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Thread: Do any of you know a hermit?

  1. #11
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    I think my brother is a borderline hermit. We just call him a mountain man as he is happiest outside hiking up mountains, rafting rivers and by himself.

  2. #12
    Senior Member KayLR's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by JaneV2.0 View Post
    My immediate response was "So?"
    I wouldn't live without electricity or running water, but that's his choice.
    It sure is, Jane. I wasn't really asking for a judgment or solution or opinion. Just stories or experiences.
    My therapist told me the way to achieve true inner peace is to finish what I start. So far today, I have finished two bags of M&Ms and a chocolate cake. I feel better already!

  3. #13
    Senior Member Sad Eyed Lady's Avatar
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    I knew one who hitchhiked from Boston and ended up here and just stayed. He bought some land WAY back in the woods, and lived in a little shack back there. I guess the shack was existing when he bought the property but not sure. He had no vehicle, no electricity, water/indoor plumbing and looking back it seems he had almost nothing except his clothing. He always smelled of garlic because he carried a head of it in his pocket and nibbled on it from time to time. Two of my cousins and I walked back into his place one day. The floor was basically sawdust because he sawed his wood in there for his stove, and among the sawdust you could see coins glinting. Apparently he threw his change down there. Once he got very sick and if a neighbor hadn't found him he probably would have died. He was in mid to late 60's I think and since I was in my 20's I thought he was an old man. Somehow he was talked into leaving the place and moving into town. I am not sure how long he lived here in town, because at that time I had moved to another state but heard he was in a grocery and fell dead.

    Now a friend I have known from childhood lives a somewhat hermit existence in a cabin he built himself up in a wooded area that is inaccessible to most vehicles. He does have electricity but still showers outside from something he rigged up and I think still has an outhouse. He has estranged himself from family, changed his name legally and has no contact with any family members left. He is a talented man, writes, paints and can be quiet charming when he wants, but my description of him is he is best taken in small does. But like your ex-husband KayLR, it is his choice how he lives and he seems to like it.

    Thanks for the thread, I find it very interesting.
    "Like a bird on the wire, like a drunk in the midnight choir, I have tried in my way to be free." Leonard Cohen

  4. #14
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    Known a couple. Then met the cousin of a friend of mine, who owned a hardware store that was visited by a three letter agency when they looking at the famous hermit who had been buying pipe stuff there. Not all hermits are bad, though.

  5. #15
    Senior Member KayLR's Avatar
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    SadEyedLady, the first winter my ex was in Maine, he was throwing firewood down into his cellar and he fell down the stairs and upon the woodpile. He broke his ankle and screwed up his back. He lay there for a week before the mailman noticed he was snowed in. He got another guy and they dug out his "driveway" and his truck.

    But when I talk to him and he tells me these things he seems quite amused by it all. Not pitiful in the least. ok, then.
    My therapist told me the way to achieve true inner peace is to finish what I start. So far today, I have finished two bags of M&Ms and a chocolate cake. I feel better already!

  6. #16
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    I worked at the VA for many years and knew quite a few of them. Many lived isolated in the desert or in the San Bernardino mountains and would only come into town for medical help when their health had deteriorated from cancer or some other treatable illness to the point they couldn’t take care of themselves or were in pain. More than a few had stable sources of income such as social security or a pension and I could have found them housing and care but they couldn’t deal with the city, rules and noise. I also had a great uncle Virgil who had lost his wife when he was young and retreated to a shack out in the country. He had a small pension from the VA but lived without electricity or running water. He had an old truck and would go into town periodically to haul water and buy a few staples. He hunted and fished and other than that he only ate pinto beans which he bought in huge 50 pound bags and would cook a weeks worth on a wood stove. He’d leave them on the stove since he didn’t have refrigerator. Miraculously he didn’t get sick and lived to be in his early 80s. We’d go out to his shack every summer to help him clean up and my dad would lake him a lug of oranges and a big bottle of whiskey; these were his only two things he’d say he missed. Most fascinating person I knew. Most of the family were embarrassed by him, but I loved him..

  7. #17
    Senior Member catherine's Avatar
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    Maybe it's not miraculous that Uncle Virgil lived to be 80+. He was out there in nature, no stress, living simply.

    One of my favorite books--my "coffee table" book, although I don't have a coffee table is "A Handmade Life" about William Coperthwaite. He might have been called a wacky hermit, but he wrote a book and hung out with the Nearings, so he was a "cool" hermit. When he died, just a couple of years ago, he lived like Thoreau--with living expenses under $14000 a year. He was brilliant and wise, IMHO.

    Not all hermits are brilliant and wise, and some might have serious issues, but I don't think anyone should be written off because they want to live apart from other people.

    Kay, I hope your ex-husband is satisfied with his path. It's hard to live with someone so off the beaten path. I don't personally know any hermits (nor a big surprise--by definition, hermits probably don't want to be known). But different strokes for different folks.
    "Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it--every, every minute?" Emily Webb, Our Town
    www.silententry.wordpress.com

  8. #18
    Senior Member JaneV2.0's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by catherine View Post
    Maybe it's not miraculous that Uncle Virgil lived to be 80+. He was out there in nature, no stress, living simply.

    One of my favorite books--my "coffee table" book, although I don't have a coffee table is "A Handmade Life" about William Coperthwaite. He might have been called a wacky hermit, but he wrote a book and hung out with the Nearings, so he was a "cool" hermit. When he died, just a couple of years ago, he lived like Thoreau--with living expenses under $14000 a year. He was brilliant and wise, IMHO.

    Not all hermits are brilliant and wise, and some might have serious issues, but I don't think anyone should be written off because they want to live apart from other people. ...
    I can really identify with a desire for silence, and I agree that Uncle Virgil apparently knew what he was doing.

  9. #19
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    Quote Originally Posted by JaneV2.0 View Post
    I can really identify with a desire for silence, and I agree that Uncle Virgil apparently knew what he was doing.
    Remember Paul Harvey “the rest of the story”? I hadn’t thought of Virgil in many, many years and after writing the post I decided to call my Dad, now in his 80s to ask about him. Virgil had died in the early 70s when I was 14 or so. Dad told me that Virgil’s name was actually Luther! Apparently he came back from the war (WW1) scarred by the death of his good friend whose name was Virgil and started calling himself Virgil in tribute. My Dad said he came home and not long after his wife died of pneumonia so he retreated to the woods where he had an agreement with the landowner that he could live in exchange for chores. So it sounds like he had PTSD and just found it easier to retreat from society. I remember him as quiet but sweet and loved to have us kids around, albeit only for a day. Dad said when he died the sheriff called my Dad and Uncle to come clean out his belongings. They found $735 in loose change in coffee cans all around the shack. My Dad can’t remember to change his clothes sometimes but remembers that exact amount! That was a lot of money in the 70s.

    But I appreciate this thread, it reminded me that Time is running out to collect these family stories, and when my Dad and uncle are gone a whole lot of family history will go with them

  10. #20
    Senior Member KayLR's Avatar
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    Henrysmom, thank you for sharing that.

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