An easy day of school. It was only 30 below that day.
As I mentioned earlier this week, I grew up in South Dakota. A little known fact about South Dakota. The streets went uphill both way. The street always had 4 feet of snow on them every day of the year. There were no cars or calculators, or technology. Heck, there wasn’t even Google.
My eyes were opened for the first time when I finally left South Dakota. There were streets that actually went downhill. I finally saw what was on the bottom of streets(it’s called concrete or gravel). I saw people actually inside of these motorized horseless carriages that dripped oil and made loud noises. I saw that one plus one didn’t need to be counted out on your fingers or the abacus. When I wanted to find out information, I didn’t have to go ask Uncle Ned, but I could ask this Google guy and he didn’t have to start his story by saying, “It all started when I was wrestling this ox….” It was like there were shortcuts to doing things.
We got these fancy new machines when I started.
I found out there were two way to do things.
The Easy Way – Phones that can do everything for you, like allowing you to move from the kitchen to the living room without getting chocked by the cord. TV’s that allow you to change the channel without getting up and moving the dial. Watching movies without having to rewind them before you return them to Blockbuster. The research paper that doesn’t need to be researched by talking to the original source, and that doesn’t need to be scratched onto a scroll by a charcoal pencil made by finding your own piece of charcoal.
The Hard Way – Having to use you Iphone 6, because your Iphone 6C needed to charge, and only getting three bars of Whine-Fi or 4GLTE when you are over the Atlantic. When you have to build a fire in your fireplace with a lighter and $100 bills when your power goes out for 20 minutes before you go to bed. Having to rough it on your vacation by flying in first class because your private jet needed to be refueled and staying at the Four Seasons in only a two room suite, because the Presidential Suite was taken by Oprah at the last minute. Having to eat ungrass raised beef at the restaurant, and trying to decipher the time on your backup Rolex.
The presidential suite wasn’t even available. Ugggh.
So which way do you do things? Easy Way or the Hard Way? How do you survive either one?
ARRRRGGGGHHHHH
Bitter Way Ben
Ben's Bitter Blog 
Although I`ve never met anyone from either of the Dakotas, I like to laugh at the accent. Nothing bitter about that.
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I never had the accent you laugh at, but I sure knew people that did. And they were awesome to laugh at.
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I feel like I do things the easy way but it can still be quite hard at times. I also liked reading about South Dakota because it’s not a state you hear about that much.
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Well, let’s just say you aren’t missing much. It is so bland and cold, especially during the winter. Though we didn’t have many gangs there because it was so cold and they don’t like running streets that they can’t walk safely on.
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am syrupp-apprised that KNOW WON, yea, no-1 has advocated what the
BOOD-Haw! might advise –>
the mi-DULL WEIGH?
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I always take the bitter way, so there is that too.
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welllll …. izzit sum-times “easy” and/or sum-times dat other thing?
on the other hand (be-sigheds the diffyrunt fingers) i guess being bitter mite be harder for some people, and
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Being bitter is easy for me and that is all I care about.
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South Dakota people went to South Dakota to get away from the real snow in Illinois.
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South Dakota laughs at Illinois snow because it is so short and last so short of a time.
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Our kids are so tall because they have to pull Easter eggs off of tree branches because the snow is so high.
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I was always avoiding clouds when I was growing up, because the snow was so deep on July 4th.
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ok you win. for now. hahaha
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Actually, I think we all lost and South Dakota won, but lost.
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I know I did it in sub zero weather
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I think my heart is still frozen from all those years of sub zero weather.
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well, we in the non-SI (metrick) whirled have a much, (much) rougher sub-zero !
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Either way, the cold is bitter and the worst. So your uphill is lots of meters huh?
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Bitter Ben Way… I’m thinking a copyright is in order!
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The patent is pending. The copywrite office has been slow, since I put my patent in 42 years ago.
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I’m still older than you!
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And way wiser. So much wiser.
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Omg, I threw the biggest fit last time Oprah stole my room last minute. #soembarrassed
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You are kind of the worst when Oprah steals your room. I know how you get when that happens. Perhaps we need to have room service send up some complimentary grass fed steak and some caviar.
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It’s just happened one too many times for me to sit idly by anymore. Room service will likely help placate me.
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I’m sure it will placate you for now, but I’ve heard some of your epic rants on voicemails that we keep down here at the concierge desk.
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Well epic rants are the only effective measure I’ve found against the tyranny that is Oprah.
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Yeah, you kind of have to make the news in order to fight against that self absorbed Weight Watchers pitch woman.
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Have you ever been to Wall Drug?
On Sun, Feb 21, 2016 at 12:56 PM, Bens Bitter Blog wrote:
> bensbitterblog posted: ” As I mentioned earlier this week, I grew up in > South Dakota. A little known fact about South Dakota. The streets went > uphill both way. The street always had 4 feet of snow on them every day of > the year. There were no cars or calculators, or technology” >
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I have been Wall Drug, pretty much every year we went on vacation. The free ice water was really…free.
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Years ago, I went through South Dakota with a friend. The road was long and the scenery the same. There wasn’t much to look at, until we noticed these signs at the side of the road, so many different signs referring to this place called WALL DRUG. By the time we got to the exit we said, “WE GOT TO SEE THIS PLACE.” What we found most interesting about this place was the brochure which indicated that Wall Drug had signs (saying Wall Drug) all over the world! Several months later, we were in New Hampshire, climbing Mt. Washington. Near the summit, I jokingly said, “Wouldn’t it be strange if there was a Wall Drug sign up there?” I didn’t mean it, didn’t expect it — BUT IT WAS THERE — on the old lookout tower. It was rusted and probably no one would see the sign, know what it meant (There was a new tourist building near by.), but we knew. We took our picture next to that sign! I never forgot it. Every time I see a car bumpersticker with the words WALL DRUG on it, I have to smile! 🙂
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Yep, we discovered that same thing going along 1-90 when we first moved there. It was kind of sad, but I’ve only been to Mt. Rushmore once, but Wall Drug every time we went west. And yeah, I’ve heard they have a Wall Drug sign on the top of Mt. Everest.
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Well, Mt. Everest I did not climb! 🙂 I like their ingenuity in advertising themselves 🙂
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That is one mountain I will never climb. Actually, I won’t ever climb any mountains.
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Yeah, those days are behind me. 🙂
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it’s like homer simpson asking “and WHEN is this Free Weekend?” and “how much does this free weekend cost?”
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I would like a free weekend because mine are always really expensive.
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If you learned to do something that hard way and have always done it that way, then the easy way can be hard. (I survived South Dakota as well.)
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And you somehow got out? My dad just read the post and he lectured me on the fact that sometimes in the summer the roads weren’t covered with snow. I don’t remember it that way.
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I was rescued. Lived in the Rapid City area. Mostly constant winter ice on the roads. Hot, humid, short summers, then right back to ice.
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I was on the opposite. Sioux Falls. At least you had some touristy things around. We had the Empire Mall and that was it. Yeah, I went back for winter break when I was in college and decided that I would work outside in -30. Never again.
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Sometimes I miss the days before “the easy way.” And the hard way will be forever out of reach for an underpaid (read: free) blogger like myself. Should my first novel hit the New York Times bestseller list and life bestow upon me two Rolexes or a private jet, please beat me to death before I have a chance to complain about it. Bitter Best to you, JJ42
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I’m going to complain about all those things when I become a best seller, because if I don’t how can I still maintain my blog about bitterness?
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I think there are people who actually think what you described as the hard way as being hard. I guess it is to them, but still.
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I think there is a whole instagram account dedicated to the rich people problems. They live life the hard way.
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Hmm tough decisions to make there! Lemme go ask Uncle Ned which is best!
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Uncle Ned is okay sometimes, but having to sit through is ox stories is so much the worst.
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Thought: The “Easy Way” is an illusion. Sure, it’s “easier” to use a remote control to turn TV channels. But then, you have to search for it when it’s missing, replace the batteries, and figure out what the colored buttons and weird buttons, like SAP mean. So much easier to just get up and turn a manual knob. The Easy Way is often just a harder way in disguise. Also, IMO, the rewards of getting something for very little effort are far less satisfying.
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It would be nice every once in a while to have a phone that didn’t have to rotary dial and ask a phone board operator to transfer my call. I do have a great idea though. A keyboard on a phone where you can type messages to your friends and they could read them. I will call it “texting”.
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I don’t think it would fly. Think of all the time and effort and spelling errors! Seems like it would be so much easier to just talk to people. Of course, neither one of those works well when one does not have friends.
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Well, here’s the other deal. I think if we just shorten words to stuff like LOL, and BRB, people will like using it. Girls will get mad at boys for not texting, boys get annoyed by girls texting too much and it will become a national phenomenon.
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I still find myself doing things the hard way…calculating #’s in my head, digging for a pen & paper to write someone’s name & # down when I have a cell phone in my hand with all I need on it. Instead of acting 44 I act like I’m 90… 😕
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So you like to do things the hard way? Yes, I always just did trial an error when it came to math. And do everything last second.
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Definitely the hard way. What better way to be bitter?
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I have always done things the South Dakota way, uh I mean the Hard Way.
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You should come to L.A. where we don’t do anything the hard way…except being bitter.
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I did things the hard way when I was there as a kid. Fell off my big wheel, walked to the park in my superman jammies…
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All fodder for your current bitterness.
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All the origin story for the Bitter Wonder.
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Oddly, the way that you describe it, I find myself wishing that I could do things the hard way… ;P Guess I’ll just have to keep on slogging through life the easy way until then!
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I know right? Slogging through life the easy way is hard, so I need to do it the hard way so it is easier.
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