I retired out of GM they would have to guarantee the portion of my pension that was covered by Delphi.

I retired from the Corvette Assembly Plant in September 2005. Thirty years of working, planning and saving were about to pay off.

Last year GM announced they would take over the responsibility for the Delphi pensions if needed. That news pissed me off. All the disruption in my life for those 13 months could have been avoided by just staying in Tuscaloosa and biding my time.

An underreported story was in the New York Times Friday. True to form if there is really bad news, it always breaks on a Friday. A more readable account is at http://www.vindy.com/news/2009/jul/25/union-officials-expect-delphi-pensions-to-sink/

Long story short, GM is throwing off the promise to cover the pensions of Delphi workers. An excerpt from the above link:

“Krolopp said those who retired in 1999 or earlier are not affected by the cuts because they were moved to the pension plan of General Motors, which spun off Delphi as an independent company that year.

She wondered, however, whether those pensions will be safe in the future as the automaker and its former parts unit fight for survival.”

Because I retired out of a GM plant, I’m praying my full pension will be covered by GM as spelled out in the contract. If anything, the past few years prove contacts, and past performance don’t count for much. The uncertainty continues….

The Suprise Party

It was another beautiful cool morning here in Tuscaloosa. At 6:00 a.m. my Google home page had the temperature pegged at 66°. This was the same temperature as my home town of Lockport, NY!!! Daggy and Stumpy are enjoying blissful sleep under the ceiling fan as I finish up this entry. They were in distress from the damn fleas. I hate putting chemicals on them, but sometimes you have to bite the bullet. Applications of Advantage pretty much cleared up the flea problem. Those cats are at peace now….

The pressure is off!!! Friday night we had a surprise birthday party for one of our coaches, Alison: Her better half is our other coach, Jason. They are such a great couple together. While working Friday afternoon on the oar project with them, I was SO afraid of giving away the secret. Normally we get together for a row on Friday evening. People were bowing out like crazy with excuses of “pulled muscles”, bad backs, or being out of town. I don’t have that luxury of faking an injury since I had been working all morning at the oars, and returned in the afternoon. Besides, Alison knows I’ll go on the water under any conditions. I show up for every row; even when my boat is not scheduled to go out. I’m usually able to fill in for a no-show. It helps in that I’ve worked so I can row on either port or starboard side of the sweep. We tried to get enough together to take out a four, but were one person short. Jason’s eyes were twinkling as I left them at the boat house saying, “I’ll see you-all Sunday afternoon!”

Jason and Alison and our freshly painted and decorated oars

I hate shopping for presents. Instead I like to give people something they will enjoy and use. Alison loves hearing the stories of my Brick Collectors meetings. I have a pile of bricks…. Voila! The perfect present! I sorted through my bricks and found a good clean Graves street paver made in Birmingham, Alabama. This came from the hoard I purchased from the guys in Jacksonville, Florida. It originally saw use in the “Dixie Highway”.

Years ago my nephews and niece would have joint birthday parties (they were all born in June). It was so evident what a waste of time and money it was to hunt down that perfect card as the kids would rip through them intent on only finding cash or a check. Cheapskate Uncle Jamie discovered the perfect solution. I would take my old Christmas cards and rewrite the verse inside changing it to a birthday rhyme, complete with x’ed out words. Talk about making a hit! Those kids loved it: my birthday cards grew to be legend something they looked forward to actually read!!!

Cleaning the basement I found a gold plastic angel and a roll of Christmas paper that survived the “garage sale” purge. Alison’s brick got wrapped in festive Christmas holiday paper complete with a golden angel!!!

Alison had absolutely NO idea what was up. The look on her face entering the living room into a shower of confetti was wonderful! She was totally surprised. Now Jason can relax. He was under so much pressure. The stories of how the deception was carried out were traded among the main conspirators throughout the night.

Everybody brought food, what a spread and what a great group of people. We all had such a good time.

Alison and her presents:

Kim was the mastermind putting this party all together at her house.

Good times, food and friends all in one place. Life does not get much better….

What a Morning...

The temperature here in Tuscaloosa this morning on my Google home page was 64° at 5:00 a.m. This is unheard of for late July. For the past week record low temperatures have been set. This boy is not complaining. Last night the windows were all open with the fans going. I actually slept under the wool blanket last night.

Thursday morning was so beautiful on the river. The days are getting shorter. The sun is now just breaking in the east when we are on the water. Yesterday it was overcast, with the mist just rising from the river. All was quiet and serene. This particular morning it hit me like a ton of bricks. The Indians of America lived this every day of their lives. No wonder they had such a reverence and respect for nature and “Mother Earth”. This new appreciation and inspiration is just another offshoot how things have changed in my life this past year. I can’t believe July 22, 2008 was my first time to ever try rowing. Who would have ever thought?

I started this entry at 5:00 a.m. It is now after 2:00 and I must get ready to return to the boathouse. Things have been busy!!

Debbie showed up around 5:35 for our walk of the neighborhood. We wanted to check out the progress of the brick wall being built not far from my house. We walked down the alleyway that runs beside Michelle’s house next door to me. The wall progress was very impressive. They are using a beautiful yellow brick that matches the original house brick. I’m going to have to check and see where they got it. Opposite of this wall the homeowners got together and purchased an empty tract of land to prevent “student slums” from being built. In the middle of this grassy lot were two sleeping bags complete with occupants! Are they drunk/passed out students, or homeless people camping out? This is not happening in my neighborhood. Debbie and I did a circle back to my house and I alerted the police. God, I hate to sound like the neighborhood crab, but you have to draw the line somewhere.

I had mail to go out, so we walked over to the Post Office. Across the street was a small house up or sale. We explored and peeked into the windows. It could be such a neat little place. Most likely it will end up being something commercial. A broker who rents the place next door was sitting on his front steps. We had a nice chat with him.

We then continued to check out the new construction of the Federal Building Complex. One thing I can say about Richard Shelby, he sure funneled federal “pork money” to this city when Bush was in office. This new center will be very impressive.

Another of my neighbors who restored one of the few grand Queen Anne residences in town was working on his yard. Debbie was in awe of his caladiums. They were beautiful. He told Debbie he gets them every year from Fancy Plants Farm, in Florida.

I just love this interaction with my neighbors. Walking back to my house we could see from my street the “sleeping bag” people were gone. I left the coffee pot on the stove over the small burner. Debbie and I had our coffee on the front porch under the ceiling fan. There is a lady who walks her dog past my house usually at the same time when Debbie and I are having our coffee. She told us she loves to walk by my house because she can smell the coffee all the way to the sidewalk!

I got to the boathouse around 7:30 to work on painting up oars. Our rowing club is just getting off the ground acquiring equipment. We got out first sets of used oars to refurbish. Alison took these to be reworked last week. They turned out beautifully. We got the blades painted black this morning and will apply the stripe hopefully this afternoon. The oar blade design, now property of our club, is here at the web page on the left. http://www.blackwarriorrowingclub.com/ .

Melissa, Dana, Alison sanding down the oar blades:

Dana, Alison among the freshly painted oars....

This will have to suffice for today’s entry. There will be a lot to write about tomorrow…..

Rowing Club Garage Sale

How I love the early mornings. Sundays are so quiet here. It has been dry all week; the effects of the last rain have worn off. The poor marigolds were drooped in a pathetic manner in the front. They got a good drink as the sun was emerging in the east this Sunday morning. Stump was trailing me and a noisy Mockingbird was trailing him. Poor Stump, that damn bird was squawking and divebombing him like no tomorrow. A neighbor down the street has roosters, so I’m hearing the crowing as I'm trying to keep my plants from drying up. Those crazy roosters crowing reminded me of an Edison Record in my collection, “Daybreak at Calamity Farm”. When sound recording was in its infancy, the record companies tried to squeeze in as many sound effects as possible. They pulled out all the strings recording this “chestnut” of a vaudeville sketch.

Saturday was the Rowing Clubs garage sale held in Northport under the Hugh Thomas Bridge. What a perfect location. This area is a public parking lot with some 27 parking spaces adjacent to a popular restaurant. I scoped the area out as perhaps a possible location for a future “Brick Swap”. We had a two person Double Scull Boat out for display.

There was such a variety of merchandise offered: We also hosted a bake sale. I whipped up a carrot cake with crème cheese icing. There was a flurry of activity starting at 5:00 a.m. setting everything up. The early birds were there in droves.

I have been purging my life of unwanted stuff for the past few years so I did not have that much to choose from for everyday stuff. However, I still had tons of Christmas trimmings that were dumped on me from the last clean-out of Sherri. She loves to decorate for the holidays, but gets bored with her stuff. She is always replenishing her decorations. She will then dump what she can’t give away on me!

The bulk of these decorations had been packed away in the upper crawl space forever. Sherri’s style of decorating is NOT me. One of the “country look” half baskets that was designed to hang on a door had been festooned in artificial fruits. The mice had gotten into it and ate the foam apples! What a mess! It was cathartic to get that mess all cleaned up.

I priced all those decorations at the one, two and three dollar levels. I’m glad to report pretty much all of it got sold! The danger of these sales is that you will end up buying more than you brought. I only bought one thing. I could not bear to see this treasure relegated to the shrift store where all the unsold stuff was headed. A glow in the dark plastic statue of Saint Clare of Assisi – The patron saint of Television is now holding court in the bathroom atop the cinnamon candle tin. I found this tin when cleaning out the storage shed in back of moms house. My dad stored it there years before his death in 1985. There is still some wax and wick left. I burn it at Christmas. The picture in the background was a Christmas present from Linda 30+ years back. When my nephews were little they were scandalized in that I had a picture of a “bare-naked lady” on my wall! This is just another example how nearly everything I own has a story…..

The sale netted the club over $1,000.!!!:A return like that made all the hard work and planning worth the effort.

Rowing on the River

Ouch… this boy is sore! Sunday we had an extreme practice row. There were enough rowers to take out an 8 and a four. Jason coxed/coached the four which was Trish, Chris, Will and Me. We did some drills I had never done before. We are all advanced rowers in that we all have been on the water for at least a year now. (Will has rowed collegiate; he is a pro to us!) We all have the basics down pretty well, now we have to fine tune some of the techniques.

Jason had us row with the inside hand way down on the body of the oar, and trying to come up to the “catch” (where you drop the oar into the water) so your chest is parallel to the oar. That gives you a little bit more length and more power when you push back with your legs. I was rowing starboard so I was pulling with my right arm; I can still feel it down my right side now. We rowed upstream nearly to the steel mill. We spun the boat and then rowed continuous back to the boathouse. That was 5,000 meters more or less. It was the furthest and longest we have ever rowed without stopping.

It had rained earlier in the afternoon, so it was not boiling hot and the humidity was down. What a rush to be part of a “machine” cutting through the water. I was grinning ear to ear when we docked!

Jason coached us this morning from the launch. We were rowing the “Big Sky Amigo” the eight that weighs a ton. Our seats got all mixed up and I ended up rowing the five seat in the stern. The inside four rowers are know as the “engine room”. Usually I’m at the bow seat. It was a nice change to be with the “big boys” for a change! We spun the sweep not far from the steel mill and rowed sixes continuously back to the dock. Every time we rotated in/out a pair we rowed with high pressure for half a minute. That really gets the old heart rate up! I was flying from endomorphins released from that exertion when we docked.

Working out at the Y a couple hours later I was able to stretch out my sore right side so it feels much better now. Today I was psyched to burn out on the Concept II trainers. First I warmed up doing 2,000 meters in about ten minutes. After working out chest and shoulders, I returned to try and duplicate the time we rowed in the regatta when we took 2nd place. Starting with a racing start ½, ½, ¾, reach and then full slide I did the 1,000 meters in 3:54. I can tell I’m improving in that my hamstrings did not start to burn out till the 600 meter mark. When I started doing this it was at the 200-300 meter mark when they would hurt.

One of our rowers had her husband in the coach’s launch to film us in a practice a few weeks ago. It was not our boat that was coached that day. The best he was able to do was to get a shot of us as we passed. Things are shaky and Luna the dog hogs a bit of the video! Jamie is in the bow seat (the first) wearing the blue Tee shirt.

Black Warrior Rowing Club Tuscaloosa, AL Practice Row 6.25.09 All 8's from Amy McCauley on Vimeo.

GM and Future Uncertainty

We have been in the throes of humid summer heat these past couple weeks. Living in Western New York for 45 years I think it is an inbred trait to want to be in the open air whenever possible. I was raised in not spending time in the house when it was nice outside. There was the entire winter and then some to be under “house arrest”. I remember back to how I hated having the storm windows installed in the fall as that meant I would no longer be able have my bedroom window wide open.

However, when the mercury is in the upper 90’s and the heat indexes are way past 100°, pushing yourself outside under those conditions can be dangerous.

These past few days I have been staying in the house and have actually had the air conditioning running. Long overdue cleaning has been my life.

Rumblings are going on that General Motors may be forced into chapter 7 bankruptcy. This bodes ill for my future. If the pension guarantee arm of the government takes over my pension, I’ll lose just about half of my benefit. I always expected GM to not fulfill the promise made of "30 years and out" retirement. I’ve been enough of a realist to have seen the writing on the wall.

When I first started writing here back in 2001 I chronicled much of my factory life as it unfolded. There were retrospective entries of the plants back in Lockport. This morning I was trying to locate an elusive note left on my journal many years ago. Rereading some of those early entries brought back a flood of memories.

What did not get conveyed in those entries was what working in that factory could do to a person. It was not till the early 1990’s at our plant things began to change. For example: making jobs ergonomically correct, and addressing noise suppression in the loudest parts of the factory.

There was no such thing as air conditioning in the NY plant. How many afternoons did we go into 100°+ heat to work the afternoon shift? Back then we were not allowed to have fans in out work areas because the agitated air could blow dirt into your eye. It was with reluctance I was issued ear plugs by the medical department. I threatened to call the union if they were not given to me. (Years later my area was reassessed for noise and wearing earplugs became mandatory for everyone for the entire shift. Because of my early intervention I still have pretty much all my hearing.)

Grinding fiberglass was the worst job in the heat of summer. Long sleeves, dust masks, safety glasses with side shields were the uniform. Even with taping up shirtcuffs, that fiberglass would work its way into your sweating skin causing rashes and itching.

Working a repetitive job day after day, year after year can atrophy your mind. Production workers in the shop were the bottom of the barrel. This was back in the “bad old days”. GM was the leader, the supervisors were full of themselves and any opportunity to shit on us was done with a vengeance. In high school the kids going to college looked down on us, we were people too “stupid” to get into a good school.

I realized factory culture early on and developed coping mechanisms that served me well for my 30 year run with GM. The light at the end of the tunnel was to be retired early enough to travel and truly enjoy life on my terms while I still had good years left to live.

Living below my means, along with saving and investing, I thought I’d be able to have all my bases covered no matter what happened. Who ever expected the entire economy and country to implode?

I think back on how I devoured the book Gone With the Wind back in the spring 1968. There are so many life lessons that can be learned from that tome outside the soap opera of Scarlett and her real and perceived loves and hates.

Scarlett has refugeed home from the burning of Atlanta. Ellen, her mother is dead, her father is bewildered and useless. Trying to run the plantation Scarlett realized how she was taught all the wrong things to survive in a world turned upside down. Well, our world has been turned upside down: I can relate to have been taught all the wrong things for the ugly mess were are currently living in..