Burning Out
Shortly after I moved here 28 years ago, I learned that sometimes someone’s camp would burn to the ground. I further learned that a person would burn it down..
I had quite a reaction to this news. I wondered what kind of person would sneak onto somebody else’s property and burn their camp, cabin, or shed to the ground. I gasped. I denied that such a think could happen. I continued to talk. And I learned that very rarely, but surely enough, it does happen.
It is used as a control expression from one to another.
I know of two to three situations in which persons have had this nightmare happen to them. The perpetrator in each has not been caught.
One occurred around 1978, north of the Dead River to an unknown person whom a friend told me about. In the early 1980's another arson was ignited over a road dispute that had led to a road blockage. I knew the owner well. I even went to the spot and pondered the nightmare.
I have even been threatened personally on my home cabin–if I did not behave myself, someone might torch me. This was not spoken, but was shown by rubbing one’s thumb and fingers together, illustrating the difficulty of the topic. Also, I heard it through the grapevine.
Why tell this? How does this relate to the Four Parks?
Answer:
A. Things are not perfect
B. Honor is still the best course. Perpetrators could be scorched themselves.
C. To make Four Parks happen, one may have to deal with this kind of mind set. If the locals don't get their way one way, do they get it another?