Road mined [Story ID]

Cafe Society
1

I read a book 20 or 30 years ago that, IIRC, took place after some sort of socioeconomic collapse, or shortly before one was about to happen. A character (the main character?) mined the road leading up to his house and placed PRIVATE ROAD - MINED signs as a warning. Eventually a person or persons with Authority came by and threatened to arrest him for planting explosives. The man explained that the road wasn’t mined at all. Rather, he was using a language construction on the signs from his native New England and had simply misspelled PRIVATE ROAD, MIND (as in ‘Mind you, this is a private road’). I don’t recall this being a scene in Alas, Babylon, but I could be wrong.

Is this ringing any bells?

2

I remember reading that story, but don’t remember the name of said story. But having read Alas Babylon several times, I’m certain that’s not it.

3

To confirm, it’s definitely not in Alas, Babylon. I reread that only a few weeks ago.

4

I put “private road - mined” into Google and found a post in which someone claimed it’s from a Heinlein story.

5

I wonder if it was Lazarus Long in Methuselah’s Children?

6

Any Heinlein scholars in the house?

7

It was Heinlein, and the novel was Farnham’s Freehold.

8

Thanks, DEA… I mean Bill Door.

Weird, but I don’t remember the title at all.

9

I’ve just read Farnham’s Freehold.

Turns out this isn’t it.

I’ve remembered a couple of details, though vaguely. I think in the story referenced in the OP there were aliens in it. ISTR a scene where Aliens afforded funeral rites to one or more humans. However their funerary rituals were different from humans’, and the humans (secretly?) observing believed the Aliens were desecrating the dead.

ISTR some sort of resistance movement going on against the invaders.

I have flashes of some sort of house, perhaps a technologically-advanced one, and of characters that have to make their way across an open field to reach their objective.

10

A bump, because I’ve just re-read Methuselah’s Children. (Also, Revolt in 2100.)

Wasn’t in there. I’m wondering if it was in Friday? I’ll have to dig through boxes to find my copy, unless someone knows if the phrase was in there without looking.

11

I think it’s Mother to the World, by Richard Wilson.

ETA: A google cache link:
http://74.125.113.132/search?q=cache:twdOOYiTOA4J:kg6aff.webhop.net/ufo/docs/txt/sci-fi/longfellow,%2520henry%2520wadsworth/nebula%2520award%2520stories/nebula%2520award%2520stories%252004%2520%255B1969%255D%2520(rtf,%2520txt)/mother%2520to%2520the%2520world%2520by%2520richard%2520wilson.txt+"PRIVATE+ROAD+-+MINED"&cd=5&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=firefox-a

12

I remember it clearly. The protagonist, told that he had mispelled “mined” crossed out the “e” and joined the “n” and the “d” with a proofreader’s caret in pencil. One of the military guys wanted to make an issue of it and told him that it wasn’t clear enough, and that the pencil mark would disappear. Someone with more authority, and obviously more sympathetic, said it looked good enough for him, and they had other places to be.

I just don’t remember what book it was from. I feel like Heinlein, but I was already wrong once about the specific book.

13

That’s it! It also has the woven-grass rings and ‘Monkey Ward’, which I remember from time to time.

Obviously the recalled scene with the aliens giving funerary rites to humans is from another story. Now I have to remember what that one was!

Thanks, Red Skeezix!

The way I misremembered it, it definitely sounded like a Heinlein character.

14

I think the behavior is reminiscent of Col. Ames’s Uncle Jock from * The Cat Who Walks Through Walls *. That’s what I originally thought when someone mentioned Heinlein.