Time Frame

A novel by D G Harney

Preface

The human mind is an awesome instrument of rare and sometimes mystical power. Einstein said that we only use a small percentage of our brain power which is quite obvious when we see what is happening today. We, the human race, have a vast library of knowledge acquired over hundreds if not thousands of years at our disposal and few of us are taking advantage of that knowledge. In this computer age that knowledge is available with the click of a mouse.

It is the simple things in life where we really fall short. Common sense is probably as important as education and knowledge and is seldom put to use by many of us. When you review the news of the day we see one example after another where common sense was absent and the results were nothing short of disastrous.

What follows is a tale of achievement in which common sense plays a vital role. How many times have we wished that we could foretell the future; the results of an election, the weather, the stock market or the results of athletic events. What would we do if we had the power to visualize results of any of those events? Obviously we could become wealthy!

This is one such revelation of one man’s experience with his future and how the unexpected can and often does change even the best devised plans. A corollary would be how a battle in a great war could result not in victory but in disaster often caused by a shortfall in the use of knowledge and common sense.

We all have wishes and desires. We may wish for good health, happiness and wealth. We all would like the Genie to jump out of his bottle and grant us our wishes. But we should be careful in what we wish for, we just may get it!!


Chapter 1

My name is Mathew Stewart. Most folks call me Matt. The tale that I am about to relate is unbelievable. In fact, I would expect that few, if any, who read this will be able to accept what follows as anything but the ravings of one who has lost his mind, a lunatic or at least, someone suffering from hallucinations But ..

I must begin at the beginning because my veracity, my possible insanity and even my honesty must be examined before you can believe that what I am relating could possibly be true. I assure you that I am, even now in my twilight years, of sound mind and body. My memories of these happenings are still bright and sharp in my mind. Even the intimate details remain lucid and very clear.

I was born and raised in a medium sized, Midwestern, town to middle class, but classy, parents. My father had dropped out of school after completing the eighth grade and had left home at age 15 when his family situation became untenable. I know little of his life prior to my birth probably because he was reluctant to talk about those first fifteen years.

My mother was an exceptional and unusually intelligent woman who was a high achiever throughout her life becoming a “self made” millionaire by age fifty at a time when women in business were a rarity. The recession of the early 19th century denied her the college education she wanted and never received. She believed that a good education was mandatory for everyone and especially for her children if they were to succeed in life’s challenges. She was adamant in her demand for educational achievement for all of her children. I am sure she vowed that her children would receive the education that events beyond her control denied her. She was a firm believer in the Almighty. She claimed throughout her life that Jesus was her best friend and counselor. I really believe he was!

She believed that all a person had that was completely and totally his own, to use or abuse, was his integrity. A hand shake was as good as a legal document for her and she passed this legacy on to all of her children. Both of my parents placed lying at the top of the list of things their children would not do. To this day even, so called “little white lies” leaving my lips gives me a deep feeling of guilt. I pass this thought on for your consideration as you read this. But we know that truth, as with many things in life such as beauty, is in the “eye of the beholder”.

My father was, also, an extremely bright and knowledgeable person despite his lack of formal education. He, along with several close friends, had joined the navy when the Great War began. He returned home, as most did after military service, a more informed and mature person. He was one of the smartest people I have ever known. He could do, and did, everything he tried to do with ease. He was a perfectionist. He told us that we could have whatever we wanted out of life if we wanted it badly enough and had the guts to pursue our desires. As I found out “the guts” was the key. We all have wants. We often fall short in guts!! I idolized my father. Seldom does a day pass when he is not remembered!!

As a student I was about average until the third grade. Looking over old report cards showed that I just did well enough to pass on to the next grade during these first three years. Then I somehow “found myself” or had possibly gained a little maturity in my third school year. I remember being disappointed and hurt when my best friend was moved across the classroom from the “dumb” spellers group to the good spellers group. I couldn’t accept that so in about two weeks I too was moved. Spelling turned out to be one of my better subjects according to the report cards that followed that move. That effort seemed to be the turning point for me in my education and my outlook on school life. I found the “book learning” process to be very easy, too easy actually. I don’t remember ever having to do homework and I only took text books home to show others that I was a “serious” student. I never learned to study and even today I have to work hard to study anything seriously.

I was a prolific reader. I spent whatever hours that I was not using for sports or required school work reading…anything and everything that was available in the school library. I had wide spread interests in several areas. I collected stamps and was interested in guns and airplanes and became knowledgeable in those subjects before I turned fifteen. I enjoyed photography and learned to process my own films. My biggest desire was to learn to fly airplanes. That would come to pass some years later. My first love then was in sports and staying healthy so that I could participate in football, basketball and track.

When I think of my pre college education I believe that school teaching levels are set for the slower learners and therefore leaves the better students on their own to achieve a higher academic level education. Since all the available schools, for me at least, were public schools I was relegated to an easy curriculum that required little, if any, effort on my part. I found the same to be true while attending university both before and after World War II. In fact, I got through my first two years of college on what I had learned in high school. Those two pre-war years were wasted by me. I skipped more classes that I attended. Why not? My future would soon be in the control of the US military!

All of the young people during that period knew early on that their destiny was preordained because of the situation in Hitler’s Europe and our problems with Japanese diplomacy. The draft was in full swing and each of us knew that we would be getting our “Greetings” letter from our Uncle at his whim. But, I digress.

My life during the first eighteen years was pleasurable and satisfying. We were living through trying times but as children were mostly unaware of how trying they were for our parents and most others. Summers were filled with a mixture of work and play. Vegetable gardens and lawn care require lots of work. Play in the summer consisted of hours in the city swimming pool and outdoor sports and skating, skiing and other winter sports in the winter.

Since my parents were without funds or high paying jobs we lived a fairly Spartan existence sustained in great part by our family garden. The family comprised my parents, two brothers, a sister and me. We had our assigned chores and when they were completed we received our ten cents a week allowance usually on Saturday morning. Then it was off to the five cent movie matinee and a choice of a goody for the other nickel. The great recession was in full swing through much of my youth and a challenge for all of America and probably the world. I believe that the depression added greatly to the character of many and created the sense that it was up to each of us, no one else, to fail or succeed.

Although they had little money to pursue anything but state supported education my parents encouraged us to study and learn even when some hard to find extra money was needed to accomplish this. They would give up some of their own wants so that their children could progress. I joined the Cub Scouts and when old enough the Boy Scouts. Much of what I learned there has helped me cope with life and living then and through all of my life…even now. We learned, among other things, how to survive in the wilderness. We learned how to set up camp using pup tents and to prepare food sufficient to survive for a day or two. This was something that paid dividends during my later days. I spent any free time I could find skiing and ice skating in the winter and climbing whatever hills, mountains or rocks I could find and afford during the rest of the year. Swimming was both a pastime and a way of staying cool during the hot summer months before air conditioning became available in both homes and cars some years later.

We camped out as often as we could when our ever expanding chores allowed us to. I remember going to the grocery store and buying two pounds of ground sirloin for one of our overnight campouts a mile or so down the local river. The cost of fifteen cents was a sizeable amount of money in those days. I haven’t bought ground sirloin for a lot of years but I wonder what the cost is today. The family vacations were often spent at local lakes using cabins that friends offered us free of charge. It was there that another of my father’s rules kicked in and has remained a part of me all my life. We always left the cabin in better condition than when we found it. That rule remains with me and my family.

Another event that gave me an insight into the world around me was my trip to the first Boy Scout National Jamboree in Washington DC in the summer of 1937. My parents were obviously recovering from the depression to be able to afford to send me on that educational and exciting journey. The fact that my father was able to get me free railroad transportation played a big part in their ability to fund the excursion into a world that most of us didn’t know existed. I often took the train some 300 miles alone to visit my aunts in the “big city” starting when I was 10 or 11. Most of those living in small town American at that time had never traveled more that a few miles from home. That would soon change! But again I am getting ahead of my story.

My Boy Scouting experiences were fairly short lived when I moved into the sixth grade and convinced my favorite teacher to coach a bunch of us in basketball. He formed a “sort of” little league team and even got us involved in playing other “small fry” teams in the area. When I moved into the seventh grade I moved into varsity sports and basketball became a passion for me. I was active in competitive sports in school from age nine and managed to make the varsity basketball team when I was a thirteen year old freshman, the only freshman to make it that year. I lettered in basketball, football and track during the next three years and had planned to continue this route when continuing on to college. Needless to say, I was in top physical condition and worked hard to maintain it. I liked the physical challenge that competitive sports presented.

My parents had been raised to be self sufficient and they wanted their children to be able to compete in a world full of great potential and great challenges. I don’t know why I was expected to go to work. My mother got me a job with a local building contractor, as I recall, as a sort of “gopher” when I was about thirteen. There were no child labor laws then so this was not a problem. When I turned 15 my father took me down to see the section superintendent of the Northern Pacific railway and asked if I could be given summer employment. His friend said OK we will need about fifteen kids for summer work this year.

As we were leaving he called out to my dad, “Is he sixteen yet?” My dad, who hated lying with a passion, said “Yes”. I didn’t say anything. I would not be 16 for another three months. I spent the next three summer vacations working on the section gang and as a telegraph lineman’s helper when a buddy got his dad to take us both on. I learned a lot about life during those months but the main thing I learned was that this was not the way to make a living!! At least, not the way I wanted to. When my final summer after graduating from high school was behind me I was ready to head off to another unknown… the state university 300 miles from our home.

My mother’s desire to see her children get to college came to pass for me in the fall of 1941 when I was enrolled at the university. I had been interest in airplanes and learning to fly for as long as I could remember so it was natural for to be enrolled in their Aeronautical engineering course with a minor in business.

The first year of engineering requires courses usually not associated with your major. Those come after the first year. The business courses, likewise, were of a superficial nature and didn’t require or get much effort from me. The war scares were in full bloom and all young people held the knowledge that when Uncle Sam called we had a duty to fulfill. I knew that I would eventually be “called up” so my efforts at achieving high grades were minimal if they existed at all. Nevertheless, I made a half hearted effort to learn when I could push myself to attend classes. All my plans were suddenly and dramatically put on hold when our country was attacked on December 7th. I had just entered college at 17 year of age and felt that it was my duty to get involved.

Chapter 2

I failed to get into the program that I wanted, the Army Aviation Cadet training program, because of 20/30 vision in one eye. Learning to fly had been my desire for years. I was disappointed but not devastated. I had to reassess my choices. I had been very active in the outdoor life and was a good skier and an aggressive cross country hiker as well as an amateur rock climber. Maybe hill climber would be a better description of this activity. I had heard that an army camp in Colorado was training men to ski and in gorilla type warfare…my “cup of tea”. I volunteered to enter that program. After several weeks of training a call went out for volunteers for a hazardous assignment. I volunteered and, because of my present training, was accepted immediately. The program turned out to require a group of highly trained men and it would truly be a “hazardous assignment”…the group was named the Army Rangers.

It was here where I found that my true love was to be…rock climbing. Rock climbing would be the basis for the incredible tale soon to evolve. It was here too where I met Frank Foreston. We were attracted to each other from the first day. Our interests were near identical. We both were on our road to a business/engineering education. Both loved sports. Both were very competitive and worked at maintaining our bodies in super physical shape. And we both did whatever was required of us to achieve our goals. We competed against each other during training and when our training was finished ended up numbers one and two in the class in all categories. We were rewarded with corporal stripes that soon became sergeant stripes and added responsibilities.

When our unit was finally assigned to preempt the North Africa landing we had our first chance to meet the enemy. In this case it was a group of Vichy French that chose to engage us. Not much of a challenge but enough to get our first engagement out of way and have our indoctrination under fire and into the fine art of ground warfare. We had several similar light duty engagements, all successful, before the unit was sent to England. The big one was near at hand and our training on the rocks and ocean would soon be tested.

We spent several months in England preparing for the eventual invasion of mainland Europe. The training continued to be intensive and the days dragged on interminably during those months of high anticipation of events yet to come. The buildup of troops and war supplies was unbelievable. We wondered how any enemy would be able to survive such overwhelming power. Little did we know what lay ahead.

We would soon learn first hand what determination can do to achieve any goal even a misconceived one. Our whole unit was ready to go and anxious to get “on with it”. We did not realize until years later the decisions that had to be and were being made on terminating this long and deadly conflict. We, also, did not and could not imagine what we would be experiencing during the next months of our lives. None of us were really ready for the ramifications of this deadly game called World War II.

Chapter 3

D-day finally arrived and it was then that our training, skills, minds and bodies would be tested. During our briefing we were graphically informed of the challenge ahead and that many of us would not be returning. We were told that our assignment was critical and if we failed it would be possible that the war could be lost. Quite a burden for a bunch of snotty nosed kids of 20 or 21 to assume.

We were part of the group, portrayed in several movies, which scaled the French cliffs under harassing German gun fire. I never thought rock climbing could be so challenging. I would learn in one day what my years of fun and work had taught me and how important preparation, persistence and patience could be. I carried that knowledge with me for the rest of my life. Anything worth while can be accomplished if you want it badly enough. As usual, my father’s admonition was right. I grew up with that mantra repeated at the appropriate times by my father and I have passed it on to anyone wanting to listen.

After a couple of days of starting and stopping the invasion plans we were finally on our way to our objective…Frank and his platoon were assigned to the same ship as my platoon. It was good to know that your best friend was so close.

We were approaching our landing zone and preparing to debark when Frank came up to me.

“Hi.. guess this is the test we have been cramming for”, he said.

“I just hope this isn’t our final exam!! “I replied. ”Well at least we should try to get a good grade and go on to things bigger and better. Time will tell. If I make it I will see you on top of one of those cliffs. They look tough from here…wonder what they are like up close.”

“Another hour of so and we will know. I don’t know about you but I am scared near shitless!! This waiting and wondering is worse than I thought it would be!!” Frank added. “There goes the call to go…will see you up above, on the cliff that is!”

We all gathered up our gear and prepared to board our landing craft. My apprehension moderated at this point. Doing something was sure better than waiting and worrying.

The trip from the ship to the French shore was really tough. The ocean was angry and didn’t hesitate to tell us so. Most of the guys were seasick before we off loaded but now it was really kicking up. That was definitely not in our training manuals and the seasick pills we all got didn’t seem to help. At least, when we hit the water and beach we had a chance to get ourselves cleaned up. An English Channel bath, salt water style, no soap available.

All our training with live ammo and controlled explosions didn’t come close to simulating the real thing. Seeing your buddies fall and body parts lying on the sands was something no one could anticipate even in the best of training scenarios. I hit the water running, at least trying to run. It was hip deep and already running red. I got into shallow water and then I could move a little better. The wet pack was heavier than ever. As I hit the sand I tripped over a body and fell face down in the sand. I heard a couple of plop, plops and felt my back pack pull against my body. Wonder what that was??

I recovered my footing and proceeded to set an Olympic record in the 200 yard dash to the foot of the cliffs. Three or four others joined me in the protection the cliffs overhang gave us from the small arms and machine gun fire that never stopped for more than enough time to reload guns. It didn’t look like very many from my platoon had made it this far. But eventually ten or twelve were within shouting distance.

I was just starting to analyze the situation when Frank and a few of his men charged up and he plopped down close to me. “I didn’t think we would be meeting down here but our boat got sidetracked. Maybe we ought to work together now??”

“Good idea. It is going to be a rough row to hoe from here to the top of this baby. Those Krauts are really determined to keep us here and preferably dead.

I have been watching their bullet patterns. “There is a “blind” spot about 20 yards to our right. If we could get there we would have a better chance to access the situation. When they stop to reload we would have about ten seconds to make it if we move fast. If we shed these back packs I think we could outrun their bullets. Let’s innovate…try something, anything that would help. If we tie our backpacks together with one of our climbing rope, throw the rope to that blind spot…wait for the reloading and run like hell… we would have a good chance of making it. Then we could drag our packs over to us.”

“OK Let’s do it. And,

Yeh

Good luck buddy!!”

Luck or “someone up there” was with us for those ten seconds because we both made it without a problem.

I told Frank, “Now we can see what we are up against and what we can do. We sure as hell ain’t going back so we have no choice but to go up. There are two machine guns emplacements covering this area so going up that cliff would be near impossible. But if you can see that shadow over there it looks like a pretty deep crevasse that goes about half way up. If one of us could get to that we might have to chance to make it half way and would have a good chance to go all the way from there.”

“I sure don’t see any other choices so let’s do it. Who goes first??”

“Since it was my idea I go first. Give me a rope and when one of those guns has to reload I am gone. “

Again luck was with me and I made it to the hole in the cliff. It was better than we had thought. Years of water and wind had made a nice pathway for us and it would have been hard for anyone above to see us climb. Before starting I slowly pulled our back packs and needed equipment…plus rifles, side arms and grenades…to our starting point. Frank made the run next and we were ready to climb.

The first part of the climb was “a piece of cake”. When I got to the end of the crevasse it then became a challenge. Fortunately my climbing experience and training worked. One thing helped keep us from being spotted…. there was enough smoke to obscure the climb areas and with the confusion I am sure the Krauts were in I made it to the top and found a secure area to start hauling our packs up. I dropped ropes to make Frank’s climb easier and we left them hang so the others could follow when we had cleaned out those guns.

About fifteen minutes later we had everything sorted out and were making plans to take out the emplacements that were giving our guys on the beach a big headache. We could see the only gun emplacement that could possibly do us any harm and decided to tackle it first. I grabbed an explosive pack and started off on my belly along a small ridge. The gunners were so busy killing our buddies on the beach that I don’t think they ever knew what hit them. A big BOOM and they met their maker!! Easy… too easy. But we had already saved the lives of a lot of our buddies still landing on the beach below.

Time to go after number two. I got back to Frank and we decided it would be best to circle around and come up on them from behind. About that time we heard sounds of men running close by and speaking German. We let them go …we had other things in mind at this point. We circled around the emplacement and again those Krauts went to their final resting place not knowing how or why!!! Messy but we would be seeing worse in the months we would be in France and Germany.

We went back to our packs and started dropping all the climbing ropes we had over the cliff. Within another hour we had about twenty guys ready to go German hunting. We had our orders and went after the heavy gun emplacement some 1,000 yards or so to the rear...actually it was about a mile. This would be fun???

We started walking and saw no sign or any Krauts. We had checked the gun emplacements above the beach area that were supposed to contain the big guns, they were empty. They had obviously been used as living quarters with bed and tables together with cooking equipment everywhere. It was a shame that we had spent so much of our resources trying to bomb them out of existence especially since our bombs had done little if any damage. In fact, the bombs had not even come close to the beaches or gun emplacements. As we moved inland we found areas that had been hit and we saw what heavy damage our bombers could inflict on the country side.

It was time to move to the next assignment. Get the people who were killing our friends before they could make it to the beach. We could hear the 88’s blasting our landing craft and kept heading in their directions. We made it to a spot where we could see our problems in about fifteen minutes. Didn’t see one Kraut on our way but we sure knew they were out there!!

There were three 88’s, which we could see, together with a few trucks that were loaded with artillery shells. There must have been fifteen or twenty young soldiers carrying ammo to the guns. They didn’t even have side arms, most looked like kids but they kept the guns firing at a steady rate…something we would have to fix and fast. We decided to have three teams go after the guns. My team would take the far gun, Frank’s the middle and a sergeant from another group the third.

I figured my team could be in place in ten minutes and that when we attacked the others would too. So we grabbed our rifles and needed equipment, left our packs, and started walking, running and crawling. We spotted a few infantry guys behind the third gun before they saw us and took them out first. That gave the other groups the signal and we soon had the three guns under our control. It didn’t take long to plant our explosives and turn them into scrap metal. Thermal grenades worked as promised.

It was then that we heard another battery doing their damage. We picked up our gear and moved in that direction. Three more to take out. We repeated our performance and heard no more big gun fire. Time to take a break and get ready to move along. We hadn’t stopped to rest or recover. It was four hours since we landed. Time to regroup and decide what next. Our primary mission had been accomplished but there was a lot of war ahead of us.

We had thought that after accomplishing our mission that command would return us to the rear and that new plans would evolve. That didn’t happen. We were soon informed that we were to move forward and take several important objectives. We had several more months of action ahead. During this time both of us received battle field commissions. Then Germany surrendered and the war was over. We had been scheduled by command to go to the Pacific Theatre but before we could redeploy the war in that theatre ended suddenly. When victory was finally realized Frank and I were among the few lucky ones in our company who made it home.

Chapter 4

We were discharged shortly after the Japanese surrendered when our services were no longer required. Neither of us accepted the recruiter’s advice to remain in the service. Enough is enough. I did not have the stomach for more of the mayhem of the past long months. I wouldn’t want to have that duty again….but I would not take a million bucks for the experience. It gave me a completely different outlook on life and about my future. I returned home with firm and definite goals and knew that I could and would achieve them.

This is the background I bring to my tale.

After the war ended we both went home to Colorado and renewed our journey in life. We enrolled in business courses, I had had enough of airplanes. At the university we both reached our goals graduating with business degrees in the spring of 1948. I went to work for a financial firm specializing in funding start up businesses that showed high potential for success and earnings. Frank got into the banking business and we soon moved up to a six figure income. We had it made.

I found the girl of my dreams during my final year of college and was married a month after we both graduated. Jean was my partner in life and living. We had two boys quickly and decided that two would be enough.

Frank married a year after graduating. He and his wife went on to big achievements in position and income. Many of our dreams came so fast that they were achieved before we knew it. One day I awoke and found that I was a millionaire. Frank had already made that determination. Our wildest dreams had become reality.

During this time we made it a scheduled event to spend two weeks each summer doing what we liked to do…play in the rocks and camp out. We had several climbing walls we practiced on but they were not the challenge that we would like. The summer when this tale really began was a departure from our normal summer routine. This year, 1953, we decided to just take off across previously unexplored country in western Colorado to see if we could find a new area in which to spend our two weeks of fun and games.

We lucked out and on our second day when we took a seldom traveled dirt road along the western sloops of the mountains and suddenly there it was. A sheer cliff of some 500 feet loomed ahead of us. Just looking at the challenge it represented sent our pulse rates into the stratosphere. The question was not whether we should try but could we do it.

“What do you think Frank? It looks like something that would test our skills and then some! It should be easier than our D-Day climb…there aren’t any machine guns harassing us.”

“We could use a little more challenging climb than what we have been doing. Kind of makes me nervous though since we haven’t seen a challenge like this since then. Of course we had those other problems there that added to the usual climbing problems.”

“Ah! What the hell let’s do it...nothing ventured…nothing gained. We can always find another easier one if this proves to be too tough!”

It would be hard to envision the cliff from a word description but I will try. The first seventy five to one hundred feet was sheer rock with a few visible fractures needed for permanent pitons. The next few hundred feet was ninety degrees straight up with fractures and finger and toe holds acceptable to us. The next few hundred feet appeared to be The Big Challenge. There appeared to be a cave of sorts about three hundred, maybe three hundred fifty, feet up. Since it was late in the morning we wondered whether we could make it to that cave and spend the night there before climbing again. We decided to try it since if by chance we couldn’t make it by dusk we could easily repel and start again early the next day. Or give it up and move on!!

We did make it to the cave well before dark. Our training and experience proved to be enough. We hauled our camping gear up to the cave and spent the night. The cave turned out to be much more than we thought or could envision from the ground. It was a near perfect place to spend the night and possibly the next day or so exploring.

Looking out of the mouth of the cave as the sun set and darkness reared its blackness created a picture that no artist could duplicate. A quarter moon and billions of stars made us realize how puny and insignificant we are. We turned in with that thought in mind and both slept like babies after our grueling day on “our” new rock.

We were up at first light. We cooked up a substantial breakfast, coffee and packaged ready to eat dinners. Our first look at our cave showed a twenty foot wide, high ceiling and a floor that climbed at about a twenty to thirty degree angle as far into the mountain as our torches could penetrate. The floor was covered with what appeared to be years of small rocks falling from the wall and ceiling. There was no sign that either man or animal had been there. Climbing would be easy but with our camping gear being back packed it would be relatively slow going especially as the day wore on. We packed everything and set off to the unknown. Little did we realize a real and uncanny adventure was really about to begin!!! Nor did we know what this awesome adventure and life changing event that was about to take place would do to our otherwise normal and simple lives.

We started into the cave. After several hundred feet the cave twisted and turned but kept rising at the same rate. We found only one path to follow almost as if the cave had been man made with a destination in mind. To this day I often think that this was the case but while in the cave we could see no evidence to back such a theory. We hiked until our muscles told us to take a break and after checking our watches found that we had hiked for over seven hours without a break. We decided to spend a few hours resting. Since there was no night or day in the cave our bodies told us when to sleep and rest.

After sleeping and having a little food and high energy candy bars we set off again. Guessing that we were doing about a mile an hour and that we had traveled for seven hours we started to question how far this journey would take us and what we might find at journeys end. We would soon get the answer to that query. Four hours into our hike we had an answer but more, many more, questions would soon greet us.

There it was. What appeared from a few hundred feet away in the light of our torches to be a steel door turned out to be just that. We approached the door with great trepidation. This is scary. What is this huge, heavy piece of steel doing here? How did it get here? Who put it here? Do we dare attempt to open it? Can we open it? What will we find on the other side?? Atomic waste dump!! Our thoughts were racing as we questioned each other. What should we do??

We decided to put a pot of coffee on our alcohol stove and relax a bit. This totally unexpected event was taxing our decision making processes and we both had to do some serious thinking before delving into this new and unexpected unknown!!

After a couple of cups of coffee and some fairly heated discussion we decided that first we would see if we could even move the huge door. Then we could decide what next. It turned out that the door moved easily. How could that be? It must weigh tons. We needed to expend minimal effort and the door moved. We must have said it together…lets do it. We pushed the door open far enough to allow us to see what was on the other side.

What a surprise!! We entered a great room. It looked like an unused warehouse of some sort. In the center of the room were several palettes of bicycles. They looked like they would be the age of those that an antique store would be selling if they could find them. I remember my older brother getting one which would put them in the 1927 class.

Now that we were here and there appeared to be no immediate danger we moved along to see what else we would discover. Another door appeared at the end of the great room. Another question. Should we keep going? Why not? We did keep going and more amazing things happened.

Chapter 5

We opened the door and found two startled teenagers drinking, of all things, cokes and from bottles seldom seen. They were dressed in clothes that we had only seen in movies depicting the early 1900’s. Where are these guys coming from?

I finally broke the silence and asked them where we were. One of them spoke up. “You are in my father’s warehouse.

“Where is that? What city?”

“Ashtonville” was his answer.

“Never heard of it.”

“Not many people have!!”

We chatted for several minutes. They were curious about our clothes, back pack, shoes, climbing paraphernalia, how we got there through the restricted steel door. We learned that no one was permitted to go out through that door and to their knowledge no one had at least in their short lifetimes.

What first was a fearsome event now had turned into something that was very interesting and that needed more explaining. We asked the boys if they would show us around, sort of a guided tour and that we would pay them to do it. They volunteered to take us around and were actually embarrassed when we offered to pay them. Nice kids.

They took us to what turned out to be the front of the building and into a wide and well built street. Our first thought was “Now we get it. This is a movie set based on the early part of the century.” The street was lined with several circa 1925 parked cars. A new looking Ford Model A with it rumble seat open was parked near the door. My favorite car as a kid. When I graduated from high school there was a similar car for sale on our street. It would have been an ideal graduation gift and only 35 dollars. My parents didn’t agree…I got a wrist watch.

The frame buildings which lined the street were identical to those in my town during my early childhood. The street lights were vintage 1900. Everything was vintage 1900. If this wasn’t a movie set did we get caught up in one of those fictional time warp things?? My brain was speeding rapidly to a destination unknown.

There were a few older people walking the sidewalks and apparently window shopping. They hadn’t seen us yet!!! I asked the boys if it would be all right to leave our back packs in the warehouse and they said OK…they will be safe there. That would make walking and sight seeing easier. We dropped them inside the warehouse door.

We decided to investigate our “discovery” and determine just what it was we had “discovered”. Weird?? We hadn’t seen anything yet!

The boys took us up the street and gave us a little briefing on all the businesses and the people that worked in them. Drug store, hardware store, doctor and dental office, a small post office, a library and other businesses one would expect in any town. All were well kept, neat and clean as were the people in them. What a nice movie set! Almost too nice to be a movie set. A waste?? Our kind of home town?

As we got near the end of what appeared to be the business district one of the boys asked if we would like to meet his father. He is the mayor and the head of the bank. “We would very much like to meet him” was our immediate answer. They led us into the fairly busy bank and towards the rear where a sign on the door indicated the manager dwelled. The boy knocked and was invited in. He told the man sitting behind the desk that he had two strangers that he wanted him to meet. “Bring them in was the response.’

As we entered the shock on the boys father’s face was evident. He asked his sons to leave and close the door behind us. “Your clothes tell me you are not from this area.” “Where did you come from? How did you get here? What are you doing here? “His questions never seem to stop. He was obviously under great stress. Our curiosity was reaching a peak when he finally took a deep and troubled breath and sat back down at his desk.

We took a minute and briefed him on the events of the past three days. After we had finished he made some remark about how he knew he should have sealed off the entrance to his warehouse but didn’t think anyone was capable of climbing “our” rock. He then started to tell us where we were and why we must leave. Astounding story but the proof would be ours to analyze and react to.

We introduced ourselves and he informed us that he was Clarence Thurgood, mayor and among other titles the president and owner of the bank. I noticed next what appeared to be a newspaper on his disk and asked if I could look at it. He agreed saying “don’t be surprised at what you see!” The date on the paper was September 16th. The year was 1926. Good year for a movie scene with appropriate clothes, cars and building all correct to this point. We were a little shocked when he told us that it was yesterday's paper and that it only came out once a week. “You are not telling us that you think this is the year 1926?” “Indeed I am. Today is July 17th, 1926. You two young men have intruded on our society and could be in grave danger if you remain here very long. The danger will not come from any of us. It will come from what none of us can understand but it is real.”

It was getting late in the day and the bank had closed. Clarence invited us to his house for dinner. We accepted and he called his wife, Helen, using ancient looking phone and told her to expect two guests. He took a minute to clear his desk and arrange some papers and then took us out the back door locking up the vault and bidding good night to two remaining women clerks as we left.

His car, a shinny 1926 Ford Model A was waiting. We commented on the car and he said it was only about a month since it was delivered from the seller to him. He noticed our amazement and said, “You young men haven’t heard anything yet!” We drove with him to his clean white two story frame home with a well manicured and landscaped yard. Just what I remembered when I was young… great memories were suddenly recurring. We went into his home and he introduced us to Helen, his wife.

Clarence asked if we would like a drink before dinner. We both accepted his offer. After having an Old Grand Dad on the rocks, my father’s favorite when I was a kid, we sat down to a roast beef, potatoes and gravy with a home made apple pie dinner. Helen was a master cook and we welcomed the change from our packaged meals of the past few days. After we finished we moved to their sitting room. Clarence informed us that we were in for a long a detailed explanation of his earlier remarks. I sat back in my chair and said “Let the story begin!” and begin it did.

His great grandfather was an immigrant from central Europe, country unknown, about the time of our civil war. He was an unusually talented business man and became wealthy, very wealthy at an early age. This wealth was to be passed on to eventually Clarence’s grandfather who founded Ashtonville.

Clarence’s father, Arvis, was the first born and only son of his Grand Father, Uris. He was born into a life of luxury but was required to work in many of his father’s enterprises from an early age. He was highly intelligent and had no trouble leading his classes all through prep schools and college. His father urged him to excel in the financial field because he needed and wanted someone to help him oversee his vast wealth. While in college he worked part time in banks and in managing the wealth of their more affluent customers. During this time he made friends and acquaintances who would be very useful in the coming years.

While in college Arvis met a beautiful and talented young woman who in a short time stole his heart. He was instantly certain that this young lady, Jane, would be his wife. He pursued her aggressively and soon found that their feelings were shared. She in fact had been attracted to him from the first time they met. Arvis wasted little time in proposing marriage which she instantly accepted. They would be married as soon as she could get her father’s permission.

The problem with their decision was to be the fanatic religious beliefs of her father and his family. Jane’s father was the leader of a strong and active religious group that bordered on the occult. They would soon find that it did not border on the occult. It was, in fact, deeply embedded in the occult with all sorts of ceremonial events that would shock the average person.

When they approached her father for his blessing and permission to be man and wife he hesitated. He wanted to question Arvis about his willingness to join his religious group and follow its teachings, practices and laws. Arvis took a firm stand against doing something so against his beliefs. He refused to join her father’s group.

Jane’s father denied the requested permission and forbade his daughter from seeing Arvis again. They were heartbroken. But eventually love won out and other more serious problems would eventually surface.

Jane’s father had gone on record with his disapproval. He warned them that if they disobeyed him that he would make them regret it. He forbade Arvis from ever coming to his community or his home. The dilemma was heartbreaking and they felt that her father’s warning was real and serious. Jane had never been very close to her father so her decision to marry Arvis was easily made. She loved Arvis and wanted to spend her life with him. They were quietly married and life was soon to be what they had always envisioned.

They continued their education willingly funded by Arvis’ father. He loved Jane and was gratified that his son had made such a good choice. Upon graduating they both went to work in his bank. The knowledge and experience gained under his father’s guidance was to serve them well in the days and years yet to come.

Clarence stopped for a moment to get his breath. “Would you like a brandy and a cigar? I usually like to end my day here enjoying both.” We both accepted his offer of the brandy explaining that we were against smoking because we were serious about keeping fit so would pass on the cigar.

Our discussion with Clarence continued with some of the history of the city we had discovered.

Ashtonville was founded by Uris in 1896. He bought the land and a few existing buildings from a settler who had built up his holdings to over 35,000 acres. Since the owner had no heirs he sold the property with the condition that he could live there for the remainder of his life. That would not present a problem so the deal was consummated and the city became a reality. It would soon grow into a nice small town where life would thrive.

Ashtonville was self sufficient and isolated from the rest of the world in a then remote and almost inaccessible valley. The rich farm land yielded all that was needed for life. The life then was hard and demanding.

We took a short break and when we returned we had several questions that Frank and I had come up with. Why are you saying that your dates and ours are different?

Clarence responded with a smile, “I knew you would be asking that question. Let me continue and the answer will eventually come.” Clarence continued relating his most unusual story.

Shortly before he died my father told me this very disturbing story. As I mentioned when he and my mother were married her father was angry. They had ignored his orders and they would suffer because of her disobedience. They had long before left school and gone to work far from his home. When he discovered that Jane had married against his wishes he had cut her off from educational funds and his life. He lost all contact with them.

They had thought that it was possible that he had accepted her marriage since neither of them ever heard from him by mail or word of mouth. When they moved to Ashtonville a few years after leaving their banking jobs they had not yet heard from him and did not even know if he were still alive. They didn’t think much about him and became involved in raising me and my brother and managing some of his father’s sizeable holdings.

When Uris died some time later my father was left with a huge estate, both money and land, to manage. He did well in this effort building the huge wealth left to him many fold. He extended his land holdings. He operated one of the most productive silver mines in the world that was among his father’s holdings and a great reason for his unbelievable wealth. I will show you some of what I am discussing before you leave.

My father’s life was soon to be interrupted by some unforeseen or expected events. When Uris died his obituary became a national piece of news because of his involvement in politics and business. Jane’s father read it and found that my father and she were living here. His anger in the years after she left and married against his wishes had gone unabated and had grown many times into uncontrolled rage as they would soon discover.

He unexpectedly appeared in Ashtonville and confronted them. He was ranting and raving like a wild man. His anger was uncontrolled. When he found that they had two children and a happy marriage it became even worse. My father told him to leave and to never return. He warned him that if he didn’t he would have him escorted from Ashtonville by the police. The rage was now becoming fear filled. My father feared for his and Jane’s life. This man was a lunatic.

Before he left the city Jane’s father told them that it was not the end but only the beginning. They had defied his wishes and demands. He was placing a curse on them and all that they owned. The curse would remain with them for the rest of their lives. He admonished them that since they defied him by marrying against his wishes and beliefs he would do his best to punish them and that he had put the full force of his gods to work. He left. They never saw him or heard from him again.

My father told me later that he thought that his ranting and raving and the curse was the outburst of a mad man and that it meant nothing. Jane was not so sure but since it was done they should forget it happened and get on with their busy and demanding lives. They did.

As the years passed it became obvious to the people living there that something was amiss. In the early 1900’s, 1913 as best Clarence could guess a visitor happened to enter the town and informed his father that date they were using was a few years off. It was not 1913 it was 1916. My father could not accept this as fact since he had been keeping track of dates religiously. No one knows what happened to the stranger. He just disappeared.

I asked Clarence, “How did they decide what the date was when they determined their date did not agree with that of the outside world?”

“That is an interesting question with an equally interesting answer. My father had told the story many times.” Clarence continued. “He had an intelligent and literary friend who had traveled to a nearby city keeping his visits brief because of the events already experienced with travelers disappearing when they went to the outside world.

His friend was an avid reader and his trips to that city always entailed a visit to the library. Early in his visits he discovered a strange phenomenon occurring. After three or four days the print on some of the books he brought home started to vanish and if he kept the books long enough, probably five to ten days the print vanished completed. Then the book vanished. He knew that newly made items from the outside areas had done the same thing….in time they just vanished.

Being a deep and intuitive thinker he asked himself why did only the ink vanish and not the whole book. He finally deduced that the paper was made from old trees and the ink was usually made at the time of the printing. He started to log the print dates of the books he brought home. A little logical thinking on his part and a couple of astute friends established the approximate date of our area.

We don’t know how accurate that date is and we have since that time re-established our current date using a similar scheme at regular, usually annual, intervals. We really don’t care about being accurate since dates are not relative anyway, a manmade thing. ”

I responded to this amazing set of facts with a brilliant remark. “That is really interesting. I would never have thought of doing it that way.”

The history lesson continued. “When Uris passed away my father took over as leader of the small community and control of his father’s vast holdings. Time passed. My father died and my mother soon after. I became the sole owner of everything. I was and still am very wealthy and that wealth grows daily because it was put in control of experts where it has been held for decades now. My brother was left out of the will since he had long before gone his own way. We don’t know that happened to him. We have never heard from him since he left.

I assumed role of the town’s leader and became very successful first by using my business expertise and then by taking over most of the town’s real assets and my father’s bank. As time passed and the town grew it became necessary to go somewhere else for supplies and the necessities of life. I journeyed to a nearby community about forty miles to the northwest. I acquainted myself with the business and financial practices of the community in a world somewhat different than the one I knew. I was getting a good education from a banker who wanted and needed my business. Things were different in this world. I could never be away from the bank and the business of our city for very long so my visits were never more than a day or at the most three days.

These visits extended into a year and then two years. I was a fast learner and what I learned was paying off.. Then a most shocking event happened. When I was about to enter into a legal agreement with my new found banker friend I found there was a twenty three year difference in dates between my town and this community. What was wrong? My date? Their date?

The next shock was even more traumatic. My banker friend scheduled a visit to Ashtonville. He got into his brand new automobile early on the morning of his appointment and drove the forty miles to Ashtonville. He couldn’t find any trace of the town where it was supposed to be and, in fact, he went nearly ten miles further than instructed and still there was no town or even a sign of one.

After the failed meeting, I went to see why the appointment had been missed. He told me he couldn’t find Ashtonville. I decided to stay overnight and leave in the morning after getting rested for the long slow trip. Upon rising in the morning I found that my horse had become very ill and was in no shape to return home. I stopped by the bank and was told that he could borrow the banker’s new buggy and his horse and could return it on his next visit. I accepted the offer and proceeded to go home in this smooth riding buggy and spirited horse with great enthusiasm.

The time necessary to return home passed. I couldn’t find any distinguishing landmarks. I knew the road well and knew that I should be well into Ashtonville. Actually I knew that I was well beyond my town. What was wrong? Had I somehow taken a wrong turn? It couldn’t be that since there were no turns I could have taken? I didn’t know what to do and not having much choice elected to return to his friend’s town. I rode most of the night sleeping while the horse sought his own home. When I awoke in the stable where this horse was boarded. I found that my horse was well and able to travel. Since I was embarrassed by all that had happened I decided to go back to Ashtonville in my own buggy using my own horse and say nothing about his dilemma... No problem. I got home in the usual amount of time. The town was where it had always been.

I got some much needed and welcome sleep. I had recognized that there was a problem, one that had to be resolved. Was the previous day’s occurrence explainable? Why was the trip in someone else’s buggy not completed? Twice? How can I explain this? How can I verify and repeat the event? Did it have something to do with the discrepancy in the dates between Ashtonville and the rest of the area that the stranger long ago had questioned??

The answer took several weeks to sort out but by logic and hard work it was. Several test runs with borrowed buggies he found that if a buggy was built at a date later than the date being used in Ashtonville that the city simply disappeared. It was then I determined that Ashtonville had to be living in a time frame of it own. I pondered the stories my father told me about my mother’s father and the curse. Something definitely was amiss!!

I began to think back several years about the unexplained disappearances of people leaving Ashtonville. None were ever heard from. How about the people who somehow found their way to our city and after a few days simply disappeared, vanishing without a trace. And one more thing that was bothersome was that the time differential changed from year to year gaining about three months each year. Logic would tell us that in time we will be in the same time zone as the rest of the world. The question now was whether and if that would happen.

I may be getting mixed up in my own dates since it was such a confusing situation. It should have been obvious that this problem had existed for years. Everything just seemed normal. Life went on. We were happy and contented. But because of that recent series of events I became concerned and decided that I had to have many questions answered.

What a wild tale we were hearing!! There was no reason for us to doubt Clarence. He had no obvious reason for lying and every reason for telling us the truth as time would soon reveal. He asked us to stay with him for the night and suggested that in the morning we leave as early as possible since he had no idea of what a longer stay would do to us. We agreed to both suggestions. Before leaving the next day we received his reluctant permission to again visit him during our next year’s rock excursion. He told us that his reluctance was because he feared that something may happen to us and he did not want that on his conscience.

Early the next morning, after having breakfast with Clarence and Helen, Frank and I returned to the warehouse, picked up our back packs and entered the cave through the steel door. We both were wondering if we had been hallucinating for the past two days or if we had just experienced an out of body excursion into the unknown. We agreed that we would keep these two day’s experiences from others and that we would repeat this trip in a year.

As we walked out the tunnel to our cliff and car I asked Frank “I wonder if we really understand what we have just discovered. This has been like being in another world. Is there anyway that we can capitalize on this?”

“I have been thinking in similar terms, Matt. As a banker I can’t see how to gain from our newfound knowledge but I keep wondering if I am missing something. After we have slept on this for a few days we should get together and see what we could do.”

Chapter 6

I didn’t know it at the time but Clarence was to become my mentor and a good friend for the rest of his life and a good share of mine. His goals and aspirations which were, unfortunately, to be stopped by a bureaucratic government elected by the people to serve the people. Instead of solving problems the government would become the problem. But I digress!

It was difficult to stay focused on the business of earning a living during the next year. I kept thinking of ways in which we could capitalize on this situation. I would become exited when I contemplated the possible potential rewards. 1927 was coming up in Ashtonville. The stock market crash was a short time away. Millions were lost by some and earned by others from this stupendous, world changing event. Stocks could be bought cheap, sold high or sold short to be repurchased at bargain prices. Greed and avarice were starting to prevail in my energized mind. Frank was experiencing similar thoughts and we discussed it often during our weekly, sometimes daily, phone calls.

We definitely had to get back to Ashtonville and Clarence!!! What had we missed during our first visit?

Another strange phenomenon surfaced when we made our annual excursion into rock climbing. About three weeks before our scheduled two week adventure was to begin I called my climbing buddy with some thoughts. I caught him early one morning before his hectic business day was to begin.

“Hey buddy; how goes the battle?”

“Not too bad yet Matt but it will get a lot worse before this day is over.”

“You about ready to ship out Frank?”

“You bet! I have been more than ready for a long time. This has been one great year for my bank account but my life has been on hold with business trips and contract conferences keeping me busy for 60 hours and week, even weekends. But I have told everyone here that I will be gone for our normal two weeks and they will have to take the reins.” Frank responded.

“Good! I am in about the same boat so I know what you are saying. I have been trying to figure out a good way to visit with Clarence and still get some rocks under us. Why don’t we just drive into Ashtonville for our visit with him and since we can only remain there for two or maybe, and that is a big maybe, three days we won’t be wasting time doing some climbing that we have done before. After we leave Ashtonville we can do our rock work.”

“That is a great idea. Let’s do it!!”

We ended our conversation and got on with our business. I had located on a recent Colorado map the approximate location of Ashtonville and could see that it would be an easy drive in and out so that at the most we would loose only three of our fun days.

But, surprise, surprise! I picked Frank up the first week in July. We loaded all his gear and our rations into my van and we were off to Ashtonville. We did stop for a quick bite to eat at the town Clarence had told us was his usual stopping place for supplies and to get the latest news of the real world.

After eating and a pit stop we were off on what we thought would be about a thirty or forty minute drive. That was not to be. After driving long enough to reach Ashtonville it was nowhere in sight. “What the hell is going on?” I asked Frank?

“Beats the crap out of me!! We should have been there ten minutes ago!” he answered.

We drove another few minutes and decided to stop and think about what to do. We both hit the same thought at the same time….Clarence told us what happened to him. Why didn’t we listen?

I came up with a brilliant after thought…”How stupid can I be. Until we comply with the weird situation Clarence told us about we could not possible get into Ashtonville like this. It looks like we will have to go to the town through the ‘back door’ as we did last year. We kind of wasted three or four hours screwing around before we figured the obvious out. No sense in crying over spilled milk lets find our rock and get climbing.”

Our summer rock climb had been slow in coming because of our screw up. The anticipation of our visit with Clarence no doubt was the cause. Three hours later we started unloading our gear at our rock and by sundown were safely in our high rise cave consuming our “ready to eat” gourmet dinner, a re-run of our last years episode The climb was easy since we had left pitons in place We spent the night in the cave as we had the last year. The next morning the walk through the cave was fast since we had a goal in mind and knew what lay ahead of us. Clarence seemed happy to see us and that we were well. It didn’t take us long to get into our ideas of how we could make lots of money by playing our cards right. Clarence was not very happy with our ideas but we pressed him on the good works he could do if he had larger amounts of money to work with.

First we had to know if there was any way he could buy and sell stocks. It turned out that he was already doing that by phone. Now how in the world did they get phones connected to the outer world in Ashtonville? It turned out that Western Union had run a telegraph line through the town many years before and some inventive citizen had the foresight to run a phone line into the neighboring town also years before. We were again in another world within a world.

Then Clarence informed us that he had overlooked telling us that Ashtonville was not the only community caught up in this time frame. A larger city a few miles south also on his property was experiencing the same time frame conditions. This city was located on a large parcel of land that his father had leased to some local townspeople before the time problem was discovered. It was here where he was also able to bank, trade stocks and purchase, exchange or sell major items including gold, silver and other commodities. All of this activity was confined to trade with the local people and was not done on a national level.

“How did you accumulate all that gold and silver that you have warehoused in your bank Clarence?” Frank asked.

Clarence started another history lesson for us. “My great grandfather had found some pretty good silver and gold mines early in his life. He discovered silver on one of his properties shortly after he opened his first bank. He was a conservative of the first order probably because of his European upbringing in a wealthy but down to earth family during tough times in Prussia. Over time he used up all of the vault space available for storing his silver and gold bars. He built a new and bigger bank in Denver and that became another place to store large amounts of gold and silver.

In fact, one of the most productive silver mines in the country was on his property here. Veins of nearly pure silver laced with gold were discovered and mined until the mine became untenable from a financial point of view. He always felt that gold and silver had solid value and would be accepted by everybody. He created his own mint and started making coins that were used for money in this town. As time went on and the population grew, actually it grew rapidly, people started complaining about having to carry those heavy coins.

At about this time he started to deal with the newly opened United States government mint in Denver. They needed large quantities of both gold and silver which he gladly supplied. He accepted some of the minted coins in payment and stored most of them in his banks. He had so much mintage that he actually built another new, larger bank which had a huge vaulted storage area dedicated to his raw gold and silver and the minted coins he was receiving in payment from the mint. Some of those coins are stored in the bank here in Ashtonville too. In addition to the coins received in payment he accepted long term government bonds as well as gold certificates. He seldom if ever cashed in on any of these valuable items and most are still in his banks. He just purchased new bonds as sine if the bonds matured. I doubt that he ever knew the value of his holdings and as of now most of them are still in the vaults. I have no idea either of their worth. I have been going to have my people make and inventory of my holdings but never seem to get around doing it.

My father was an astute business man among his many other talents and started printing his own bank notes. He stored the equivalent amounts of gold or silver to back up those notes just as the government did or said they did. As people became aware of his move and felt confident that the paper they received was “as good as gold or silver” the use of his coins stopped completely. Over the years he closed his mint and the yields from his mining operations were put into storage and if needed more bank notes backed by that gold and silver would be issued. Eventually all of his notes were called in and government paper money was then used. It had to be screened for old money, the new bills could disappear.

His mining operation played out but not before he had accumulated a vast fortune which is still warehoused here and in our Denver bank vaults and in several other secure places. We do watch the prices in the real world and I expect that one day we will be moving this valued stock and getting into investments that can appreciate better or faster. We don’t know yet whether the coins here would survive if moved. I had intended to take some into the real world and see but just never have gotten around to it. We really don’t have to do anything…so human nature being what it is we have done nothing. Time will dictate our actions. In the meantime our Ashtonville legal tender backed at about 1,000 percent by a real value security…gold and silver… is no more.”

Clarence took a deep breath and continued. ”As I mentioned, during the early days of his mining operations he sold silver and gold bullion to the Denver mint receiving gold and silver minted coins for payment. Most of these coins were still stored in our large Denver bank vaults especially built for such storage. They are still there as new as the day they were minted. We have never inventoried them but there are millions of both silver and gold coins available should we need them. Gold and silver prices don’t change much so we see no reason to sell them since they are such a good store of value. ”

When we told Clarence of the impending crash on Wall Street he was disturbed. He had a lot of his investment money in stocks. Our months of research on which stocks to buy now and when to sell them was now met with a welcome smile. We had brought what cash we could afford in the hopes that he could or would invest it for us. Turns out that our Federal Reserve Notes were unheard of by this banker and probably would not be usable for what we had in mind. There was no Federal Reserve Bank in his world. Clarence wondered aloud about how he could buy and sell stock in a market existing twenty years past.

Both Frank and I were simultaneously coming to an identical conclusion. What we had been hearing during this visit and our last had awakened the larceny in our souls. Our contemplating acquiring huge amounts of wealth had caused some brain cells to die or stop working. There is no way that Clarence could gain from events already past in our world. If there were a way to buy stocks in his world and trade them in his world then anything would be possible. We had wasted a lot of time thinking of ways to beat the system. Our hopes of making really large amounts of money had definitely disappeared.

Frank brought up the subject just as I was about to. “You know, Matt, we have been overlooking the obvious. There is no way that Clarence can buy stocks, bonds, antiques or other valuable from the real world into his and take advantage of situations long passed. For us it was a case of wishful thinking, wishing that we could make a lot of easy money. I guess my Dad was right. There is no such thing as easy money. You get what you earn. What you work for. I think we should apologize to Clarence if we led him to believe that he could use his time frame problem to his advantage in this manner.”

He picked up on our conversation. “I have been wondering about that too. I thought maybe that you boys knew something that I didn’t. With the wealth that I have already accumulated I don’t really need more. I would like to see what I have increase in value because for years I have had ideas floating around my brain about what I could do to make this a better world. All of these ideas would require substantial funds. But that is a long way off right now.”

Clarence did have a listing of all the stocks and non-government bonds that he was holding. We took a look at them and found that most were with companies that had not only survived the crash but had also grown many times with several splits and many profitable years behind them. We were told that most of the stocks were presently held in accounts in their Denver bank and were monitored closely by his financial advisors.

Clarence interrupted. “There have been some changes in our lives since your last visit. In the year that you were gone we had a son. We have named him Timothy. He is two months old and is a happy, healthy baby.”

Frank and I both congratulated him on their new family member. Timothy was a lucky child. He would soon be ready to begin a life long learning process with two excellent teachers as parents. Time would prove to work in his favor but that time was somewhere in the future. It was enough for Clarence and Helen that he was a healthy, strong and bright baby. Clarence would take Timmy into his library in the evening while he enjoyed his after dinner brandy. He gave up his cigar when Timmy was with him. Timmy was the most important aspect of their lives.

Our time was running out as we packed up to leave. We had enjoyed our visit even though the realization that we didn’t have a money tree with the Ashtonville time frame. We had developed a friendship with Helen and Clarence that was rewarding, interesting and even challenging. It was sad leaving them this time knowing that it would be another year before we would return.

We left by way of the cave, descended to our car and spent the rest of our time climbing wherever we could find a challenge. That vacation would be recalled with fondness for years.

Chapter 7

We returned for the next two years by the usual route, through the cave and the heavy steel door. His successes in the stock market were a phenomenon to behold. During our conversations the past year we had triggered the financial lobes of his brain. He had his real world people researching every opportunity they could find. Clarence didn’t know it but at the time he was one of the wealthiest men in the world if not the wealthiest.

During this visit we fine tuned the time differential between his world and ours. It appeared that by November of 2001 we would be in the same time frame. Would this be the end of the time difference or would his time frame keep advancing. The answer to that pointed question would have to wait until we all arrived at November 2001.

In the spring of the year after our fifth visit my best and dearest friend, Frank, was killed in a tragic car accident. Our time frame secret died with him leaving me with the responsibility of what if anything I could do with that knowledge. We had never told anyone about what we had learned. I doubt if they would have believed our story anyway. Kind of like how many will believe the return of Jesus. So, as before, I did nothing. I missed Frank and it was years before I could suppress the tears when he would pop into my thoughts. Everyone should have a friend like him.

But our visits to Clarence were no long possible since the rock climb really needed two experienced and capable climbers. I had to come up with another way to contact Clarence if I were to continue with our friendship. It was easier to do than I had thought. Remembering his experience with his friend’s new buggy I started my vacation early and headed to his neighboring town. I rented an older car, turns out to be my favorite Model A Ford vintage 1928. Driving the thirty miles or so in that car was a joy I still remember. Ashtonville appeared in all of its glory right where it was supposed to be. I had made it again albeit a little ahead of schedule and Clarence and I began where we had left off less than a year before.

This process continued for many years. Clarence’s son Timmy grew up and became a full partner in his father’s now vast empire. During this period they defined their goal in life. Clarence passed away in 1980 Tim was now, at age 25, by far the richest man in the world. But no one would know that for many more years since Clarence with his superb financial expertise and ingenuity had set up literally hundreds of tax free foundations. They were all funded with monies on which all required taxes had been paid The trusts which had been set up by proven financial advisors and had been time tested to be legitimate by the national and sometimes by world courts.

After his father’s death Tim became more aware of the value of his holdings. He had once commented “if I sold only my government bonds I could pay off the government budget deficit this year”….some billions of dollars at the time. With the events that followed in the financial world in the succeeding years his holdings increased at an unbelievable rate. It is really true. The rich get richer and the poor get poorer. It is an economic reality!

His financial advisors were doing a phenomenal job in the handling of his estate. They took advantage of all the gyrations of the markets. The Hunt Brothers escapade netted him millions. The Hunts never took possession of his silver and he pocketed their margin monies less a few brokerage fees. Their huge losses were his huge gains. The same was true in the housing markets. At Tim’s suggestion they had sold much of his bullion and coins. Many of his coins returned a hundred fold their cost since they were now considered by numismatists to be a rare and valuable find. Everything Clarence had touched was literally turning to gold.

When November 2001 arrived the two worlds were found to be in the same time frame. One year later they still were. Timmy called me in a happy frame of mind. Now we can “Let the fun begin “ he laughingly proclaimed. I need your help and since you are living a life of ease in your retirement years I think you should keep busy. You are too young to retire anyway. Hell you aren’t even 70 yet. The best years are yet to come.”

I asked for my love’s approval. It was reluctantly granted. I told Tim that I would do what I could.

Now we had another dilemma. What should we do with all that wealth? Clarence and I had discussed at length his thoughts about building a new, different and modern medical clinic, one that would serve all the people not just the privileged few. He had similar thoughts about educating our young people.

Tim had asked for my help and I was working for him. Tim revealed that his father had addressed the use of their vast wealth throughout his life. He had detailed his wishes and asked Tim to take on that responsibility if he was unable to.

An interesting aside should be noted here. The map and atlas makers of the country were flabbergasted that for years two rather large towns had been overlooked and never appeared in any of their publications. These companies wrote this oversight off as human error caused in part by their rather remote locations and the isolation chosen by the people living there. I knew those people had not chosen to be isolated but any excuse is better than none I expect. The Federal Government in all their wisdom chose to ignore this sudden appearance of unregistered and undocumented voters to no one’s surprise.

Chapter 8

After Clarence’s financial successes became reality the three of us had over many years discussed in some detail how he had intended his riches to be used. He knew that he would not be alive when his world and ours were one. That made it imperative that his son would follow through with his plans and there was a time to make his ideas known and initiated.

I had not been fully aware of the extent of his dedication to having his easily obtained wealth put to good use and the degree to which he had included Tim and others in his plans. They had discussed and researched all aspects of his plans knowing that Tim could be the one to implement them. It was interesting to see how astute and wise Tim had become over the years. Clarence had told me many times that Tim was a genius. He had come up with thoughts and ideas as a teenager that only maturity and many years of experience would yield. He had in his few years developed a remarkable insight in the affairs of the world. Over the next few years I too would find that Tim was more than a genius. He was, also, a real person a combination not usually found in the “run of the mill” people with genius IQs.

Clarence had often expressed his concern about Ashtonville’s meager and obsolete medical facility and of its poorly trained doctors. Understandable considering the situation. He wondered what the real world had that they could have used. In addition, he knew that his educational system was lacking. He, of course, had not yet or never would see how badly the nation’s educational system would deteriorate actually disintegrate. . He would have been appalled to learn that graduates in many schools and even colleges would not be able read their diploma’s.

In Ashtonville there were no drop outs. Even the least of the students was required to spend a full twelve years albeit, short years, in the learning process. All were required to be able to read, write, add and subtract at a minimum. A great number of the brightest students ended up working for Clarence during his many years of accumulating his great wealth. Many of these people would be working to achieve his goals for many more years as their world joined ours and his plans materialized. These students learned from Clarence and Tim all aspects of money management, investing, tax consequences and tax law since his plans would fail if all were not totally legal and able to withstand any legal challenge. In the world of financial planners and investment advisors these people would be at the top commanding huge and deserved rewards.

His plan was amazing in its simplicity. It would start with one entity, one goal. A hospital!! But the country has thousands of hospitals many classified as the world’s best. What would be different about this one?? He had researched the Mayo Brothers approach in their early years and liked what he saw. Their problem…limited funds. That could not be his problem if his plans were to succeed. Time and human ingenuity would bring changes unimaginable today…his today.

Clarence’s thoughts were profound. He surmised that across the country, and the world, there were doctors who were outstanding in their knowledge and ability. He felt that because they were separated by miles and customs that their abilities were not being shared and thus were being lost to much of the world. If all the experts in various fields of endeavor could be brought together in one place they could share and capitalize on each others expertise and in essence create another entity. One that could be shared world wide if done properly.

His thoughts were explained to me one day like this. When two people get together and share thoughts and experience they create a third entity comprising the thoughts of each of them. Wouldn’t it be great if the genius’ of the world could get together and share and publish their combined knowledge so that others could pick up on and advance them even farther. Is not that what we have done for eons? Is that not why civilization has gone from the Stone Age caves to the skyscrapers in New York and elsewhere.

He would build a hospital in mid America. It would be built close enough to but far enough from population centers so that it would be independent of bureaucratic interference and yet is available to those in need. No building codes, low taxes and completely self sufficient. Housing, schools (if necessary) everything. He would first select three people from his competent, well trained and responsible staff who were already informed about his plans. They would institute a search for the cadre that would manage and staff the hospital…a group of three of the best in the country would serve on this committee. .

I asked him why only three?? His response was never forgotten. “Even an idiot can see how useless committees are. The bigger the committee the less is accomplished. It is difficult enough to get three people to agree on anything. Impossible to get a committee to agree.”

He continued with his thoughts. We will get the best of the best experienced doctors, nurses, aides and managers. We will monitor and canvas the medical schools for their best and brightest. We will offer them incentives to come to us for training from the best with a contract that they shall eventually go into their field of expertise in hospitals that as yet have no one with their skills. The same would apply to others in the medical field; nurses, managers, workers at all levels. We would train people to manage and operate hospitals.

Another innovation in his hospital would be introduced in that symptoms would no longer be treated but the medical problems would be. Ashtonville, as cities go, was nearly free of most diseases. No cancer, no heart conditions, no allergies and no diseases were ever much in evidence. The people ate wholesome foods, worked hard and did not smoke or drink. The self trained doctors had little to do except assist in child birth and some dental work. It is amazing in that when you think about the rest of the developed world and the multitudinous medical problems that grow worse every year that the people in this small town would be in such good health.

This fact would lead to adaptation of a preventive medicine approach that would dominate the thinking and actions of the doctors and nurses who would come to work with him.

After getting the first hospital started we would build others in appropriate areas around the country and eventually branch off into other western countries and around the world where medical care was lacking.

Then or concurrently with the medical program we would do the same in the field of education. Get managers and teachers who already excel at what they do. In his mind, there is no better teacher than hands on experience. Their students would likewise be chosen from the best and brightest around the country. Their parents would be briefed on what would probably be a traumatic situation. Losing their children for a few months each year to a very demanding but rewarding program that should set a future for them that would be one that money couldn’t buy.

Clarence envisioned this as a long term program the fruits of which would not be seen for at least one generation. Those who go through the program would receive an education that would be passed on to each succeeding generation. Eventually the country would be the beneficiary and dependence on the government would decrease exponentially. A wild dream defying one’s logic and testing his imagination was in stage one of fruition.

Both programs would require untold numbers of dedicated and committed people. No doubt there would be problems galore. All medical and educationally subdivisions would be run at each level by three man or woman committees. Each progressive management level would never exceed the three man limit.

Some months later I talked to Tim about the chances of any of this taking place. To my surprise he said, “Fear not my friend, it is already in full swing. It is succeeding far beyond my dad’s wildest dreams!”

“You probably haven’t even heard of our hospital. Its purpose and existence is known only to a few doctors around the country. They have kept their beds filled to capacity with cases that were incurable and that were sent to us as a last resort. Our cure rate while not perfect has been phenomenal.”

“How about your school program?” I asked.

“We started that a year after we kicked off our medical program. It too is doing better than expected but because of the age groups with which we started it will take longer to establish measurable results. We are pleased with what we see and are totally optimistic that we will reach and even surpass our goals.” And best of all, the teachers and mangers love what they are doing and are enthusiastically working at it. “I feel it is great to see people looking forward to going to work each morning when doing something they love. That is not work at all but joy and pleasure. How many of us get that out of our lives?”

My thoughts about the way we had raised so much money had bothered me for sometime. Probably because in my old age my conscience was gaining a foothold on my brain. I had been getting a little paranoid about it all. My paranoia disappeared forever that day. The beauty of the results from both programs was that it was done with little, only necessary, government knowledge and no government help. Thinking about that proved again the wisdom of Clarence and Tim. Their thinking, like mine, was if you want a program to fail get the government at any level to help!!! And then, kiss the chances of success goodbye forever. In fact, you could probably kiss both programs goodbye and look forward to days or years of litigation while inept, uninformed people try to prove fraud, insider trading or any other violation they could gin up. Good old Uncle Sam, once the problem solver now the problem!!!!

But this bubble would soon burst, as all bubbles seem to do, along with our glorious aspirations

The first hint of trouble came as a huge, unexpected surprise. An endangered species advocate was about to put the kiss of death on two desirable and achievable programs. The summons came on a day when enthusiasm was running at a fever pitch. The “do gooder” groups were at it again. Clarence contacted his attorneys with the thought that this was a headache that would soon be eliminated at a minimum of cost and program interruption. It turned out, that nothing could have been farther from the truth.

Clarence’s foundations had purchased several thousand acres of farmland for his hospital and associated programs. Timothy had, in fact, leased back much of the producing farmland to the sellers who had continued to farm the land. The suit was filed to supposedly prevent the foundation from destroying wetlands. Wetland, what wetland? The area in which the hospital and other construction had taken place showed nothing resembling wetland or even the potential for being or becoming wetland.

His band of experienced attorneys immediately contacted “wetland” attorneys from around the country to determine if the suit would have any credibility. All of us were optimistic until the wetland experienced attorney returned with their verdict. Big trouble could be ahead!!! The area in question had indeed been classified as wetland many years past. The litigants had heavy financial backing and were determined to “preserve” the land. The judge in the case was a super far left liberal, in fact, a far left judge with a history of upholding even border line cases such as this. The appeals court in this jurisdiction had a history of supporting the lower courts.

The huge financial investment and the time and effort put into the construction already completed made it mandatory that Timothy pursue the suit to the maximum and to an acceptable conclusion. His enemies were legion. They comprised not only the “do-gooders” but, also, the Federal Government with its legions of attorneys and endless delays together with local and state officials who could research past land records to their hearts content.

The preliminary hearing was truly a disaster. The judge put a cease and desist order on construction and operation of the hospital. Timothy furloughed all construction workers, canceled sub contracts and stopped all negotiations with health specialists around the world. His dream of many years was evaporating in legal maneuvers and lawyer generated gobbledygook. His team of attorneys was awash in tons of evidence that seemed to prove that the wetland theory was fact, certainly not fiction. Everything hinged on what a trial might bring. The decision to continue to fight or concede was put squarely on his shoulders. His advisors were divided as to the course he should pursue or follow.

He put a team of the best attorneys experienced in the environmental side of the law to work. His instructions were to determine what the laws were, were they enforceable and constitutional and where did the foundation stand. He gave them a short term deadline for the chance of legal success to determine how far he would take the problem.

One thing that was to his advantage was the way the program had been funded. Everything was in trust and set up as tax free foundations funded for the most part by other tax free foundations. The attorneys had several solutions to the dilemma all of which would be costly in money and worse in the time and effort expended. It would be difficult to get this project completed and operating without legal compromises. Timothy decided that the money was not as important as was getting on with his many, now delayed, projects world wide. The millions already spent were just a fraction of the multiple financial entities that he and his financial people had established. It was interesting to note that many of these had been set up as tax havens in foreign countries with acceptable laws and few restrictions.

Timothy decided to stop financing the project and to get as much money out of the failed program that he could, legally or illegally. Let the government spend their funds to make their case. He made generous payments to those who had given up money and position to be a part of his dream. Patients were moved at his expense to appropriate hospitals around the country again at his expense. When everything to comply with the cease and desist order and his own desire to set things straight was accomplished he sold off all property and equipment that he could to the highest bidder and turned off the lights. This part of his dream was ended. The foundation had limited funding now earmarked for a small group of attorneys that would attempt a settlement with minimum cost. The well designed and magnificent buildings were to sit for years while the litigation continued.

The school program which was already showing successes that were hard to imagine was stifled by the teacher’s union. They were joined by state and federal intervention. Timothy who was already discouraged moved rapidly and closed everything down. He paid his teachers well and helped in their search for new jobs. His love of country had been tested. The country had failed the test. Timothy moved on to his other dreams knowing that the world had lost more than the wetlands could ever achieve. The last I heard of Tim was that he was in Europe establishing a new and different medical clinic.

Years later the judgment as expected went to the do-gooders and the government. The hospital program was bankrupt and wetlands were deeded to the state. The buildings were in such disarray as to be near worthless and the state was in no financial position to remove them. The wetlands to this day remain dry as a desert bone. It was a huge victory for the environmentalists or so they claimed!!!

A final thought or two!!!

Last year I took a trip to view the remains of this failed but grandiose project which was meant to alleviate the world of so much pain and suffering. As I stood before the hospital buildings, now in complete ruin and worthless, with my oldest son I reviewed the history of the program. We could only guess at what the country and the world may have lost. Below us the wetlands remain as dry as they were when we started the project. Occasional flooding during wet winters soon gave way to the dry conditions that had existed for years and would exist for many more.

The do-gooders have long ago taken their bows and moved on to other “more meaningful” programs in which they could “protect” the world from the rich corporations and spoilers of our lands. They have become the spoilers of dreams. The government in all its wisdom had been an active partner in this effort. Both parties, of course, know not the meaning of shame. Our own government sworn to protect the right of the individual has done the opposite and continues to do so.

As I enter my twilight years I experience deep emotional thoughts about my life and the world in which I have lived. I like to take walks in the early evening and view the beauty that some one has created. The sky in our mountain area is ablaze with zillions of visible stars. I wonder what is beyond the visible? Where did it start and where does it end.

The experts say our universe is expanding. Expanding? To where? Scientists say that all of this was created by a “big bang”. Just what does that mean? If our galaxy and all that we know exists in the visible and beyond and was created by a “big bang” I ask myself where did all the material that we know is present in our universe come from? Was there a being with power beyond our comprehension responsible for this magnificent creation? If a “big bang” created this how was it possible to have near perfect spheres in the earth, moon and the known planets? If, as our scientists claim, matter can be neither created nor destroyed where did all this matter come from The questions continue on and on with not many answers that I can accept coming into the light.

When I live these final and few remaining years I know I will continue to have problems understanding the universe in which we have resided for all of these millions of years. I have so many questions lurking in my inner conscience that I long ago decided that there must be a supreme being. What He is called is irrelevant? God, Lord, Islam, Buda…whatever. We should take the time to just look around us at this astounding place and ask again the serious, oft asked question, “How did it or could it happen?” An acceptable answer to that question will be long in coming.

If we all could know as I do that time can stand still we may want view our lives in a new light, a different light. To the agnostics and unbelievers who claim there is no “God”. I would direct this simple question. What if you are wrong??

Impressum

Tag der Veröffentlichung: 06.02.2011

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