Letters, We Get Letters

Sometimes the Letters to the Editor in our local paper are better reading than the comics.






Petitions are once again being circulated to get the wet/dry issue on the ballot in 2008. This happens every ten years or so, and if it manages to get on the ballot, it always goes down in flames, thanks to the cooperation between the local churches and the owners of the liquor stores in the counties surrounding us and just across the border into Missouri.


There have already been pro and con letters to the editor of the local newspaper - mostly con. In fact, in today's paper, one woman pulled out all the stops and suggested that we would have taverns and liquor stores on every corner of the square and a few in between. She said they would smell bad and that there would be pitiful little children sitting outside on the curb while their parents were inside drinking themselves numb. She really warms to her subject, doesn't she? It'll get more emotional and funnier before it's over.

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Another letter writer is awed by the newly decorated Fashion Mall. She loves all the plants and flowers and the colorful dragons hanging from the ceilings. And, she wonders if the mall has new owners. We may never be able to answer that question, though, because the mall has never been locally owned and has changed hands without fanfare several times over the years.


One of the things she likes most is someone's idea of putting stuffed animals in the windows of all of the empty stores, making the mall seem more "vibrant".


She ended by saying that the mall was being kept nice and clean and smelling good and was a wonderful place to walk! Funny, I have always believed that the main purpose of the mall was shopping, but her comment gave me an idea.


Why not turn the mall into a huge gym, with facilities for rehab? The mall walkers would be welcome there, and there could be an indoor pool in one of the larger empty spaces once occupied by various enterprises. Other adjoining empty spaces can be turned into dressing rooms and showers.

We have plenty of room for weight training and aerobics and gymnastics, even! A couple of the spaces have been used as sandwich shops or pizza parlors in the past. They could be turned into cafes with healthy menus, featuring tofu and alfalfa sprouts, and a variety of sticks and twigs that health food nuts like to eat.


There is room, also for a large store that would sell walking shoes, bathing suits, mats for the yoga crowd, and all sorts of exercise clothing and think of the equipment that could be sold! Oh, the possibilities are endless!


Come to think of it, this idea might not be as crazy as it sounds. Damn, I'm good!

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Harvest Homecoming, one of our two big festivals of the year, was held Oct. 4 and 5, and without much, if any fanfare. If there was anything in our local paper, I didn't see it. And, it should have been very hard to miss - big headlines, lists of attractions, schedules for various events, bands playing on the square for a Saturday night street dance.


This is an extravaganza presented by the Main Street group each year. Without a lot of advertising, I wonder if anyone attended.


Next weekend, Turkey Trot in Yellville. Should be interesting this year, since Marion county voted to go wet. You know, what with all those whiskey fumes emanating from the liquor stores on every corner and the taverns with the poor little children crying on the curb.