Uprooting Nickeltails
21 May 2009 00:31![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
skonen_blades“Relax. You’re just pulling up fish.”
A saying that no longer exists. It originated in a town that was built on the edge of a lake that was scheduled to be drained. The land-locked semi-amphibious indigenous fish that lived in that lake were unique. Since they only ever existed in that lake, they are extinct now. This was way before Greenpeace or the World Wildlife Fund.
When the dam was built, that lake went dry. The inhabitants of the town were transported to the closest city which, at that time, was two hundred miles away. A few of the townspeople stayed behind, refusing to move. The builders of the dam let those people stay. There were only sixteen of them and they were old, senile and frail. It cost the company nothing to wait and from the looks of it, the company wouldn’t have to wait long.
In under two weeks, the lake went completely dry. The fish in the lake had developed a knack for burrowing under the seabed during winter and other harsh conditions. Their tails stuck out, glinting in the sun like broken-mirror pieces, like brand-new nickels. That's where they got the name ‘nickeltails’.
The few old people that stayed behind in that deserted town learned that they could walk out onto the cracked clay of the lakebed and look for those shiny fish tails. A full-grown nickeltail could feed a body for a day.
The company expected to wait two weeks. The old, frail people lived off the hibernating nickeltails for six months.
Soon, there were no more fish. Then winter came. Soon after that, there were no more people.
The only evidence of that town is now an old rusting lamppost in the middle of forest.
The saying was popular in that region for almost twenty years until the story of where the saying itself came from was lost to time. No one says it anymore.
The town, those last few people, the lake, the nickeltails, the saying itself; all gone.
“Relax. You’re just pulling up fish.”
tags
A saying that no longer exists. It originated in a town that was built on the edge of a lake that was scheduled to be drained. The land-locked semi-amphibious indigenous fish that lived in that lake were unique. Since they only ever existed in that lake, they are extinct now. This was way before Greenpeace or the World Wildlife Fund.
When the dam was built, that lake went dry. The inhabitants of the town were transported to the closest city which, at that time, was two hundred miles away. A few of the townspeople stayed behind, refusing to move. The builders of the dam let those people stay. There were only sixteen of them and they were old, senile and frail. It cost the company nothing to wait and from the looks of it, the company wouldn’t have to wait long.
In under two weeks, the lake went completely dry. The fish in the lake had developed a knack for burrowing under the seabed during winter and other harsh conditions. Their tails stuck out, glinting in the sun like broken-mirror pieces, like brand-new nickels. That's where they got the name ‘nickeltails’.
The few old people that stayed behind in that deserted town learned that they could walk out onto the cracked clay of the lakebed and look for those shiny fish tails. A full-grown nickeltail could feed a body for a day.
The company expected to wait two weeks. The old, frail people lived off the hibernating nickeltails for six months.
Soon, there were no more fish. Then winter came. Soon after that, there were no more people.
The only evidence of that town is now an old rusting lamppost in the middle of forest.
The saying was popular in that region for almost twenty years until the story of where the saying itself came from was lost to time. No one says it anymore.
The town, those last few people, the lake, the nickeltails, the saying itself; all gone.
“Relax. You’re just pulling up fish.”
tags
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 21 May 2009 15:12 (UTC)no subject
Date: 28 May 2009 01:10 (UTC)It essentially means that you're engaged in an activity that has no future.