The Mayor of BOOMTOWN
SOYLENT NIGHT
By Greg Budell
"A true story from the Greg files"
I’m so old I remember drive-in movies! For the unacquainted, these were large open paved (mostly) lots where we’d park our leaded gas cars to watch a movie on a huge screen toward which all hood ornaments were aimed. Audio was piped into cars by large, rusty-smelling speakers we hooked onto a slightly rolleddown window. In Chicago, we had the bonus of rusty-smelling heaters, also hung on the car window, whose burning red coils fed heat into the vehicle during winter months. Then, most cars got 8 MPG so they couldn’t run through the length of a movie. While wood-paneled station wagons filled with BOOMer kids were a part of the drive-in population, a sizeable segment were hormonigized teens of driving and sexploration age. I experienced both. Once of driving age, the outdoor theater (for sophisticates) was the destination for dating couples seeking “privacy”. Because nothing says privacy like making out with your date in the middle of several hundred vehicles parked next to each other.
City has become overpopulated with 40 million people and pollution has caused the temperature to be risen and all natural resources have been destroyed, leaving 40 million people starving”.
Most of the movies were “B” caliber (or less). When things got romantic- because nothing says romance like bucket seats and a stick shift- no one felt guilty about missing the movie. That was the point. Missing the movie, for about $2 a car. Even with those space-age heaters, most vehicles bore a thin film of steam on the inside of windows to keep gawkers from enjoying your personal love show. It was at the Sheridan Drive-in in 1973 my future first wife and I went to “see” a film called “Soylent Green”. I remember little from that night other than it seemed like a dark movie projecting a dire future for America in the year- are you ready for this? 2022! At the time, 2022 seemed a million years away but it is here. The official description of Soylent Green says this: "The year is 2022. New York
So, how visionary was Soylent Green? New York City has a population of 8,230,290 give or take. The metro area (including NYC) is 3 times that. The city and suburbs are hemorrhaging population because for many, life in NYC has become unlivable. Not because of pollution but politicians, a different type of pollutant. By the movie’s estimate, the total is well below 40 million. The air in New York and most of America is far cleaner than it was in 1973. In fact, New York water is the best. The politicians have become far dirtier, and, in that regard, NYC has become like the city portrayed in Soylent. Going back to disgraced former Governor Cuomo, pols have used Covid as an excuse to limit freedoms and regulate behavior, much like the movie. Everything in Soylent requires permission or approval. Soylent’s higher-ups live great lives. The people get what the Soylent government grants them. Vaccine passport, anyone?
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58 BOOM!
January 2022
RiverRegionBoom.com
The River Region’s 50+ Lifestage Magazine
