"Hope can still be found," the last line said. Of course, not until after we went to press did I find out that those words were missing from the end of the column in last week's edition. I've had several people either say that they liked that column, they noticed the lines missing, or both.

Perhaps leaving off a few lines gives this newspaper the feel of the old serial shows that once graced the radio of years gone by. I can recall my favorite Lone Ranger record, which contained recordings of numerous weekly radio shows.

My mother bought it for me in Heck's, which used to be in Galax (Va.) near where the new movie theater is now located. I can remember laying down in the floor beside my record player, watching the needle slowly arc across the record with my mind following the adventures of the Lone Ranger and his pal Tonto. On the cover is the masked hero looking over a big tribe of rampaging Indians, saying to Tonto, "It looks like we're done for this time," or something to that effect. Tonto's reply is, "What do you mean we, paleface?"

Of course, the Lone Ranger didn't have the same problems I had, like running out of ‘caps' for his gun or having them taken away for some infraction.

Then again, I never ran out of bad guys to shoot at and I didn't have to worry about my show being cancelled, the way his eventually was. But everything changes, doesn't it?

Re-runs of some of the old comedy shows were still aired on the radio on Sundays when I was a kid. I remember listening to Amos and Andy and such, but not very much of the actual material.

I suppose the great radio programs, most of which came from the 1930s, watched helplessly as their audiences were taken over by the television. I sometimes wonder what might happen in the future. If radio plays gave way to television and movies, will those give way to something else in the future? Maybe one day our children will be amazed that our television shows weren't interactive. Then again, maybe they'll be ordering content-based programming on demand from their computer that gets played back on a personalized set of things that look like eyeglasses. I sometimes think of these things and wonder where it all might lead.

While new options for entertainment may sound interesting, that isn't what bothers me.

I was talking to a friend this week who was talking about poke salad, creaseys and lamb's ear. "Gathering these things really is a lost art," she said.

I started thinking about my grandma picking wild leaves and things to make ‘salad' for a meal. I remember her making jelly from goose berries, and also pickles from fox grapes and cucumbers. That generation could live through nearly anything (and did), just like the ones before it.

Many of the things early settlers here did for survival reasons are fading away just like those old radio programs I can just barely recall. Canning and preserving foods, hunting and gathering roots, leaves, mushrooms and herbs and storing foods without refrigeration are forgotten.

There are no classes to bring these ‘heritage' skills back to common knowledge and little chance of that happening. Society puts more emphasis on technical skills, not physical ability or survival. It grows easier to see as we grow softer.

I was thinking the other day what might happen in the world, including in my world, if the electricity was turned off for just a few months in the fall and winter. In the absence of petroleum products and electricity, how many of us would die? Who would have food to eat and heat? Many wouldn't even try to go on, they'd just lie down and die.

Others would resort to trying to rob those who did have a little something put back. Run through that scenario in your own home and imagine your food supplies running out as the temperatures drop and desperation setting in as you search for something to feed your family besides snowballs. Sadly, the more we change in this way, the weaker we become.

"So does that mean we're in trouble?," you ask.

What do you mean we, paleface?

Get more tongue in cheek commentary this week's issue of the Alleghany News!

Email: allnews@ls.net