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One At A Time

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One of my childhood flights of fancy when mom took us to the drive-up teller window was that I could climb into the tiny shuttle and ride it through the pneumatic tube from our car into the bank. Tight fit. Fun trip. It was the sort of ridiculous thing a kid imagines that would not be fun at all in reality, but that’s what crossed my mind watching Chilean miners climb into a narrow capsule to be pulled 2,000 feet through an angled tube to the surface.

The rescue will go on, without complications or setbacks we hope, for the next day or so. It makes surprisingly good television, bringing together all the key elements – danger, tension, suspense, success, joy, tearful hugging, repeat. With lots of time along the way for a message from our sponsors. There are cameras at either end of the journey and a single prominent wheel atop the hoisting structure that we can watch as it reels in the cable that’s attached to the rescue capsule. Keep an eye on that gizmo, an airy multi-spoked contraption reminiscent of Gandhi’s symbolic spinning wheel. It will wind up in a museum someday.

When we talked about this unfolding dilemma back in August, our shared wish was that the ending would be happy enough to trigger a cheesy disaster movie, ala “The Poseidon Adventure”, or perhaps some new kind of surrealist stage play. “Waiting for Gondola”, anyone? I suspect there will be a slew of paintings, sculptures and YouTube mash-ups, not to mention the books, possibly one from each of the 33 miners. If this were happening in the USA, the rescued men would need a publicity agency to manage their opportunities and to keep them out of trouble with an aggressive press that is voracious for details, positive or otherwise.

You’ve been underground with 32 co-workers for well over two months. Now that you’re on the surface and are a national hero with a world press that has seemingly unlimited interest in your personal life, where do you draw the boundaries?

71 thoughts on “One At A Time”

  1. Rise and Shine Babooners:

    Unlimited media interest in my personal life would be my worst nightmare. Not that it is that interesting because it isn’t. Recently texting entered my repertoire which I use to connect with the younger set and to remind staff of meetings. But catching a picture of myself on a news site or in the newspaper in my gardening overalls planting or digging bulbs or pulling up my tomatoes is so unappealing. And that would be what they would get. But despite my un-interesting life I like my private life to be, well, private. I have always thought being a celebrity would be very, very difficult and painful. There are so many expectations, even for the Freak Show Celebrities like Sarah Palin.

    When I worked in CD treatment for teenagers in one of Minnesota’s high profile CD rehab centers, “High Profile Celebrities” were always an issue. The kids often had a difficult task, establishing a life apart from a powerful parent. My heart went out to those kids as they tried to grasp sobriety in the public eye. I once wrote a memoir and let some people read it. It felt really creepy to me. Way too public. How Frank McCourt or Jeanette Walls opened their lives so completely in memoirs is a mystery to me.

    So to answer the question, I would zip up the boundaries tightly after coming out of the mine.

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  2. i would celebrate my hed off and be so thankful of coming out of that hole with my life that anyone who wanted a piece of me would be welcome. buy me a beer, sing me a song, interview my dog its all ok with me. i would be hugging anyone and everyone who came a long for the next two years. wanna make a movie… i’ll help. wanna wrie a book, you can quote me. wannna market my hero story, lets do it. turn me into mohammed ali, paul mccartney barack obama ( the most recognizable people in the world) and let me try to learn to deal with it. oct 12 and 13 would be days to celebrate and make an annual televised reunion for the next 10 years. get the families of the 33 miners and all the people who helped to sit down and thank the world for the positive vibes and massive efforts that got us to this point. maybe start marketing 33 guys sardines or those flashlights that ft on the brim of you baseball cap. have some fun.
    did anyone have any good jokes while you were down there? publish the joke book. did anyone write memoirs while they were hanging out or would that have been difficult with 32 guys looking over your shoulder say ” hey man, it’snot like that, it’s like this…” i will bet there are some great stories going to come out of that mine. looking forward to it.

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    1. I believe when kids are spotted in the car, the bank receipt comes back with lollipops or Tootsie Rolls attached. I simply wanted to get to the source.

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      2. Gotta admit, I was kinda with you on this one Dale. I remember being fascinated (and still sort of am) by the pneumatics and how that little capsule zooms from the box by the car through a tube into the bank. Plus there were Tootsie Pops at one at at our bank.

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      4. Yes, Renee. Very funny thought. Think of the joy a bank teller would have at receiving a pet hamster in the shuttle. Yipee!

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    2. i suppose i am not the only ancient one who remembers those pneumatic tubes in department stores (the one i remember was in Mankato – ?Herbergers?) and when one gave the clerk some money (never credit cards, back then) it would be whisked away to somewhere upstairs that i always wanted to see and in awhile would arrive back with the change. magic.

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      2. Yep, Barb, our magic one was at Penney’s in Marshalltown, IA. And Renee, would love to put some rodent in one for a ride.

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      4. The hospital I worked in had a tube system to send things pnematically rushing around to different departments. Sometimes they would get lost and there was the dread announcement “Please close all tube doors.” when the system was decompressed.

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      5. I sure remember those. I used to think they were so cool. I later figured out that part of the reason for that system was to keep the clerks from making a sale that they didn’t record and hand over to the store.

        The same stores tended to have mysterious signals from time to time, a sort of chiming noise: Bong! Bong! Bong! I always wondered what the code was. Alert! Strange looking kid with dirty t-shirt in the brassiere department again!

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  4. I remember reading that the miners asked that a lawyer come to the site and draw up a document for all to sign. It was to stipulate that all monies earned (including dog interviews) would be shared equally among the group. The miners plan to retire and live on the monies.

    I don’t think anyone would pay for access to my boundaries.

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  5. Heighy Ho Babooners! It is another amazingly pleasant day. I hope to be out with my camera sometime to photograph an old friend.

    Two things have struck me about this mining disaster.

    Do you remember when we were told it would take “until Christmas” to drill a hole to the trapped miners that would be big enough to accept an escape capsule. I think what happened is that an American team with advanced technology went to the site and drilled that hole in an astonishingly short time. Now the miners are out in time to go Trick or Treating, and that is sure an improvement over the original story. And what I especially like is that this American crew did this outstanding work without any disgusting nationalistic posturing. These days there are so many people taking such immature and warped reactions to current events that it wouldn’t have surprised me to see the USA drill team doing a victory dance and posturing for the world’s cameras. Instead they drilled their hole, behaved modestly and didn’t do a lot of victory laps for the world press.

    Second, while all the preparation for these guys to come out of their gopher hole sometimes seems a bit extreme to me, they have made one arrangement I admire enormously. The miners and their families have all entered into a pact that stipulates that no single miner or sub-group is allowed to profit from their fame to the detriment of the others. They have formed a sort of corporation that expects to make piles of money. And then that money gets spread around thirty-three ways. In spite of Republican and libertarian BS, rampant individualism is not the best answer to every problem. By forming a collective these guys have pretty much guaranteed that all of them will be wealthy enough that they will never need to go down a damned black hole again. Well done, lads! Well done!

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  6. Good morning to all,

    I would think getting all the media attention that the miners and their families are getting would not be much fun. I guess there are two sides to this with some of the miners and their families are probably looking to gain attention that would benefit them. I can’t blame them if they try to use this situation to gain some support for their families and to escape from the hard life of a miner.

    What would I do in a situation like the miners are facing? Probably say some foolish things that I would regret and then try to hid from the press. An other possibility is that the press would convert what ever I say into some thing foolish. This kind of thing can go bad in so many ways. Probably it would be best if I kept my mouth shut.

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  7. Dale, I would love to hear a lot more about the Writer’s Conference, the emcee job, etc. I suspect we are all waiting to hear about it from you. I hope you will tell us what it was like to introduce these high profile artisits, especially Robert Bly. While I know he is just another guy, he also ROBERT BLY.

    Could I get you to introduce me someday?

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    2. Jacque,
      The beautiful thing about introducing Robert Bly was this – I had no idea where he was. He wasn’t backstage with us, and somebody mentioned that he might be out in the audience. It hardly mattered. I just introduced him … I kept it short because you truly do not need to say a lot … and I got off stage, then waited to see if there would be a stirring in the crowd. Indeed there was. He came out of the audience and started arranging microphones. David Whetstone, Robert’s sitar player, entered from the wings and off they went. Where I had a more formal and structured notion of how the the night would unfold, Mr. Bly just did his thing very nonchalantly and had the audience on his side within minutes. Very impressive! His casual attitude rubbed off and we were all a lot more relaxed after that!

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  8. I’m so used to not talking about my life due to the confidentiality of my clients that I wouldn’t know what to say. My daughter gets upset about my participation in this blog and lectures me about the dangers of sharing information with TOTAL STRANGERS, a lecture I find quite amusing and somewhat of a role reversal. She is in the stage of life , however, in which she is embarrassed when any attention is drawn to her, and has the somewhat magical belief that if attention is drawn to me or her father, all eyes automatically shift to her. She has me doubting at times though-Baboons, you’re all who you say who you are and not 72 year old reclusive males with odd fetishes, right?

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      2. I’m not 72, but getting close to that. I think I am older than Clyde and I also think I could find Dickerson, but I don’t mind it if any one thinks I am an odd old guy. There are people in my family who think I am telling people too much about myself in my comments on this blog. I am careful about what I say about my family.

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    3. Embarrassing our children is in the Parent Handbook; it’s a required duty.
      (Done in good taste and from an early enough stage my kids just expect it.) Doesn’t mean they’re happy about it but they know when it’s coming. One of our favorite family memories is buying underwear for our 15 yr old. Imagine this loud conversation in Target: ‘HONEY? DID YOU SAY BOXERS OR BRIEFS?’ DID YOU WANT THE SUPER HERO ONES LIKE YOU HAVE OR THE COLORED ONES?’
      We all got the giggles… or maybe my son was crying; I don’t’ remember…

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      3. When I was at the peak of my period of being embarrassed by my parents, my mother came up short of money to pay for groceries at the supermarket. I about died of embarrassment. Then she grabbed me and plopped me up on the rubber conveyor belt so she could fish the nickels out of my penny loafers. That was about the worst moment of my teen years, that and having her spit on a handkerchief to wash my face in public. Yeccch!

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    4. 50 60 70 we are all odd in our own little way. as i go through lifew i notice everyone is odd except for you and me and i really wonder about you sometimes. odd fettishes are only odd in the mind of the observer. switch chairs and what about your your rituals?
      every new relationship is an introduction to a new dysfunctional family. enjoy

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  9. Morning!

    We watched it online on the BBC last night as well. Yes, the behavior of all the minors and the team up top has been very admirable. And I can’t help but think if this was in the US they would have taken the video stream from below and somehow turned it into a reality show last month… am I really that pessimistic?

    I heard something about a nine member international team of technology experts or something to that effect orchestrating the rescue…And I LOVE the name ‘Fenix II’! Brilliant!

    I think my boundaries would be pretty small; yep, I’m out, celebrate, take a picture now leave me alone… I’d want to come out in the middle; the hoopla is over except for the group photo and dinner at the presidential palace…

    Getting corn combined at home today; 15% moisture (unheard of for October 13!), good test weight, good yields and even the price is good! The trifecta! (Quadfecta??) Beautiful!!
    Last year it was mid November before soybeans went out and December before the corn went and both were wet and lousy…
    It’s that ‘Wait till next year’ thing…

    Later!

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      3. A nice, shiny cordless driver drill (a hammer drill would be swell), with a matching cordless circular saw. Maybe throw in a good bit set – and be sure to get a magnetic driver bit, too. If you really want to splurge, you could go for the reciprocating saw and/or a scroll saw, too. I’m fond of Makita as they are engineered slightly smaller through the grip, which is handy for us folks with smaller hands. 🙂

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      4. a 10 day trip to honduras or costa rica. february is my suggestion or when your daughter is on spring break. my wife is a believer is never taking the kids out of school, we used to do disney world the week after christmas when new york had gone back up north and we had the park to ourselves with a couple of europeans. it was so dead that disney had to do something, the came up with the disney marathon so now that week is as tough as christmas. i always found the week out of school was more than offset by the stuff we learned on vacation and the special family bonds we formed on those trips. still do whenever we can but its getting harder. take advantage while you can . it’s too late before you know it.

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  10. Sure, you can talk to me after I’ve been on the surface for a few days, but then after you have your information, I expect to sink back to relative anonymity. Don’t hound me. Don’t take my picture when I’m out for dinner with the family. Don’t ask questions when I’m on my way to the library or while I’m buying vegetables for dinner. Let me live my quiet life, thank you. I may gather with the others in the group on anniversary dates, we may work together on a book that tells our story. I may even allow you to interview my dog if you schedule well in advance, but I recommend bringing peanut butter treats or he may not “speak.” But if you come at me with a camera or a microphone, especially without an invitation or a scheduled appointment, after a month is up, here’s the door and don’t let it whack you in the butt on the way out (or maybe do).

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    1. It would be easy to keep the press under control. Just start every comment with the phrase, “Boy, am I horny!” They won’t print that. And to keep them from doing any editing tricks, add some appropriate hand gestures for the benefit of the camera.

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  12. So tim’s the only one of us so far that would love the limelight? I think I would be enamoured of all the attention for a while, and would tell too much about myself and make too many committments, and then regret that later when I realize all I want is my privacy back.

    I am finding myself curious about how they’re all doing, and about how the wives and girlfriends thing is working out. (Not necessarily proud of that.)

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  14. I’m not as old as dirt but I’m still pretty odd. No scary fetishes that I know of – just kind of an aging female hermit. I’m not an extrovert like tim: I’d have some pretty firm boundaries. I’d feel obligated to let myself be photographed and congratulated and would probably even enjoy for a little while, but then I’d really want to go get my life back.

    I think a group like those miners would want to have annual reunions. I think they probably feel like a family after being down there, a half a mile under the earth, for over two months.

    I really admire what they’ve done. They’ve been so cooperative with one another. They genuinely appear to be treating each other with respect and they are looking out for each others’ well-being. I hope I’m not too cynical, but it seems rare.

    Another thought I had today was that there can be no one in the world today, of any nation or race, religion or creed, who is not wishing every single one of them the very best. Maybe way down deep, people really care about each other after all.

    Alanna, thanks for your response yesterday. I love going to the UP but the drive is long. I’d like to return to Munising and to the Keeweenau peninsula to Estevant Pines someday. I’m sorry you hit a deer and I hope you and your car are doing okay! 🙂

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  15. Greetings! I would probably be like Tim and enjoy the adulation for a while, bask in the glow of the klieg lights, garner as many book/movie/interview deals as I could with hefty advances. Because, face it — the attention span of the media and consumers is absurdly short. By Christmas, there will be some other disaster, scandal, genocide, terrorist strike, etc., that will have gotten our attention. Although this is a particularly wonderful and heart-warming happy ending with annual reunions worthy of a page in the news, and deserves special attention for what it represents of humanity.

    Good news for me — will be starting a temporary full-time job Nov. 1 as administrative assistant! Wahoo! It’s a long term position (8 months) with a possibility for permanent status at the Xcel plant in Monticello. Things are definitely looking up. Much as I love working in Natural Foods, I’ve been quite bored for a long time. But I much prefer having evenings and weekends open for fun stuff — like karate and Baboon Congresses!

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    8. Thank you all for your kind wishes — I treasure this group. I have worked as a secretary/admin assistant/receptionist for many years — just not for the past 6-8 years so it’s been hard finding a job again. I’m excited, but more than a little nervous about doing as good a job as I used to do. Plus, there’s a major amount of background checks, security clearances, training, etc. It is a nuclear power plant after all.

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      1. wooo hooo joanne!!!
        coming back late is worthwhile. all 33 miners are out and joanne is done hang with tofu. life is good. you will be great and 8 months takes you ll the way to july. enjoy 2011 at the ex. gogo jojo.. i like it

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  16. Congratulations Joanne! Will you be wearing a crisp suit? I remember a post you made one time on Trial Balloon about dressing up when you worked in a corporate office.

    I always wanted to ride in a dumbwaiter after I read Harriet the Spy.

    Today in first grade:
    Erica – “Teacher, my grandpa is 104.”
    Me – “That’s remar…”
    Erica (quickly adding) “He’s dead.”

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    1. donna how old wer you when you read harriet the spy?
      what a great way to get us back on topic to close out the day. donna thanks

      gotta love first graders. what a classic . thanks for the smile.

      joanne, pantsuits like hillary?

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    2. No crisp or corporate suits for me — at least I don’t think so. Not too many offices have that sort of dress code anymore … just business casual seems to be the norm. Although I do like Hillary’s pantsuits, but I can’t wear pumps or dressy shoes with my bad knees and ankles.

      I might need an actual new wardrobe. I’ve only bought white collar shirts and black pants for my retail job to fit their dress code. Time to break out some colors and patterns! Much as I loved my Bandolino Italian pumps with my old corporate suits, I’m going to need dressy Birkenstocks or something like that. Time for bed — starting in Nov., I have to be at work at 7am – yikes!

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