Take care of things or they'll go away

It is midsummer of 2023, a time of year when our community of Morris slows. Prairie Pioneer Days was once a way of addressing that. It was an express purpose. The community experimented with having Crazy Days on the same weekend. The baby boomer kids of the 1960s had a blast with Crazy Days. That was the heyday of the small town "main street." It was so assumed that people would want to park on or close to main street, we had parking meters that people had to shove coins into! Many of us can still remember. A law enforcement person made the rounds to make sure people were paying. 

The system had to get phased out. Crazy Days itself fell into a sort of dormancy. It seemed to exist largely in name only for a time. Efforts were made to resuscitate it. I'm not sure the value lay in any special "bargains," though that was the legacy purpose. A few of those bargains might still be found. But really it's a community event that at least injects a sense of life into an otherwise quiet time of year. 

Kevin Wohlers was the spokesman for the crowd who didn't really like PPD to end. I remember him saying to the Chamber "are you sure this is what people want?" I mean, the decision had a pre-ordained air about it. A "survey" was done with the assumption that we might seriously consider phasing it out, changing it substantially or whatever. 

And I might ask "why?" 

I might try answering that question: various community leaders whose help would be mighty beneficial in keeping it going, decided that they only wanted to escape to their "lake place" on summer weekends. To each his own, I guess, but I never got into this trance of wanting to be "at the lake." 

And here's another angle: with all the organized activities for kids in the summer now, isn't it harder for families to even "get away to the lake?" 

The Chamber felt it had to put out feelers on if PPD should continue, so the whole premise of that was, "there must be problems." Cancellation a self-fulfilling prophecy? 

The episode just drove home, in spades, the Morris reputation recognized by many that we are "apathetic." I remember the big exception to that when I was a kid. This was the Morris Centennial of 1971. No reservations about going full-bore for a summer event. It was not a matter of going through the motions. There was genuine joy. 

 

PPD is born

It was early in my full-time tenure with the Morris paper when the push for "Prairie Pioneer Days" began. Hey, no reason we can't be just like Glenwood with its "Waterama." Why should we step aside for that community, or to actually go over there and partake in their festivities? Ol' Motown has potential. We fulfilled that potential for a long and joyful time with Prairie Pioneer Days or "PPD." For a time I used the abbreviation "PP Days" before deciding that wasn't cool. 

And so it's gone. It was kept alive as sort of a vestigial thing for a time. Moved to the fall even. At that point I considered it dead. We already had a "Fall Festival" thing prior to PPD but fall always has some risk with weather getting less than ideal. The "Fall Festival" that I cite here is not to be confused with the later Fall Festival put on by Vicky Dosdall. 

I laud Kevin Wohlers for his ideals, albeit in a futile cause. I felt he was stating the obvious. A longtime acquaintance of mine, and member of the salt of the earth Wohlers family, I still cannot vote for him because he was on the city council at the time of the water softener law's passage. I think the council was pressured by the state to pass that law, maybe as a direct condition for having the treatment plant constructed. 

The water treatment plant is still cause for confusion locally. The treatment plant is along the same stretch of road as the softball complex. Just because we see "new stuff" constructed along there does not mean it is a boon for the community. 

I remember when the proposed county jail was getting people so aroused, a community leader type told me it was a mistake to assume that nearly everyone was against it. This individual who I respect said there was a leadership element in Morris that simply felt "we need to keep building Morris." 

So it's that simple: "build it and they will come?" I don't think it's that simple. 

The same leadership element that saw building stuff as so important, could have asserted itself to try to keep a big midsummer festival going. Just like Waterama. But no. Many of the big shots, I guess, had their cherished "lake places." Those infernal lake places. 

 

School days, school days

One thing about midsummer: we can look forward to the new school year and the co-curricular activities. A friend of mine sees sports as the main reason for keeping our outstate high schools going. People will gather at church coffee on Sundays and chatter about the sports teams. 

The UMM school year beckons too. UMM certainly does not seem as vibrant as it once did. I remember when my church of First Lutheran had its "UMM Sunday" in the fall and it was a really big deal: pot luck in fellowship hall after the service, or "between services" back when we had two services. You see, First Lutheran has fallen into an ever more challenging decline. Step by step the old vitality of the church has eroded. It really does continue apace. 

First Lutheran Church

It is astonishing because First Lutheran was once a pillar of the town that said "mainstream" all the way. We stood for the most exemplary values, accented the Judeo-Christian ethic, were a model for all. So what happened? There are supporters within the ELCA who would say that we still have all the right values - how could one dissent? Well hell, many people have dissented. 

This is significant, I mean if you know where my mind is at: I have modified my feelings on the whole gay rights cause relative to church. We're supposed to say "LGBTQ" now, maybe with a "plus" sign added that is supposed to stand for something. I don't care to know what it stands for, and I'm lost in the increasingly arcane talk about non-binary and God knows what else. Keep it out of church, all this sexual orientation stuff. 

I can now announce my shift toward the Good Shepherd Church attitude. Sorry for this belated announcement. The "progressive" stuff started crossing a line for me. 

Good Shepherd does not hate gay people. 

Here is what I would say to gay people: We are not in the 1950s and you no longer have to be forced into "the closet," to be marginalized. We love you and respect you but there are boundary lines in church. Your surroundings are 100 percent more accommodating than in the 1950s or the years immediately following. Can't you be thankful for that? 

I would assert that maybe gays should not be afforded 100 percent of the rights and privileges of the "straight" crowd. Not 100 percent. The perfect is the enemy of the good. Heterosexuals are the ones who procreate. Maybe they deserve a few advantages because of that. But I understand that some people are born without the heterosexual inclinations, and they deserve rights and respect. But they are still out of the mainstream just a bit. 

But I repeat: this is not the 1950s. 

First Lutheran Church of Morris is learning the hard way, I feel, that most people are not inclined to view gays as 100 percent equals, or at least the gays ought not use church as an actual springboard for their LGBTQ activism. There, maybe that's the biggest point to be made. 

My "Living Lutheran" magazine which I get complimentary at the church, has too much stuff now on the theme of LGBTQ. This is not the mission of the church, to promote such stuff. So I could easily walk away, walk away from this institution which under Pastor Grindland was such a conservative and "proper" place. 

 

Could be drastic

The signs are continuing that First Lutheran may be on a slide toward closure. Isn't that amazing? 

There was a time when we could not have imagined Prairie Pioneer Days dying. Anything can happen. We must take care of institutions that are important to us. We must be vigilant. Get careless and things collapse. 

So that's what's happening. While so many leaders among us "go to the lake" and have their hearts there. Morris has a theme of sorts: "We're going to be gone." I have suggested this be put on the water tower. "We're going to be gone." In the summer it's to the lake, in the fall it's to "the Cities." 

Morris seems only a default place to be, and I'd suggest we can do better. 

We still have our high school sports teams. We'll hear about "the Tigers" again soon. The whole co-curricular span of activities will open up. I suggest that today, co-curricular is more important for the kids and the community than the old stuffy "academics." 

So I'm a cheerleader for music. I got my 15 seconds of fame last spring when Wanda Dagen had me stand for making a $ contribution to the instrumental music program. She remembered to remind everyone that I was once in All-State Band! So I haven't always been such an anonymous soul. I'm 68 years old and living in memories more and more. 

Wanda Dagen

Feeding the pigeons? Not quite yet. But I was seated outside of the Willie's entrance yesterday morning, having a little sugary treat which I should probably not have due to my diabetes, when along comes. . .Wanda Dagen! 

It was to nice of Wanda to befriend me in such a cheery way. My little ten-second encounter with her will probably end up as the top highlight of my whole summer. Hands-down! 

I have been told that if you are a student of Wanda's, you do not want to make the mistake of failing to show up for your lesson! She has quite high standards. Not sure I could cut it under her. She is a wonderful person.

- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com