Out the Back Door

By Tom Burr

Description: Life was pretty good in Atlanta for Tim and Tracy Latner and their two children. Tim managed a steak restaurant. Tracy was a financial planner for Merrill Lynch. But occasional escapes to beautiful western North Carolina near Asheville began to gnaw at their hearts. Why not move there? Then COVID-19 hit, Tim became less satisfied with managing the restaurant, and Tracy discovered Jack Bogle's (founder of Vanguard funds) wisdom to buy and hold low-cost market index funds which lead her away from full-service brokers. So in 2022 the Latners moved, on faith and hope but no jobs, to Burnsville NC, the quaint gateway town to Mt. Mitchell. "Out the Back Door" is a story set in western NC about this gutsy family with heart, featuring quirky conversations about life, religion, pickleball, tadpoles, compound interest, middle school gym, free markets, and government overreach. See how the Latners adapt to Burnsville, and how they nurture shields against groupthink on climate change, corporate, government or university "wokeness," and race-relation hustlers that dominate much of American culture. Excerpt: Tim wasn't sure whether he would have accepted bailout funds if he were owned the restaurant, but he had amused a few trusted co-workers at Hal's by drawing a cartoon featuring overweight diners staring at sparse menus sitting next to underweight diners staring at generous menus in an Orwellian-style nudging of the masses into better eating habits. Masks hung on their chairs and disturbing smiles conveyed TV-brain compliance. There was no caption, but eventually Tim wrote on the backside, "Now that they've accepted occupancy limits, masks, and curfews, and now that we're all in single payer insurance where the health costs to be over-weight or under-weight are shared, it is time for daily pushups and healthful eating habit mandates. Overweight diners get a 1200 calorie maximum per meal. Underweight diners get a 2200 calorie minimum per meal." At least for now, Tim felt it was important to only share such things with people he trusted. Cancel culture was real. Speaking out against mandates could be risky, but, from Orwell's 1984, "who controls the past controls the future," so Tim took calculated risks.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0CLKJVM1Y
• ISBN13: 9798864953662
• Release Date: October 2023
• Publisher: Independently published
• Length: 124 Pages
• Weight: 0.61 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 0.3" x 6.0"