Flintstones, candles, fires, and tea parties

Olivia “Liv” Boykins, Executive Director of the Michigan Coalition for Human Rights and Special Assistant to U.S. Congressman John Conyers, Jr., a leading pioneer of the civil rights movement, has launched a Facebook campaign as part of her drive for election to the Michigan State Senate. I had sought out “Liv” to become a Facebook friend of hers and a note of encouragement for her endeavour is in order.

To this end I choose to tell a story, a marvellous one that I’ve ‘discovered’, about real people, the evolution of their lives and their relations to the socially institutionalized system of authority, written by real persons albeit portrayed in a fictionalized setting and somewhat through children’s angles of observation.

Hopefully the story would help cheer “Liv” on like it would a good Girl Scout.

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Once upon a time there was a young boy who grew up in a village by the name of Flint, known for abundant flintstones in its land. The boy became very good at making a fire with a flintstone, a kill he inherited from his father and polished to much better by playing with it outside on his own.

It was the best of times and the flintstone boy, whom I call F. S. for short, decided to move to Garden City where he felt his skill would be in demand, and also to be away from his parents – chicken farmers who had grown increasingly unhappy with their chicken feed getting mixed with the flints their son had littered around.

In Garden City F. S. soon befriended the candle maker, C. D., who took him in and taught him to sell candles with his flintstones.

But the boy also found out that in Garden City he was not allowed to play with flints outdoors because of the authority’s fear of fire, and he was not allowed to play with flints inside either as C. D.’s candles were all over place and C. D.’s  chandeliers were alight at all times, already.

Seeing F. S.’s frustration, C. D. asked his brother S. D., the salad chef and dressing maker, to take F. S. in so that the boy would have the opportunity to light the chandeliers at S. D.’s place every night, although not the oven or the stove because S. D. fed his family and customers nothing but exotic salad.

Sensing a degree of unfulfilled feeling on the part of the boy,  the mentor brothers decided to help him further by teaching him to sell candles and flintstones to places away from Garden City, near the Atlantic where the brothers had once lived and known some customers, so that the boy could play with flintstones while travelling on the road.

That really helped F. S.

However, after a while F. S.’s well-to-do customers afar somehow got wind of his liking to “play with fire” while carrying a cargo of candles and flintstones, and they decided that from now on they would only buy  a small amount of his goods.

The loss of generous customers could not have come at a worse time for F. S. as C. D.’s candle-making business was falling on hard times: for a while the candles all over his place had been deemed a fire hazard by the authority, and now the business was being closed down.

C. D.’s brother S. D., on the other hand, was doing very well and was moving to a better home among the customers F. S. was losing. However being in a different trade S. D. could not help F. S. much; he did ask some of his well-heeled friends about buying from F. S. and received the feedback that they preferred flintstones imported from Iran by J. N., a brilliant young salesman S. D. had also known before.

Fortunately for F. S. who by now was also a young man, during his sales travels he had met someone from the Orient and sold candles to this man, S. C., a former Chinese chandelier maker who had become a stove maker. Learning of the young man’s setback, S. C. offered to buy F. S.’s remaining cargo of candles and flintstones, and to also take him to the White Rock Shores – the part of the land closest to the Orient across the Pacific ocean – provided F. S. was willing to sell flintstones for Oriental cooking.

F. S. graciously accepted. He liked the new prospect for his flintstone trade, and he also felt ready for his own adventures in the world, looking forward to a hobby of collecting exotic stones on the side, among other things.

F. S. had also heard of the White Rock Shores as being full of free-spirited people who would try all kinds of silly things, and figured that he could play with flintstone outside where he would live, as well as find other uses for his skill and trade.

So our former flintstone boy from the chicken farm now moved to the White Rock Shores, to the town of Stimson Harbour which had a marina in front and the Ridge Hills behind, a town where the folks were silly but hip. There, he began to grow his flintstone business, the Wok Fire, and even hired some helpers who dabbled in Oriental cooking on the side.

F. S.’s  conversion to flintstone sales for Oriental cooking impressed some of his former well-heeled customers at the Atlantic – those with a taste for Oriental food – and he was again given some business opportunity there though very limited – at one town by the name of St. Christopher’s Place.

But at Stimson Harbour – and along the entire White Rock Shores – playing with flints outdoors was also not allowed because of the authority’s fears for fire damages it might cause, be it in towns at water’s edge, in woods on ridges, or in barren hills rich in oil sands. Outdoor use of flints was permitted only for specific purposes.

The part of the Ridge Hills near Stimson Harbour no longer had the woods it once had had, but homes dotting the slopes or perching above the cliffs. Here, outdoor use of flints was permitted in very limited situations – the favourite being for fireworks at a town festival or firecrackers during a family celebration.

With his keen business sense F. S. became a small partner in a firecracker-and-firework business, the Holiday Crackers Store near the marina, bundling flintstones with the firecrackers and fireworks for sale and doing the occasional demonstration for potential customers.

But F. S.’s involvement in the firecracker-firework trade did not last long. He quit as the store was being taken over by a number of younger folks who had more social ties to the local homes, the church, sailors who came to town, nearby villagers and people living on the other side of the Ridge Hills.

Soon that business really boomed – without F. S. who now got involved only occasionally when it was fireworks for town festivities – but troubling things also happened.

One night there was a big explosion at the store but fortunately no one was killed. It’s not clear if playing with flints had anything to do with it.

Some young people began to gather in the dark of the night burning torches at the marina.

Groups of youth also began to play with firecrackers in the town streets during the business day, disrupting traffic and interfering with merchant activity.

The authority believed alcohol had to do with these behaviours and tried at one point to prohibit alcohol for anyone under 30 in Stimson Harbour, but the restriction lasted only a short time – rumours had it that some of the young folks had connections to powerful families in the White Rock Shores and beyond.

Over the years there were a number of major fires at Stimson Harbour, but again it was unclear whether playing with flints had caused them.

One time there was a huge fireball shooting up from a ridge cliff overlooking the town’s fly-kite club. Falling debris damaged some of the homes on the slopes as well as the tower of the church chapel.

A few years apart, there was an out-of-control big fire that burned down a number of homes on the ridge, including the home of M. F., the butcher at the town’s meat-and-fish shop who was a church elder, and the home of D. C., the church deacon who was also chaplain of the fly-kite club.

Through these years F. S.’s flintstone business catering to Oriental cooking continued to thrive (i.e., except his losses in the firecracker-firework business), and his trade led him to travel far and wide in the world, to exotic places like Macao, Egypt, and Peru, among others.

F. S.’s world trips were not always smooth, though. One time when he was still involved with the firework business he went to a Ulaanbaatar trade fair with his flints, feeling excited because he liked the Chinese proverb, “It is better to light one candle than to curse the darkness’”, especially after he learned that even the warrior Genghis Khan had accepted the wisdom; but unexpectedly the Macao authority wanted to detain the ship he was on to search for contraband goods; fortunately the inspectors came too late – after the ship had set sail.

The inspection would have meant trouble for F. S. because he also had some fireworks with him, which were not permitted for export to Mongolia.

Alongside his international flintstone trade, F. S. gathered an impressive collection of exotic stones, but paradoxically these were all of see-through types.

As F. S. grew older and became more established, he began to take in young apprentices whom he not only taught flintstone-fire skill to but also developed relationship with, like his mentor C. D. had done with him many years before in Garden City.

After training two young Pacific Islanders who then moved on, F. S. took in E. C., his first apprentice from the Orient continent.

Reminiscent of F. S.’s mentor C. D., E. C.’s father was a candle maker, and reminiscent of the Oriental man S. C. who had brought the young F. S. to Stimson Harbour, E. C.’s father had some earlier family background in Chinese chandelier making.

With F. S.’s flintstone business catered to Oriental cooking, E. C.’s earlier family background on his mother’s side did not look too bad to F. S., either: it had been in Oriental cooking with infusion of influences from the Pacific Islands, and in the tea trade.

F. S. treated E. C. kindly, letting him know that he was treated like a son. E. C. felt it also, especially the time when F. S. was about to set sail for Papua New Guinea and held a farewell gathering of family and close friends and E. C. was invited. At the dock E. C. met F. S.’s friend D. G., the dinner glassware maker, and on the ship E. C. met F. S.’s parents – the father apparently had had his own Oriental adventure before settling as a chicken farmer, including practices at the Everglades prior to sailing to Saigon and Kuala Lumpur.

E. C. felt tremendously about his work for and his learning from F. S. Nonetheless, E. C. was not as much into perfecting the flintstone-fire skill as into applying it to other trades of his fascination – chief among them making tea for tea parties.

The older man S. C. who had brought F. S. to Stimson Harbour would like E. C. to provide flintstones for some of his Oriental stoves made in Ulanqab, near Hohhot. E. C. gratefully accepted, knowing how premier a patriarch S. C. was at Stimson Harbour. But that business eventually did not fan out much as E. C. shifted most of his attention to tea parties.

By the time E. C. was determined to pursue tea-party opportunities – away from Stimson Harbour as there were already plenty of Oriental cooking and tea service there – his mentor F. S. was also leaving Stimson Harbour to spend fulltime traveling with his business.

E. C. was now on his own. But there were some difficulties.

The tea-party business was somewhat of a monopoly, dominated by the service of English-Breakfast tea for those with a strong Occidental identity, and otherwise Irish-Breakfast tea or Oriental Assam tea. Heritage as well as concrete experience were required and closely scrutinized for those getting into the business.

E. C. had some earlier family background in Oriental Kung-Fu tea, the favourite tea of his grandfather on his mother’s side, although as a child at home in the Orient the fire was set by his elder cousin, B. Q., on the side while B. Q. was barbequing with friends.

Then after learning the flintstone-fire skill at Stimson Harbour, E. C. practised with making Earl Grey tea.

For unexplained reasons neither type of tea was deemed acceptable in the tea-party circles.

Though F. S. was traveling around the world, his wife C. D. (no relation to F. S.’s mentor the candle maker C. D.) sometimes stayed behind and was available for consultation. A nice and friendly lady originally from Greenland, C. D. gave E. C. the following important advice: with his disadvantages in family background and prior experience, the only way to break into the tea-party business would be through the introduction and help of some Girl Scouts.

C. D. offered the insight that the Girl Scouts were influential in the tea-party circles not only because of their own rich tea-party traditions but because of the cultural ambiance and ritual assistance they provided to the seniors’ tea parties.

C. D. also gave E. C. some starting tips regarding approaching the Girl Scouts from outside that organization: the typical Girl Scout one encountered on the street was either selling lemonade or selling cookies; lemonade being a cool beverage was unrelated to and competing with tea, whereas cookies were among the stable of refreshments for tea parties; moreover, affinity on the part of a Girl Scout with cookie baking, for instance if she was selling home-baked cookies, would be a significant plus.

With the advice and tips from C. D., E. C. went about trying to get to know some Girl Scouts who might be able and willing to help him.

E. C. certainly liked what the Girl Scouts were doing on the streets, but little did he realize that while the lady C. D.’s advice and tips were good and insightful, they were missing some crucial, hidden details when it came to about the Girl Scouts, and that some of the Girl Scouts could actually make things worse for him.

E. C. made three genuine attempts. Unfortunately in two of these times the Girl Scout he communicated with did something unexpectedly negative toward him, while the third time he did not have any tea-party luck, either.

K. C., the first Girl Scout E. C. sought help from, was selling home-made cookies alright when E. C. met her, and she did display some empathy toward E. C. But it turned out that K. C. and her friends, some of whom Boy Scouts, were using certain mystical “Hell’s fire”, i.e., fire from deep within the Earth, to bake cookies for exclusive tea parties. So K. C. turned around and told her tea-party circles as well as the authority that E. C.’s flints posed a fire risk to some oil ingredients in the Earl Grey tea.

A. L., the second Girl Scout E. C. tried to enlist help from, E. C. met while she was selling lemonade. Sensing the hesitation on E. C.’s part to be forward with her about his situation, A. L. actively assured E. C. that she was a provider of special water for tea making at outdoor tea parties and would be willing to help him. But E. C. didn’t realize that the special water A. L. served was the rare “Geyser water”, i.e., hot water springing up from underground having been boiled by fire deep within the Earth. A. L. turned around and told her tea-party circles as well as the authority that E. C.’s flints could set fire to the adjacent woods where the lawn tea parties were held.

K. P., the third Girl Scout E. C. spoke to, was selling home-baked cookies and she showed some initial friendliness toward E. C., even telling him that her mother was in the tea-party business serving English-Breakfast tea. However, it turned out that K. P. was selling cookies baked by a Boy Scout, K. S., and she followed K. S.’ instructions. K. S.’s home-based cookie making was a 24-hour nonstop oven-baking business, where the oven fire was out only during Sunday and was re-ignited before dawn on Monday with torch fire brought by B. M., a Boy Scout friend of the first Girl Scout K. C. from whom E. C. had sought help but gotten unexpected trouble.

E. C. also twice saw T. K., a popular Girl Scout, sell iced tea around the corner from where he lived; while they said hello to each other E. C. felt that T. K. was already making a lot of tea available to passersby so his skill was likely not needed. He later found out that extra tea not served at the tea parties, including at K. P.’s mother’s, was gathered for the Boy Scout B. M.’s nephew – also a Boy Scout and also B. M. – who supplied it to T. K.

E. C. also learned that some of the Boy Scouts parties involved alcohol that could get spilled over during brawls and indeed pose fire risks; but of course E. C. had no interest in the business of such parties.

As of this story’s end, E. C. had not given up his ambition to try to get a break into the tea-party business, or his approach following the advice of C. D., the lady originally from Greenland, to do it through the help of Girl Scouts. But E. C. was also getting smarter through the lessons learned in his experiences with some of the Girl Scouts.

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The city of Flint, Michigan, has a long and proud history of community spirits. It was at Flint the General Motors Company was born, a company whose growth and success have been synonymous with those of the American auto industry. Flint was also the site of the Flint Sit-Down Strike of 1936-37, a plant-occupation protest by the United Auto Workers Union that contributed to significant changes in the landscape of labour working conditions and labour compensations in the United States. Flint is also the birth place of some interesting personalities, including film-maker Michael Moore who made political films such as “Fahrenheit 9/11”, and the “flintstone boy” in the above story.

The state of Michigan is known for accessible and quality education for its residents. The names of cities like Ann Arbor, Auburn Hills, and Dearborn have been associated with excellence in higher education in addition to with the auto industry.

Olivia “Liv” Boykins of Grosse Pointe Park is running for a seat in the Michigan State Senate.  She hails from her positions as Special Assistant for U. S. Congressman John Conyers, Jr., and Executive Director of Michigan Coalition for Human Rights.

This article written at this time is partly intended to wish “Liv” success in her endeavour.

Rep. John Conyers led the long national campaign in America to recognize the birthday of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. as an official holiday. When that became reality in the 1980s I was a graduate student at the University of California, Berkeley, and in that time the cities of Berkeley and Oakland also renamed Grove Street, an important thoroughfare and conduit to the Freeway, in honour of Dr. King as the Martin Luther King Jr. Way.

The Michigan Coalition for Human Rights was also founded in the 1980s, as an alternative and counterbalance to the Moral Majority movement of Rev. Jerry Falwell and Rev. Pat Robertson, and subsequently became one of the leading grassroots anti-apartheid organizations in America.

In 1988-89, University of Michigan student Adam Kulakow made and showed a film, “Keeping in Mind: The McCarthy Era at the University of Michigan”, that brought back memories of unfair treatments received by 1950s’ faculty members H. Chandler Davis, Clement L. Markert and Mark Nickerson due to Congressional Un-American Activities investigations. In 1990 the university issued an official apology to these former faculty members, and in their honour established the annual University of Michigan Senate’s Davis, Markert, Nickerson Lecture on Academic and Intellectual Freedom.

In the New Millennium, the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the United States and the Iraq War once more brought up the issues of war versus peace, front and center in Americans’ minds after they had gradually faded after the Vietnam War. In his pro-peace efforts Rep. Conyers worked closely with anti-war activists such as Michael Moore, even though sometimes impatience and frustrations clearly showed on the part of some anti-war activists such as Cindy Sheehan, who had lost her soldier son Casey in Iraq.

Let us hope that the proud traditions will continue, and that greater successes will be achieved by a new generation of aspirants in American politics, Olivia “Liv” Boykins among them.