Status Updates From La tierra permanece

Lights slowly begin to dim over days: He did not want to go to sleep. He felt as if he was sitting up by the deathbed of his most treasured & oldest friend.

116: then…He peered through the darkness at the city, he could see no light…this the was the end.

The desire for activity which had expressed itself in his eastern trip had now faded out. He slept a great deal. He also found himself sitting for long periods, conscious but in sheer apathy. Such lapses however frightened him & he always forced himself into some kind of activity.

103: His chief interest remained the careful observation of what was happening to the world after the removal of man’s controls.

He felt no “great strain either of shock or loneliness. He attributes this to his maintenance of interest in the whole progress of events & to his own peculiar temperament.”

On thru NE; spent week at Estes Park CO, great fishing

Reaching CA wildfires are burning uncontrolled, has to detour pass thru burning areas

Reaching Bay he sees lights are still, maybe last in the whole world…back to parent’s house

Drive back thru PA to OH

“By now gas pressure had failed almost everywhere” but he had proquired a 2-burner gasoline stove for cooking; tinned goods remained basis of diet, foraged veggies/fruit

IN, IL, IA… came upon ppl now generally in 2s & 3s, the isolated molecules were beg to find one another; no one wanted to come, he didn’t want to stay

They would pay the penalty which in the history of the world…had always been inflicted upon organisms which had specialized too highly…they could no longer adapt themselves to new conditions. They were almost at the opposite end of the scale from those negroes in AR who had so easily gone back to the primitive way of living on the land.

Cries as he leaves Milt & Ann behind…

Finally accosted by Milt, he & Ann living in luxury apt; play records, drink warm gin; had heard/seen cars go by in parkway but no ppl (?); ask him to stay & most pleasant ppl he had met but no “he would strike back for the west again.”

He liked them & pitied them. How could they survive winter in city though w/no central heat-“they were city dwellers & when city died they would hardly survive w/o it