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[Gene GeRue <genegerue AT ruralize.com>]

> I would be interested in a little feedback.  I'm sure
> that along with our preference for self sufficiency
> most of us are concerned with our local communities.
> Or is that just my ideal?

It is a common ideal to cherish and support one's community. Seems to 
me that the closer one lives to a small town the more involved one is 
in community affairs and the greater the affection. One of my essays 
is titled Country Neighbors are More Important than City Neighbors.

Our nearest town is Gainesville, Missouri, population 632, fourteen 
miles distant via state-maintained blacktop, the trip often made 
without seeing another car. It is the county seat, the courthouse 
sits in the middle of the square surrounded by maple trees, a 
memorial gazebo and a small log cabin that once sat on our neighbor's 
property by the spring that sustains our stream year-round. Besides 
the courthouse, the backbone of the town is the bank which has 
prospered over four generations of the Harlin family. Most of us are 
on first-name basis with the president and we are addressed by name 
when we show up. The first president made me a loan on this place 
thirty years ago based on my phone call as a stranger. He sent me a 
one-page form to fill out so he would have something in the file to 
comply with banking rules.

I shop at the hardware store and the auto parts store because they 
are closest, they have good inventory, they are locally owned and 
because they are friendly. As is common, the hardware store has a 
much larger inventory than the nearest WalMart, which is another 
half-hour down the road. I tell people that we must support the 
hardware store even though their prices are a bit high.

The same case exists with the building supply place, although I have 
less sympathy there because it is not locally owned. (The original 
lumber yard fronted on the square. I bought roofing shingles there 
shortly after I bought this place in 1976. I gave them my California 
check. They looked at it and commented on my name but did not ask for 
identification. No, that's not why they closed.) Home Depot and Lowes 
are only a half-hour further, have far larger inventories and better 
prices. We use all three based on need and the size of the purchase.

Chris likes nice restaurants and was delighted that the bank 
president and his wife bought and rebuilt the old family home and 
turned it into the best restaurant in the county. The bank 
president's wife runs the place, is the hostess, and her brother is 
the chef. Chris also likes good wine and the selection at the 
Gainesville Antler Package Store sucks, so she buys in West Plains, 
Missouri, about an hour distant, where also is the WalMart Supercenter.

WalMart requires separate comment. Many of us have an easily 
understood love-hate relationship as do I. In our case it destroyed a 
few small businesses. One fair question is whether those small 
businesses were being run well. Sam Walton started in a small town 
and worked very hard and very smart, a superb American success story. 
Power corrupts and I find it amazing that the company still seems to 
possess some admirable community values, or is that simply good 
business? Yes, I think so. I must admit to liking the modern general 
store design. One-stop shopping. I don't like their paucity of 
hardware based on hard-nosed business choices. I do like that I am 
seeing organic items on the shelves. They have a superb business 
model and they are here to stay. They are dependable. They provide 
lots of jobs, though of modest wages. Like it or don't, WalMart is a 
clear sign of the future. From here on out specialty stores will be 
run smarter and will appeal to small niches of shoppers.