The summer Prairie Pioneer Days may be gone but we still have Crazy Days. Alternative spellings are welcome including "Crazee" and "Daze."
Crazy Days did have a down period in Morris history but it appears to be stabilized now. Don't assume that all the activity is on "main street." The sand pile coin dig for kids is an attraction. Crazy Days has to be fun for kids.
A restaurant server told me this morning that Crazy Days was a fun deal in Morris in the '90s. I guess we're feeling nostalgia about the '90s now. Back when we were experiencing past times, I think most often it was hard to believe we'd ever be "nostalgic." The status quo will only persist for so long. Change comes in many ways that we could not have predicted. Rock 'n' roll music was controversial in the 1950s.
Back in 2000 when "Y2K" fears gripped us - or many of us - we felt the Internet was quite far advanced. How could my boomer generation not be amazed at the state of this thing called the "Internet?" We had grown up completely without it. So we got fascinated with "websites" and "email." I think in the early days the idea was to place a hyphen in "email." Got dropped eventually: shorter is always better in the new world of communications.
The boomer generation of Morris has the most exciting memories of "Crazy Days" here. Really to be unmatched IMHO. Just to cite one old highlight: the Lindrud's Variety "fish pond." Little kids came and fished for gifts.
People out and around would say that Crazy Days was a chance for stores to get rid of their "junk." A cynical view obviously. My old co-worker Howard Moser had the same view of the old Thrifty White Drug "coupon books." "It's just junk (being advertised)," he'd say. A cynic's point of view is not without value.
Thrifty White was a lively main street store for a very long time. I remember as a kid it was "Messner Drug." It was smaller then. Some of the space was occupied by the old Del Monico Cafe. When you stepped down the ramp at Thrifty White, you were going into the old Del Monico space. At the rear there was the "Colony Room" where public meetings were held like for Kiwanis. I think it was Kiwanis but I can sometimes confuse this with Lions. Herb Croom loved those meetings, his civic involvement.
The two Morris restaurants that I remember from my youth are the Del Monico and Shorty's. Shorty's was right next to the movie theater. Shorty's had a pinball machine.
I remember getting home from St. Cloud one Friday and finding that my parents had a work-related obligation, so I was on my own for supper. I went to Shorty's and sat close to Bob Mulder the schoolteacher. We were close enough to easily chat. It was good therapy to renew this acquaintance with a teacher who I had known in school.
I would estimate this conversation happened in the mid-1970s. I was drifting in life, you might say marking time. I was one of those kids who felt he had to "get away from Morris." You can always sense this attitude with some of the young people, but I don't think it's so common now. It never really made sense. You should live where it is practical for you. And forget about the "essential" nature of attending college or even a tech school. Find something that works.
I drove to and from St. Cloud in my 1967 Oldsmobile Toronado which my father had gotten from the iconic car dealer of Morris Bill Dripps. The "Olds Garage" was down the street from Don's Cafe.
It would be fun to have the '67 Toronado today to drive in parades! Styling was so distinctive, and front wheel drive! Headlights that would "pop up!"
Fate had certain things in mind for both me and Mr. Mulder. Both of us would exit our long-time professions here in Morris under a cloud. Let's get back to the "change happens" theme. In the present we just cannot imagine the sweeping changes coming down the road. Mulder left the school when parents were learning to assert themselves more. At the present time we read of teachers fleeing the profession because the empowerment of parents and kids has gotten to be too much.
Now and then you'll see an item in the media about a fleeing teacher who shares a big "rant." Yes, they can complain all they want. But hey, change waits for no one. "Adapt or die." The line is from the movie "Moneyball."
I left the Morris newspaper when a whole assortment of changes had caught up to me. One of these was the fundamental change of the print media struggling more. The papers could survive but only by making significant changes. And many papers have not in fact survived. The Internet waits for no one. In fact I don't even hear the term "Internet" much anymore. Rather dated, is it?
Are online communications so ubiquitous we don't need a broad-based term like "Internet" anymore?
Remember when online communications came across as a novelty? I remember seeing an article about someone posting a link to an article from a newspaper site and then getting a letter from the paper threatening a lawsuit.
I remember hearing for a long time "you can't put a song cover on YouTube." Really? YouTube is sloshing around in song covers now. I think it is all a case of the masses storming past the palace gates.
So have a good time for Crazy Days today (Wednesday) in Morris. No Lindrud's "fish pond" anymore but still a grand time. The pond was good for getting a nice little plastic dinosaur!
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com
No comments:
Post a Comment