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[VAN DELL JORDAN <vdjor AT yahoo.com>]

Gene, 
I am always impressed with your quiet, rational, dare
I call it wisdom, comments.
And you remember to change the subject, which I almost
always forget.
Van Dell



--- Gene GeRue <genegerue AT ruralize.com> wrote:

> 
> >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. 
> 
> 
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