Hermits & Grit

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Jul 14, 2009 17:24:06 GMT -5 gaia said:

I don't know. I don't see why a hermit has to be a bad thing. People use the word like it's something to be ashamed of (i've been called a hermit before because I didn't fancy going to the pub with my sister ).
Sometimes I think it can be for the best for some people. If it's their choosing and they're happy, why not?

I think one reason (mind you it's just my opinion) "hermit" has a bad stereotype or connotation is that perhaps some people connect a hermit with or see a hermit as a homeless person; and some are uncomfortable around homeless people. Like I said, just my thought.

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Jul 15, 2009 19:18:42 GMT -5 gaia said:

Jul 15, 2009 18:52:10 GMT -5 @shycwgirl said:

thx build1 4 rplyng 2 me.

i red som mor posts heer and i remembred a sho calld highway to heaven and ther wuz a part wheer there wuz a teen or yung adult yung man who had a scaar on his fase and the ppl in the toun caled him a monster becuz of it. so his sosiety maad him into a hermit and his mothr helpped in a rong way 2. at the end he was lovved by a blind girl who lovved him for his perconalite not his fase and when she fund out who he wuz it didnt mater to her she lovved him anywae.

That reminds me a bit of the Frankenstein story; being called a 'monster' for looking 'different', forced to become a hermit because of it, the creature's only positive interaction with a human was with a blind man..
And what struck me about the creature in Frankenstein was his kind nature in the beginning - then people treating him like shit, making him feel he must recluse - then him turning bad.

I don't know.. what i'm trying to say is, I bet that's kind of how a lot hermits are.
They only became hermits through how badly they got treated by most people, and through being made to feel different/like an outsider.
I very much doubt that people would really chose to be alone. It's just living alone, like a hermit, means there's no risk of further rejection.

(haha, wow, i'm thinking quite seriously about this hermit thing )

That's some pretty well-spotted thinking there, Anna! and I agree with what you said. In a way, I am a hermit - at my place, though I'm among other tenants, I've been rejected so much, now I've taken to isolating myself. Because when I'm around people and they only stare at me, without saying anything at all, not even a "hello" - I feel rejected and alone anyway. So in a way, I feel less alone when I'm in my room with the door locked.

(Sorry I'm probably talking too much )

[arizona]

Hermits don't talk too much, except to themselves.

[zerosum]

I've often thought about becoming a hermit when I'm older. Maybe not a proper one, but one with limited contact with others.
It'd feel safer I guess. You wouldn't have to worry so much about relationships and everything. You wouldn't have to deal with people (except from a distance) you can just do what you want.

Oh yeah, and about not being able to be a hermit/recluse if you live with your parents - have you heard of Hikikomori? It's where people withdraw from society by locking themselves in their room due to pressures from the outside world. Apparently, it's more common in Japan due to the high expectations placed on people there (hence the Japanese term.) It's an extreme example of how someone's social environment can affect them.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hikikomori

And everyone talks to themself sometimes

[billd1]

The only problem with being a hermit is:

How do you pay for your living expenses?

Howard Hughes didn't have that problem, but for the average person who is not wealthy, the cost of living would be the first obvious problem for anyone wanting to become a hermit.

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Sept 30, 2009 19:27:49 GMT -5 arizona said:

Hermits don't talk too much, except to themselves.

yep, i do that too ;D, out of loneliness , arizona!

[billd1]

It's been awhile since this thread has been active, but recently I have wanted to reach out to others, but starting a Hermits & Grit thread on 3 other message boards, and I think that reviving this hermit thread on this message board, might improve my learning more about hermits.

I do not remember if I ever posted the 2 hermit stories from Grit here or not. I noticed that I had editec my first post here, and if I did post both of the 2 grit hermit articles, then I must have deleted them, when I did that edit.

Since the 2 Grit hermit articles are not here, I will post them, either for the second or first time.

One of the articles, on Florida Everglades Hermit Roy Ozmer, is incomplete, and I want it here, as well as the other 3 message boards, in hope of possibly finding the entier Grit article.

[billd1]

This is the first of the 2 Grit Hermit Stories, about a hermit who is probably not too well remembered.
From Grit, March 1, 1970, News Section Page 9

Hermit Lives 14 Years In Abandoned Coke Oven

Charlie Bowers drropped out of society 14 years ago to live in an abandoned coke oven in the once-prosperous community of Farnum, near Clarksburg, W. Va. But now age, health, and weather conditions have forced him to return to the world he tried to forget.
The 78-year-old Bowers was a victim of unemployment caused by coal mining mechanization. He has no family.
His abandoned coke oven measured 10 feet in diameter. A translucent covering across the doorway kept in the heat and provided light.
Bowers wasn't bothered by telephones, radio, television, or taxes. He fashioned a stove from a 20-gallon drum to burn slag coal he was able to chip from a crevice.

Had Premonition.

Bowers said he had a premonition that some day he would be forced to give up the life he loved. It came true when heavy snows and below-zero temperatures descended on the Clarksburg area last December.
Residents who knew of Bowers became concerned when three days elapsed without anyone seeinig him. They went to look for him. They followed his footprints, barely visible in the snow. Along the trail they found a loaf of bread, still in its wrapper, lying where he had apparently dropped it.
They found him on his bed, dazed, shivering, and incoherent. He did not remember when he had last eaten or
or how long he had been there.
Bowers was taken to the Harrison County Jail, where he was given medical treatment but was not considered ill enough to be hospitalized.
Welfare authorities were called in to find him a suitable home. Bowers had never heard of welfare or social security, which he now receives at the custodial care home where he plans to stay.

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[billd1]

Below is an incomplete article from Grit.

So far, I have found nothing either in the article or in the articles on the reverse side of it, that would give me a clue to the date of the article, titled, "Hermit of the " with whatever the four word was, cut off.

I have found that Mr. Ozmer died in 1969, so obviously the article had to have been prior to his death.

Hermit of the

By Mark Hunn

IN THESE days of crowded conditions, pushbutton living, and increasing leisure, Roy Ozmer is an anachronism. He prefers to be a hermit and to go his own way.

Indeed, he finds it no handicap to live alone miles from civilization. Nor does he consider it inconvenient to lack fresh water (except for rain water), refrigeration, television, a telephone, motion-pictures, and so on.

Obviously, he likes elbowroom. But, surprisingly, he finds it hard to achieve, although it's certainly no easy task to find his hideaway on a mangrove spit in the channel between Hog and Panther Keys deep in the 10,000 island wilderness of the Southwest Florida coast, one of the most remote areas left in the Sunshine State.

SINCE becoming a hermit in 1947, he's found the main problem is getting away from people, but he believes he's making some progress. His annual visitation rate is down to a mere 1,500 a year on what he calls "Dun-Rovin'" Key (actually the little mangrove island has no name) from the days when he sought solitude on Pelican Key.

Pelican, located near the mouth of the Indian Key channel into the little town of Everglades, was just too near civilization. As a result, he entertained as many as 8,000 visitors annually, which certainly would disqualify him from the hermit's league if there were such an organization.

But he's a hermit, nevertheless, particularly geographically. His present location is some 16 miles (via the gulf route) from the hamlet of Everglades, which hardly can be considered bulging at the seams with people. He's equally distant from Goodland on Marco Island to the north.

Ozmer, born in 1897 at Decatur, Ga., began h is hermit career in 1947 after having been a merchant seaman in the First and Second World Wars (total of ffive torpedoings). In addition, he's been a lumberjack, range-fence rider, salesman, prospector, house painter, forest ranger, CCC camp superintendent, newspaperman, free-lance writer, restaurant operator, and, last but not least, farmer.

He earned a B.S. degree in forestry from the University of Georgia and early gave indication of preferring solitude by hiking the entire length of the then new Apalachian Trail from Georgia to Maine in the early 1920's. He blazed portions of the route, and much of
ARTICLE STOPS HERE.
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[billd1]

Roy Ozmer in Grit

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I am hoping that the complete Grit story on Roy Ozmer will eventully turn up.

I again have revisited Grit's webpage, but so far have't found any promising leads.

A few years ago, Google had many old newspapers on microfilm for free surfing, but at that time I did not chedk to see if Grit was included.

All too soon, the Google newspaper (and, magazine?) Archive, dropped the complete newspapers for surfing, but I think it still did have an index of pay for view articles.

This index, if it is still available, would probably include local newspaper stories on hermits, and would be useful for finding out more about Charlie Bowers, for example, if Clarksburg West Virginia newspapers for 1970 could be found. I would think the story of Mr. Bowers would have been reported locally, as well as in Grit.

Google News Archive also included, and should still include, if it still exists, many newspapers from countires outside of the USA.

And, on the survivalist board, link to, posted on Page 1 of this SAS/SP Forums thread, a poster mentions having a large collection of newspaper storeis on hermits, so it's possible that his collection could include the complete Roy Ozmer story.

The old Grit would best be described as a tabloid newspaper probably 15 inches high and 11 & 1/2 inches wide, at the most.

Lookinig at the Roy Ozmer story, the title, "Hermit of the " Keys? Isles? Islands, Everglades? covered three columns, horizontally, and the incomplete photo above it, also covered three horizontal columns and a maximum of 6 inches to the top of the page, if there were no other stories above the Roy Ozmer story.

farm4.staticflickr.com/3912/15029972361_9841fe0f0c.jpg


The photo at the bottom of the page also seems to be incomplete horizontally, with the caption being ending in mid letter. The second sentence of the caption most likely is, "It's handy."

[billd1]

Going on two years later, I gave up on posting any more photos from that article, because I had so much trouble posting them.

[billd1]

I still want to get the entire article from Grit.

I would think there should be some way to get it.

There is now a thread on a Facebook webpage about Mr. Ozmer.

www.facebook.com/Philbricks-Appalachian-Trail-Transit-Guide-262400773948281/

If you can log in to Facebook, scroll down to "The Strange Transformation of Roy Ozmer, Part 2."

The author states he had read 27 newspaper articles on the life and times of Mr. Ozmer in his later years, and I would think the Grit article might have been a wire service article in other newspapers in addition to Grit.

I just cannot see why typing in Roy Ozmer, article by Max Hunn, into a Net search engine wouldn't get me what I'm looking for, tho.

[billd1]

Does anybody here on this message board, ever surf old newspapers, on Google News Archhive?

Anyone here a member of Find A Grave?