"...Clips"

(This story based on a notion by my dear radio pal Peter Cedric Rock Smith...no relation I know of. He mused what he would do if he woke up and it was the 1930′s again. So I put myself in his position. The trick is to protect the timeline...or try to...good grief!)

“Back and forth and forth and back.” Put another way...NYC the 125th Street subway platform. It's January 26th, 1937. The ‘A’ rain pulling in wakes me. I’m a science fiction fan so I know what’s happened. Fuck! I’m near 90 years in the past! Serious temporal disorientations. I wander my great grandmother’s hood for days maybe weeks. Think a speedball crack and whiskey crash. FDR is President Dick Tracy is on da radio and it's the Great Bleeping Depression. Best time to appear. I can get lost in this chaos.

I end up in a Salvation Army soup kitchen. Looking for possibilities I tell them I went to a Negro college and could tutor. Tutors white only but with a lucky connection I get a quarter-time gig at the local library...as a porter. It’s 1937. With the job I get a small room and make plans.

Winter passes. In summer I notice a small Harlem machine shop. Just the right size. I introduce myself to the owner. Seems a decent guy. I later hear he’s in the closet. I tell him its cool love is love and don’t worry about it. Anyway, I put an idea to him. A small item that everyone uses that he could very cheaply make. ...and sell. Desperate times so he's game. I show him my designs...paperclips. I was thinking Velcro but too game changing.

I didn't do an exact copy from the future. Rather blends of types any of which ‘could’ have been designed in the 30′s. Strips of metal and cheap tools are all that's needed...history is safe. We haggle over details become partners...sort of and get to it. Business slow but they’re cheap look cool so catch on. Towards da Holidays orders is coming in through the ‘gawddamned’ windows to paraphrase Holden Caufield. Whose book I hope isn't butterflied away.

The machine shop is now our business office/factory. Slowly we hire more help. I insist on gender equality. My pal thinks it nuts but goes along. Planting seeds. Orders from local stores later direct to business. Sure there was problems. Corrupt cops, mob run unions to pay off. That and personal bullshit but fuck it life is fun. For a few years it’s a somewhat profitable sideline for us both.

1939 the Board of Education gives us commissions later bulk orders. This followed by other City departments. Mayor Laguardia aka ‘The Little Flower” ...my grandma spoke well of him. Well, he’s throwing FDR’s cash around to help small businesses...which is us. First time the government ever really helped me, and I had to go near 90 years into the bleeping past to get it. Figures.

Holy fuck...so much for laying low in the past.

Which reminds me. I'm from the future which means I played Monopoly and saw several post-war mega-recessions. Lesson one: Don’t expand before ya ready. My pal wanted to open two large tooling and fabrication shops with a zillion employees. I talked him down to 25 and one medium shop. Smart because the bubble burst...we stayed in business. That and we happily banged along issuing paychecks. An upside I saw the Great Harlem artistic Rennaissance in person.

Still, I know the war is coming. This is a world with Hitler and Stalin running around loose. Did I mention our own Nazis and a powerful Klan? Anyway, in my only suit...double breasted like grandpa wore. I angle for federal orders. I get a few small nibbles Then all hell breaks loose. December 9th, 1941. War comes two days late and orders with them. Thanks to my temporal shenanigans.

Uncle Sam is kicking the crap out of that Nazi fuck Hitler and his pal Tojo. And is doing it with our durable flexible rust-less paperclips. Did I mention our Army is integrated we already have the fucking B-29 and the P-80 jet fighter...all these five years early. All because of cheap cool paper clips and two smart colored queer guys...one from the 21st century. Fuck da timeline...in for a penny in for a pound.” I finagled a meeting with that Einstein guy and tells him about microprocessors. Stay tuned.