Remember when Morris had its "community Thanksgiving dinner" at Assumption Church? That fell to the wayside, same fate as our Prairie Pioneer Days. Asked to explain the meal's cancellation, people sort of bristled and then said large groups of people were coming in (hint: not enough financial remuneration).
To which I'd respond: Maybe the free-will donation basket wasn't enough. I remember the basket being put off to the side, to indicate there was no heavy-handed expectation for money. If the very future of the event was at stake, maybe the expectation of money should have been a little more up-front.
We needn't view this as crass, it's just reality, something needed to keep the event going.
People who live alone do not find it practical to prepare the standard Thanksgiving meal in one's kitchen. I live alone and have chosen to not even have my refrigerator/freezer running. Were I to have such a resource activated, I'm sure I would over-eat. We used to have a refrigerator/freezer running for our family of three, four if you include the dog.
I am hanging on with a lifestyle that is sufficient. I can't say there's any depression, thank goodness, but holidays are mostly a downer. They are set up for families to relish life. For people without families, holidays are just times to endure, to get through. We perk up with the resumption of normal life the next morning.
Was there a problem getting volunteers for the Thanksgiving public meal? For at least a portion of its history, definitely not. That can be said with an exclamation point, and I can document: One year, the Zion Lutheran pastor was among the many volunteers and he joked as he went by our table, that there were so many volunteers, he had the very narrow specialty of just filling water glasses! So there, all you naysayers.
The naysayers are starting to get to me, the people who say with total resignation that we cannot have the Thanksgiving public event any more, and we cannot have Prairie Pioneer Days. While we're on the topic, how can Appleton sustain a wonderful summer concert series in the park, while we cannot do anything like that? Can't this Morris community of ours admit shortcomings or failure sometimes? We're too apathetic to even think about it? Is it really that bad? I'm rather like the boy who said the emperor has no clothes: I see failure and describe it as such.
People get defensive when I engage them in conversations about the shortcomings. Another tactic they display is to try to put me on the defensive: "Well, why don't you do something?" I am over the hill now, soon to be age 67. The critics of my work at the newspaper will say I'm no good for anything. Actually their language can be a lot worse than that.
Coarseness seems to have taken over among us. How times change. When I was a kid, people who were Republicans or conservatives were classy with their personal standards. A perfect example was my late uncle Howard of Glenwood, the banker. (He was always coy in talking about his actual role at the bank!) Howard had "Goldwater cigars" in 1964. He would not recognize the conservatives/Republicans of today. Today these people chant "let's go Brandon" which is code for "fuck Joe Biden," and it's happening in church sanctuaries now.
A suggestion for you pea brains: why not skip the code? Be bold and just start chanting "fuck Joe Biden." Do it in the church sanctuary, right out there at Good Shepherd. Show us what you're really made of. Don't wimp out. Then there's the residence across from East Side Park, which has displayed the sign "Biden, stick your unity up your (blank)." Yes there was a blank, at least.
Biden seeks to be a devout Catholic. The church largely does not return this devotion - there are priests who feel Biden should not receive communion. This is because he won't use the power of his office to fight abortion, to outlaw it I guess. In my dreams, I see President Biden departing from the Catholic Church and joining the ELCA of the Lutheran faith. It's only in my dreams.
Trump wanted the Federal Reserve to initiate negative interest rates. As it stands, interest rates are basically zero. You know what that does? It pushes up inflation. This bother you? The cost of a hard roll from the Willie's bakery jumped from 45 cents to 75 cents in the last couple weeks.
Is this the price you want to pay in order to see the stock market remain stable? Low interest rates are good for stocks, good for your 401K I guess, and that's all Trump cared about. He wanted to go on CNBC with Joe Kernen. Congratulations. But when you notice that you're paying double or triple the price for things at Willie's, will you still be good with that? I write more about local inflation on my November 20 post on "Morris of Course." I invite you to read:
My lead-in post for the Thanksgiving weekend was put up Wednesday. I invite you to read this "Morris of Course" post also. In there, I recall the "legend" of Coborn's wanting a liquor license to stay in Morris and to build a nice new store. No license, no store. Coborn's left. In these times of surging inflation - will prices ever come back down? - don't you think two viable grocery stores would be nice? Some competition? Here's the link for this post, and thanks:
Addendum: Presidents are supposed to leave the Federal Reserve alone.
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com
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