I used to consider the period between Prairie Pioneer Days and the county fair to be the slowest of the year here. The quiet nature of it all made it seem refreshing. Then we'd all be ready for the pace of life to pick up again.
Fewer of us will remember when the Stevens County Fair was quite small compared to today. No Lee Center. The Lee Center really had a transforming effect. But the increased vitality goes beyond that. If I had to estimate when the low point of the fair was, I'd say about 1977.
From 1976 to 1980 we had the "malaise" years of the Jimmy Carter presidency. Interesting, because I don't think Carter even used that word himself. And it's probably unfair to lay the blame for a dispirited epoch at the doorstep of one person.
Never mind that Carter liked telling a story about having once been in a rowboat in a swamp down South when a threatening rabbit started swimming toward him. An alligator would have been more plausible.
Carter must be wondering if he is ever going to die. The Drudge Report gave attention a while back to a story about how "euthanasia of old people" may be coming worldwide. The thought is not patently outlandish. When people are in a group and begin exchanging stories about people they know in a nursing home, it makes you wonder, to at least think a little.
Carter should not have been brought to his wife Rosalynn's funeral IMHO. Did you see it?
I was acquainted with someone locally who was not even brought to her grandson's ordination as a minister. The ordination was in Morris and she lived within a close distance. "She wouldn't have known who he was," I heard someone say.
So I'll repeat: you hear stories of this type when visiting with friends and someone brings it up. This happened to me recently when I was at McDonald's.
It is easy to beat up on Jimmy Carter now. That is because he is/was a Democrat. His Democratic Party was more mainstream back in the day. A Republican would have to be at least "part RINO" to succeed. We might all immediately think of Bob Dole. A great man obviously and WWII veteran. Think of what you heard the last few days from the Republican national convention. Or, from the annual CPAC conference. They would project venom against Dole just like they're doing with the Cheney family now.
Times change, which is how we can appreciate the Stevens County Fair going from rather ragtag - I'm tempted to say "pathetic" - to what it is now, really pretty big-time. We can really be proud of it. We'd hear putdown lines about the fair in the '70s. But remember the tenor of that '70s decade - really lots of cynicism which I would have to feel would come as a shock for today's young people.
Ah, the young people who walk to and fro looking down at their "phones." None of that in the 1970s. "How did you get by?" people ask today. Our answer: "We just did."
"Bookends"
The bookends of Prairie Pioneer Days and the county fair are an outdated way of looking at life in Morris. The summer PPD just up and died. Most other communities have stuck with their summer festivals. It's as if no one cared in Morris. I point this out because I'm always kind of a contrarian in Morris. Often I have been derided as "negative."
Yes I'm negative because I like pointing out that the summer PPD was like a triumph for Morris through many years. We could be like Glenwood with its longstanding "Waterama." Now I am negative because I contradict our Chamber of Commerce which decided we didn't need the hassle of PPD. People wanted to just go to their lake places on summer weekends. But a lot of people in Morris cannot do that or are not interested in doing that.
Ah, a good share of the community "leaders" are well-heeled, can do whatever they want.
When the fair arrives, we know we can detect a "nip in the air" at night which indicates that fall is near. In past times we'd drive along East 7th Street and see the high school football team practicing for the new season: another big sign of the change of seasons.
You look at the old school property now and it's hard to imagine it was once the school site. It's impossible to imagine the actual school building standing there on the west end of it. Man, if the walls of that place could talk. The boomer generation went through there. Much of the boomer generation had to worry about the Vietnam war. For the boys the war could mean losing their life at a tender young age. And for what? Nothing.
Crazy as Donald Trump seems today, I'd suggest that nothing was worse than what Lyndon Johnson put us through.
An important final note: I may be risking my own personal safety and livelihood if I continue criticizing Trump. The "retribution" has started. People who have made offhand tasteless comments since the assassination attempt are losing their jobs overnight. We saw news reports about this last week. The comments may have been tasteless but this is commonplace through American life in overheated moments.
But people are now losing their jobs and it is life-changing.
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| Glenn Youngkin |
One thing that happens with totalitarian governments, is that you lose your freedom of speech. It has started.
My goal will simply be to live as long as I can. Let me repeat: The biggest risk with Trump is when he takes over the Federal Reserve. This will surely happen. Billionaires want nothing more than to have interest rates pushed down to near-zero or zero again. Get ready for new significant waves of inflation. Are you prepared? Do you have the stomach for it?
Addendum: Recalling the summer iteration of PPD, we might readily remember the Killoran stage at the park. I think people would suggest that was the highlight time of year for the stage. Can you name for me another time when it gets used? The Morris Community Church used to use it on summer weekends. Then the church went out of existence - strange really. Why couldn't the church keep using the high school auditorium? Were they charged too much rent? I'm sure those were the kind of people who'd be real gentle using the facility.
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| Killoran stage at park |
An outdoor stage is a saleable idea for a community. Maybe ours should be out further from residential neighborhoods. Just think out by the boondoggle softball complex or the boondoggle water treatment plant or even the horticulture garden.
And is the hort. garden being managed by volunteers now? I walked up there recently and there aren't as many flower plots as there used to be. They will send you a letter at the end of the year talking about how desperate they are for $. Last year for the first time I passed on that appeal.
As for supporting the U of M, I have mixed thoughts. Will we start to see buildings torn down on campus like what is happening on a widespread scale at St. Cloud State? Closures and demolition? Do we really need "barns" on the UMM campus? Barns are a total throwback. And you know what they say: nostalgia isn't what it used to be.
Addendum #2:
From an email I sent to Warrenn Anderson this morning (Sunday):
Team USA of women's basketball lost to Caitlin Clark's team last night!!! Wow. Until this year I would have not paid any attention to the game. I watched it live last night. Lately Clark is developing more of a reputation for assists than points. She and Angel Reese worked together spectacularly last night.
Cheryl Reeve coaches Team USA. She had a bias for the older players. However, her mandate was to assemble the most competitive team, at least that's my understanding.
I worry about Caitlin sometimes like how she might develop the "yips" for her long-range shooting.
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com
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