More Miscellaneous Stuff

This little town I live in has been around since the Revolutionary War. TB found a website once that told him this town has had its share of good times and bad. I think it hit a height in the 1920s if I remember correctly. It was almost like a resort town. The natural lake reflects trees, sky, and any buildings like a mirror. Wikipedia says the median income for a family is around $45,000. I can tell you, with the cost of things these days that income isn't so great.

When we moved here almost 10 years ago, it didn't seem so run down. It was a middle class town with a barber, beauty parlor, library, grocery store, a few clothes stores, a shoe store, an ice cream parlor, a couple of fast food joints and too many auto parts stores.

There are two shopping centers not far from each other. One is the place everyone goes and the other is an eyesore. The owner of the eyesore gets some kind of tax breaks or something on the losses from the place and so he has no interest in improving things. At one point everyone wanted the place condemned including the town government. Somehow it didn't happen. The derelict lot is still there, bleak and ugly as ever.

We have a homeless population that has grown over the years. Many of them live in the woods. There's a hotel in town that provides shelter for the lucky ones.

There's supposed to be a couple of drug nests in town. I know where these places are and don't go there. I've never seen drugs bought or dealt anywhere I've been.

There's nothing for young people to do around here except go to the library. The nearest movie theater is about 20 miles away; same with the nearest mall. Luckily, we do have doctors and a couple of dentists here. Otherwise, we'd have to travel about 20 miles to find one.

I was ranting about the lack of public transportation around here. You really need a car to get anywhere, including the grocery store. Not everyone (including us) is lucky enough to live in walking distance of places we need.

Like I said, it just seemed like a middle class town when we moved here. Now, though, it's gotten older, sadder and poorer...like us.

I thought about boycotting Walmart and grocery stores but I don't think I'd be able to. With all the money those places make, they could treat their employees better. Part-timers get no benefits and these places like to schedule their employees up to an hour below full time just so they don't have to give them benefits. Walmart's benefits for full time employees will be going up as much as 60%. People don't make that much in those places. They'd have to decide between eating or paying bills or the health insurance. The other thing they do is suddenly cut the hours of their employees and hire a whole bunch of new ones. Employees can't be sure from week to week how long they'll be working.

If there was a Boycott Walmart day or week, I'd do it. I don't think I'd do it on my own because it would hurt me and my family and I don't want that. I can save a lot of money on groceries getting things at Walmart. That savings goes into our account for emergencies and things we need. It's about $5 or so here and there but it adds up!

As for boycotting the grocery stores...they all engage in this practice with their employees. I can shop less at grocery stores but there are still some things they carry I can't get elsewhere.

I wonder if there's another effective way of letting the grocery stores know I'm not pleased with them?

TB's recovering from his tooth extraction and hernia operation. He's very sore and hasn't much appetite and is sleeping a lot, but I guess that's to be expected. He sees his surgeon tomorrow. He has another tooth that is on its way out and it would be nice to save it but I doubt we can afford the root canal. So it goes.

Golden Oldies and Classic Rock

Wow, I've made it into the age of dinosaurs when it comes to listening to music! I say that only because I sort of arrogantly thought that about music from my grandparents' and parents' era. My parents didn't actually listen to any one kind of music. They just loved anything that had a strong beat they could dance to. When I was much younger I remember the "oldies" stations were playing music from the '40s, lots of big band stuff. I actually liked it but would never admit that to my friends. The music now relegated to oldies and classic rock is now the music I listened to as a teenager and young adult!

In the '70s and through the early '80s, I loved to listen to Casey Kasem's Top 40 program. He would broadcast the forty hits of the country every week. I loved tracking the songs climbing up and down the charts. Recently, I discovered that one of my stations plays a recording of Kasem's show on Saturday mornings. On our very busy day yesterday, we got to listen to some of the hits from the week of October 20, 1979.

I remember three songs specifically because I hadn't heard them in ages: "Tusk" by Fleetwood Mac, "Dirty White Boy" by Foreigner and "Lonesome Loser" by the Little River Band. I was really delighted to hear these songs again, particularly "Tusk" because I always thought it was cool they played with a marching band.

It did bring up a pet peeve about the stations I listen to though. They play the same songs over and over. I always hear "Dreams" or "Go Your Own Way" by Fleetwood Mac. I always hear "Urgent" or "Head Games" by Foreigner. I can't remember the last thing I ever heard by Little River Band.

Why is that? I think it's because the play lists are preprogrammed and are on a CD or something that the DJs use over and over. I remember when DJs used to play vinyl and they could choose what they wanted to play, including deep cuts off the album. It just isn't that way with the stations I listen to.

I miss it! I wish the DJs had DVDs of the various groups and would play different songs from the times. As it is now, I listen to one until I'm sick of the play list and then I switch to the other. When I'm sick of both of them, I drag out all my DVDs and listen to them.

Bring variety to oldies and classic rock stations!