Did anybody catch that made for TV movie, "The Andromeda Strain" on the Biography Channel over the Memorial Day week-end? They're still airing it, in case you didn't see it. I didn't watch the whole thing. But I was watching the commercials.
On May 1st, at the Superior Town Council meeting, the businessman who owns the bar/restaurant that is never open appeared before the council and asked permission for a commercial for Ford be filmed in town. It would take part of Friday afternoon and most of the day on Saturday and involve closing portions of Main Street for filming. In his words, this Ford commercial would be aired during the release of the remake of "The Andromeda Strain" and would look something like this: A couple would be traveling on a long journey and come through our town, taking a careful look at Main Street and be so intrigued with it, then go about their business and wind up at a big casino (presumably Vegas) but remember our town longingly with the end result being Superior's Main Street superimposed with the Manhattan skyline in the background. The gist of the commercial would be that the journey is more fun than the destination. (Sounds like Harley Davidson's advertising, huh?)
So the Mayor and the Town Council gave their approval and the Ford people gave the council a measly $750. for the recreation fund. (Let me tell you, Superior, the Going Rate for commercials up here in Marin County is WAY more than $750! You could have held out for more!)
Anyway, I wanted to watch the movie to see how they portrayed our town. Goodness knows, Superior has been having some Hard Times lately getting the ball rolling economically and maybe this would add some impetus to it. HARDLY! The ad I saw showed an attractive young couple drive into Main Street and park and get out. The montage quickly showed shot after shot of our decaying downtown buildings, notably the ones owned by the professor in Tempe who buys up all the Main Street business buildings and then waits and lets them rot away... (the why? hasn't been made clear to me yet). The girl looks to the guy, pulling her jacket closer around her (obviously the commercial made it look like it was real cold that day, instead of the ninety five degrees it really was when they filmed) and she whines, "This is spooky! Let's get outa here!" And they jump in the pretty Ford Focus and speed out of town and arrive breathlessly seconds later at a rockin' rollin' casino with lots of neon and scantily dressed young people falling out of it.
I was astounded and upset over it! Once again, Big Business had set about to show our pretty little town in a bad light. Will they never stop? What is about the purity and simplicity of Superior that we all love that makes business and society yank it down and mess it up? I think next time a commercial is made in Superior, the Council and the Mayor better be asking some more detailed questions and ask to see a storyboard before agreeing to what one man's version of the commercial will be. ... And ask for more than $750, why don't you? If the movie people are that hot to use our town, the least we could do is ask for $1,500!
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
Grandma Duty
Oh, it's good to resume Grandma-Duty again now that I've returned to Dillon Beach. I was unprepared for how many unanswered questions the children have been storing up for me, or the adventures they have planned for the summer. In their eyes, I'm still a peer-aged playmate, not some doddy old woman looking at getting older. They're looking to me to help supply them with a Sun-Filled-Action-Packed-Summer-of-Fun! (Goodness, what a big order!)
Also, I need to apologize for taking so long to resume the Blog. I hadn't realized how integral good wireless connections were to the Blog and though I've supposedly 'reconnected' with the wireless company we used to have here in Dillon Beach, they tell me it will be another two to three weeks before I'm 'wired up', so that leaves a crackly phone line connection for the time being, and some days it just plain doesn't work!
Okay, so that's my excuse, now on with the Grandma Thing. Charlie, still, calls me Mackey. He probably always will. It was his special name for me when he was about eighteen or twenty months old and it doesn't matter if he'll turn nine in the fall, he'll probably still be calling me Mackey when he's thirty. Sage, though, well, he was loathe at some point to call me "Mackey" and this past year he is very pointedly calling me, "Grandma", every sound and syllable firmly intact. Sage has just completed a semester of speech training in kindergarten and delights in pronouncing some old 'hard' words, like "yellow" and "railroad" with exquisite clarity. The time was right for the training and the little guy's sweet little lisp and inability to pronouce "r's" are now a thing of the past. (Doggone it! It was pretty cute!) The speech training seemingly opened up worlds for Sage to talk about as well. There was a time when he was two and a half that I worried he'd ever be a talker. His brother interpreted most of his wants and I worried that he'd ever fully express himself. I needn't have. He is expressing himself wonderfully well.
I celebrated my birthday last week and for my present, I have invited my sons and their families out to a family fun center for an evening of raucous fun, particularly water bumper boats and Indie car rides, Laser tag and the multitudinous video arcade. Sage is wildly excited and hopes he has grown tall enough to partake in some of the activities that were closed to him last year.
I was resting on the couch, trying to read a book when he climbed up behind me and hung over the back of the couch. "I wonder if they still have the pinball game, Grandma. I hope they do! Do you think I'll be tall enough to play that pinball game this year?"
"I don't know, Sage. I hope you will be..."
"Well, I HOPE I'm tall enough to play that pinball game. I have grown this year. Last year, let's see.... it was about to here on me and I couldn't see to play it. But you know, I've grown a lot taller now so I hope I'm tall enough to play that pinball game."
"I hope so!" I agreed, (trying to find the place in my book again).
"Well, I might be tall enough. And if I'm not, do you think they'd have a stool I could stand on to play the game? Or a chair! I could just drag a chair over and stand on that. Then I could play that game!"
"I doubt they would let you stand on a chair, Sage," I warned, (my place in the book permanently lost again).
"Well, the pinball game I want to play is right against that wall and there were chairs right there! I bet I could stand on one of them."
"We'll see..."
"I sure hope I'm tall enough. I certainly would like to play that pinball game!"
Tonight's the night for the Big Event. I'll have to blog about the outcome in a few days. Stay tuned!
Also, I need to apologize for taking so long to resume the Blog. I hadn't realized how integral good wireless connections were to the Blog and though I've supposedly 'reconnected' with the wireless company we used to have here in Dillon Beach, they tell me it will be another two to three weeks before I'm 'wired up', so that leaves a crackly phone line connection for the time being, and some days it just plain doesn't work!
Okay, so that's my excuse, now on with the Grandma Thing. Charlie, still, calls me Mackey. He probably always will. It was his special name for me when he was about eighteen or twenty months old and it doesn't matter if he'll turn nine in the fall, he'll probably still be calling me Mackey when he's thirty. Sage, though, well, he was loathe at some point to call me "Mackey" and this past year he is very pointedly calling me, "Grandma", every sound and syllable firmly intact. Sage has just completed a semester of speech training in kindergarten and delights in pronouncing some old 'hard' words, like "yellow" and "railroad" with exquisite clarity. The time was right for the training and the little guy's sweet little lisp and inability to pronouce "r's" are now a thing of the past. (Doggone it! It was pretty cute!) The speech training seemingly opened up worlds for Sage to talk about as well. There was a time when he was two and a half that I worried he'd ever be a talker. His brother interpreted most of his wants and I worried that he'd ever fully express himself. I needn't have. He is expressing himself wonderfully well.
I celebrated my birthday last week and for my present, I have invited my sons and their families out to a family fun center for an evening of raucous fun, particularly water bumper boats and Indie car rides, Laser tag and the multitudinous video arcade. Sage is wildly excited and hopes he has grown tall enough to partake in some of the activities that were closed to him last year.
I was resting on the couch, trying to read a book when he climbed up behind me and hung over the back of the couch. "I wonder if they still have the pinball game, Grandma. I hope they do! Do you think I'll be tall enough to play that pinball game this year?"
"I don't know, Sage. I hope you will be..."
"Well, I HOPE I'm tall enough to play that pinball game. I have grown this year. Last year, let's see.... it was about to here on me and I couldn't see to play it. But you know, I've grown a lot taller now so I hope I'm tall enough to play that pinball game."
"I hope so!" I agreed, (trying to find the place in my book again).
"Well, I might be tall enough. And if I'm not, do you think they'd have a stool I could stand on to play the game? Or a chair! I could just drag a chair over and stand on that. Then I could play that game!"
"I doubt they would let you stand on a chair, Sage," I warned, (my place in the book permanently lost again).
"Well, the pinball game I want to play is right against that wall and there were chairs right there! I bet I could stand on one of them."
"We'll see..."
"I sure hope I'm tall enough. I certainly would like to play that pinball game!"
Tonight's the night for the Big Event. I'll have to blog about the outcome in a few days. Stay tuned!
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Headin' Back
My five month 'vacation' from Lawson's Landing has come to an end and today I find myself heading back for the summer to help with the vacationing crowd. I have my two macaws caged up in big carriers in the back of the Explorer. Sacks of bird seed and cat food is safely tucked behind them. In the back seat are the two cats, Spooky and Kickers, also tucked into their traveling cages. They meow plaintively for the first hour, then settle back hopelessly for the rest of the seventeen hour trip. Next to me on the front seat is my African Parrot, Sam in a smaller traveling cage. He's much the happier of all the five pets, whistling short bits of stage tunes or spicing up the silence with "Hello!" "How are ya?" When the going gets too long for him, or the traffic gets heavy, he senses my mood and begins a loud anxious barking. I think it's just to get me to yell back at him.
Bill is leading the pack in his Trooper. He will have the uncaged, squirmy puppy, Chuy riding with him. Chuy has his own sheepskin pad on the front seat that he should sleep on, but invariably feels more at peace, curling up in Bill's lap and resting his head on the arm rest.
So that's what we're doing today. I'm going to miss our little casa, maybe not these hundred and ten degree days so much, but the town and our house. It is finally feeling like home to me. I can walk along the street and folks will greet me with a wave and smile or a greeting and certain friends will toot their horn when they see us walking and they pass by in a car. That's what I like about the little town. For the most part, everyone has been real sweet and welcoming and I don't feel like a Newcomer so much.
No, I didn't get to do all the things I had planned to do this winter/spring. There's a pile of books left unread I haven't gotten to yet. The garden is only about a third finished and I've plans for more. The furniture I was going to refinish? Not a speck of it started! And there's lots more areas we didn't get to explore in the desert. But that's okay, because I'll be back in the fall and then I'm hoping to discover even more things about this fascinating little town that I am calling "Home"!
Bill is leading the pack in his Trooper. He will have the uncaged, squirmy puppy, Chuy riding with him. Chuy has his own sheepskin pad on the front seat that he should sleep on, but invariably feels more at peace, curling up in Bill's lap and resting his head on the arm rest.
So that's what we're doing today. I'm going to miss our little casa, maybe not these hundred and ten degree days so much, but the town and our house. It is finally feeling like home to me. I can walk along the street and folks will greet me with a wave and smile or a greeting and certain friends will toot their horn when they see us walking and they pass by in a car. That's what I like about the little town. For the most part, everyone has been real sweet and welcoming and I don't feel like a Newcomer so much.
No, I didn't get to do all the things I had planned to do this winter/spring. There's a pile of books left unread I haven't gotten to yet. The garden is only about a third finished and I've plans for more. The furniture I was going to refinish? Not a speck of it started! And there's lots more areas we didn't get to explore in the desert. But that's okay, because I'll be back in the fall and then I'm hoping to discover even more things about this fascinating little town that I am calling "Home"!
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
The Land Exchange Bill
Time marches on and debate still rages or at least continues on the controversial "Southeast Arizona Land Exchange and Conservation Act" otherwise known as S.1862. Currently, the bill is before the Energy and Natural Resources Committee in the Senate. It has until November or December of this year (end of the year recess) to pass or not. And according to the Washington D.C.'s watch on bills, S.1862 is currently 62% Against and 38% For.
I know that our Mayor of Superior is going to the Senate sometime this month or perhaps in June, whenever the bill comes up for a hearing in that committee. He is speaking FOR the passage of the bill, with reservations. The reservations are that there must be some provisions for environmental factors in the land exchange, so that Resolution Copper won't just be given the sacred Apache Leap area all free and clear with no oversight on how the best way to get the millions of gallons of heavy mineral water out of the mountain without polluting the water supply of northeast Pinal County.
There is still no dialogue between the Apache Nation and Resolution Copper, something that is required in the Land Exchange. The copper company says succinctly that the Native Americans refuse to talk with them. And that's right, because the Apache Nation says their heads of state will speak with the U.S. government's heads of state, not some international conglomerate company. So right there, is a major stumbling block, I would think. But you know elected officials: if it's something they want, they'll sail right through and ignore their own laws.
The fact of the Mine then still lays like a big boulder in the future of Superior's Main Street. You can't deal with it, without stumbling over it someway or another. The Yes People are right: yes, it would create some jobs; get Superior back on the track that it's been derailed on since 1982 when Magma Copper closed; and give the town the impetus to get moving again. The No People are right too: no, because if the environmental rules are not followed it will create a serious health catastrophe for all the people of Superior and right down to Florence with heavy metals polluting the waters; no, because our federal government gave a promise to the Apache Nation in 1956 that Apache Leap Mountain area would not be touched for development or industry; and no, because if the claims of such a rich strain of copper is found at Apache Leap then shouldn't it be used for U.S. gain rather than a foreign entity?
Man, these are Big Questions and Big Debates. I don't know that any of our elected officials are up to dealing with them fairly.
I know that our Mayor of Superior is going to the Senate sometime this month or perhaps in June, whenever the bill comes up for a hearing in that committee. He is speaking FOR the passage of the bill, with reservations. The reservations are that there must be some provisions for environmental factors in the land exchange, so that Resolution Copper won't just be given the sacred Apache Leap area all free and clear with no oversight on how the best way to get the millions of gallons of heavy mineral water out of the mountain without polluting the water supply of northeast Pinal County.
There is still no dialogue between the Apache Nation and Resolution Copper, something that is required in the Land Exchange. The copper company says succinctly that the Native Americans refuse to talk with them. And that's right, because the Apache Nation says their heads of state will speak with the U.S. government's heads of state, not some international conglomerate company. So right there, is a major stumbling block, I would think. But you know elected officials: if it's something they want, they'll sail right through and ignore their own laws.
The fact of the Mine then still lays like a big boulder in the future of Superior's Main Street. You can't deal with it, without stumbling over it someway or another. The Yes People are right: yes, it would create some jobs; get Superior back on the track that it's been derailed on since 1982 when Magma Copper closed; and give the town the impetus to get moving again. The No People are right too: no, because if the environmental rules are not followed it will create a serious health catastrophe for all the people of Superior and right down to Florence with heavy metals polluting the waters; no, because our federal government gave a promise to the Apache Nation in 1956 that Apache Leap Mountain area would not be touched for development or industry; and no, because if the claims of such a rich strain of copper is found at Apache Leap then shouldn't it be used for U.S. gain rather than a foreign entity?
Man, these are Big Questions and Big Debates. I don't know that any of our elected officials are up to dealing with them fairly.
Saturday, May 17, 2008
Dress Less
For the better part of my fifty-nine years, I have dressed in an unvarying uniform of sweatshirt/tee shirt and jeans. It served me well at fourteen and felt comfortable enough in the years as a young mother and by the time my forties and fifties came, why bother to change? So it has been rather a 'shock' to the old "Same ol' same ol'" to have the opportunity here in Arizona to wear shorts and tank tops and dare I say it... sundresses?
I have always had a soft spot for sundresses, mostly because living in Dillon Beach, one didn't have much call for them. But I'd buy one whenever one would take my fancy and if we were vacationing in Mexico or Hawaii or a warm weather Caribbean climate, then I'd trot one out and wear it. A sundress makes one feel airy and light and cool and almost like a child again. A sundress is just something I could never take on a daily basis. Until we moved to Superior, that is.
Shorts are fine. I've learned to show my legs and I must say I haven't been tanner in years. But donning a sundress and sandals for running uptown, well it just feels mannerly and grown up and the right thing to do. (Maybe it's my Southern roots emerging!)
When we closed up our house in Baja last year, I asked Bill to bring back a rust colored full skirted sundress I'd bought thirty years ago. It still fits and still looks good on me, so the other day before heading into town, I put it on. When my sister and I went into a newly opened dress shop in Casa Grande, the saleslady commented on my dress saying how pretty it was. I agreed and told her it was thirty years old and time to buy a new dress. I emerged with not one, but two dresses. They liked me both and didn't want to be stuck back on their hangers in the store. Suddenly, my closet was getting smaller.
A few days later, I put on another sundress, a little red coverup I'd bought in the sales brochure from Victoria Secret ten years ago (are my clothes all this old?) and wore to several different Caribbean resorts. Bill and I walked downtown to do some shopping. Our first shop was at a secondhand shop. The owner is a beautiful flamboyant lady who prides herself on wearing smart vintage clothing. That day she was wearing a handpainted (big purple orchids on a turquoise background) sleek shift from the Seventies that put my little red knit number to shame. The one I like on her is heavily adorned with long swingy fringe. But she looks real good in most everything she puts on, maybe it's her honey gold locks. Whatever. The vintage shop lady in her vintage clothes. She's definitely into dresses.
Then we progressed uptown to another shop. Here, two sisters in their fifties were also wearing some nice little cotton frocks. When the temperature was hitting the low Nineties, it was the way to stay cool. One of their customers came in wearing black stilettos and a black mini skirt with an off the shoulder tunic adorned with long black fringe. Goodness... this was fun! Most of the time at the beach, my customers dress much the same as me: sweatshirt and jeans! This warm weather dressing could get to be fun.
So I've got my eye peeled for some vintage sundresses. I'm sure they're here somewhere. It will just take some time to open up a trunk filled with the right clothes and then I will blend right in. And leave my sweatshirts and jeans packed away for the beach visits.
I have always had a soft spot for sundresses, mostly because living in Dillon Beach, one didn't have much call for them. But I'd buy one whenever one would take my fancy and if we were vacationing in Mexico or Hawaii or a warm weather Caribbean climate, then I'd trot one out and wear it. A sundress makes one feel airy and light and cool and almost like a child again. A sundress is just something I could never take on a daily basis. Until we moved to Superior, that is.
Shorts are fine. I've learned to show my legs and I must say I haven't been tanner in years. But donning a sundress and sandals for running uptown, well it just feels mannerly and grown up and the right thing to do. (Maybe it's my Southern roots emerging!)
When we closed up our house in Baja last year, I asked Bill to bring back a rust colored full skirted sundress I'd bought thirty years ago. It still fits and still looks good on me, so the other day before heading into town, I put it on. When my sister and I went into a newly opened dress shop in Casa Grande, the saleslady commented on my dress saying how pretty it was. I agreed and told her it was thirty years old and time to buy a new dress. I emerged with not one, but two dresses. They liked me both and didn't want to be stuck back on their hangers in the store. Suddenly, my closet was getting smaller.
A few days later, I put on another sundress, a little red coverup I'd bought in the sales brochure from Victoria Secret ten years ago (are my clothes all this old?) and wore to several different Caribbean resorts. Bill and I walked downtown to do some shopping. Our first shop was at a secondhand shop. The owner is a beautiful flamboyant lady who prides herself on wearing smart vintage clothing. That day she was wearing a handpainted (big purple orchids on a turquoise background) sleek shift from the Seventies that put my little red knit number to shame. The one I like on her is heavily adorned with long swingy fringe. But she looks real good in most everything she puts on, maybe it's her honey gold locks. Whatever. The vintage shop lady in her vintage clothes. She's definitely into dresses.
Then we progressed uptown to another shop. Here, two sisters in their fifties were also wearing some nice little cotton frocks. When the temperature was hitting the low Nineties, it was the way to stay cool. One of their customers came in wearing black stilettos and a black mini skirt with an off the shoulder tunic adorned with long black fringe. Goodness... this was fun! Most of the time at the beach, my customers dress much the same as me: sweatshirt and jeans! This warm weather dressing could get to be fun.
So I've got my eye peeled for some vintage sundresses. I'm sure they're here somewhere. It will just take some time to open up a trunk filled with the right clothes and then I will blend right in. And leave my sweatshirts and jeans packed away for the beach visits.
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Queen of EBay
I have gotten myself heavily involved in selling my Something Fishy shirts on EBay this past week and have neglected my blog. Sorry... but this become addictive after a time. My first sale occurred the week after Easter while I was in Dillon Beach and though I continued 'selling' items the next month, I didn't have any sales.
The past two weeks, shirt sales took off. A Hawaiian guy in Kona liked the looks of my "Island Girls" shirt, a brightly colored red and blue and yellow creation with 1950's bathing beauties reclining in palm trees. I figured if I could sell Hawaiian shirts to genuine Hawaiians then I was off and running. So I started hammering away on the Island Girls shirts. And I found there were a lot of extra large and double extra large men on EBay looking for a way to stand out in a crowd!
I purposely kept the price low when I started out, selling them at about half the amount I normally would at the Landing. Bill said I was going to go broke slowly but I figured that was the best way to start. This past Monday, at the end of an auction on a 2XL shirt, I had my first bidding war going on. A man from California who badly wanted it for $20. was bid up to $36. before he 'won' it. The other dude emailed to ask if he could have a "Second Chance" at it, meaning, if I had a second shirt just like it, he would buy it at his highest bid, which was $35. I checked my stash of fabric. There was just enough of the Island Girls print to make a 2XL shirt. So Monday night I sent him a twenty four chance to buy the (still unmade) shirt for $35. and I danced gleefully around the living room telling Bill I was "Queen of EBay!"
Tuesday morning, I got the shirt cut out but didn't get to the actual sewing of it because I got busy with the purses I've been making and when the twenty-four hours was up on Tuesday evening, I was hurt to discover that the Second Chance Buyer was not interested in pursuing his chance at the Island Girls shirt after all. Since I had it cut out already, though not sewn, I posted another sale on EBay, adding that I was opening the bids at $25. but if someone wanted to, they could "Buy It Now!" for $35.
So Wednesday morning, I sat down and started sewing it up. There was a message on there first thing from a man in Texas asking how big the chest measurement was. I answered him and set to work. At one thirty, I took it off the machine and wrapped it up, and put it away. I went to the computer and fired it up and Lo and Behold! the man from Texas had weighed in thirty minutes before, struck the "Buy It Now!" button and paid by PayPal. He was ready for me it send it. I wrapped it up and delivered it to the post office before three o'clock.
Now... that's what I call Poppin'! And that's why, at least for a day, I felt like Queen of EBay.
The past two weeks, shirt sales took off. A Hawaiian guy in Kona liked the looks of my "Island Girls" shirt, a brightly colored red and blue and yellow creation with 1950's bathing beauties reclining in palm trees. I figured if I could sell Hawaiian shirts to genuine Hawaiians then I was off and running. So I started hammering away on the Island Girls shirts. And I found there were a lot of extra large and double extra large men on EBay looking for a way to stand out in a crowd!
I purposely kept the price low when I started out, selling them at about half the amount I normally would at the Landing. Bill said I was going to go broke slowly but I figured that was the best way to start. This past Monday, at the end of an auction on a 2XL shirt, I had my first bidding war going on. A man from California who badly wanted it for $20. was bid up to $36. before he 'won' it. The other dude emailed to ask if he could have a "Second Chance" at it, meaning, if I had a second shirt just like it, he would buy it at his highest bid, which was $35. I checked my stash of fabric. There was just enough of the Island Girls print to make a 2XL shirt. So Monday night I sent him a twenty four chance to buy the (still unmade) shirt for $35. and I danced gleefully around the living room telling Bill I was "Queen of EBay!"
Tuesday morning, I got the shirt cut out but didn't get to the actual sewing of it because I got busy with the purses I've been making and when the twenty-four hours was up on Tuesday evening, I was hurt to discover that the Second Chance Buyer was not interested in pursuing his chance at the Island Girls shirt after all. Since I had it cut out already, though not sewn, I posted another sale on EBay, adding that I was opening the bids at $25. but if someone wanted to, they could "Buy It Now!" for $35.
So Wednesday morning, I sat down and started sewing it up. There was a message on there first thing from a man in Texas asking how big the chest measurement was. I answered him and set to work. At one thirty, I took it off the machine and wrapped it up, and put it away. I went to the computer and fired it up and Lo and Behold! the man from Texas had weighed in thirty minutes before, struck the "Buy It Now!" button and paid by PayPal. He was ready for me it send it. I wrapped it up and delivered it to the post office before three o'clock.
Now... that's what I call Poppin'! And that's why, at least for a day, I felt like Queen of EBay.
Saturday, May 10, 2008
Superior Business
Business on Main Street is getting weary and I am wondering if it is because of the Recession that is on us or if the fact of running a business in a modern day ghost town takes its toll after a few months. This morning, Bill and I spent poking around the few stores open in our fair city looking for a suitable Mother's Day gift for me. The stores on Highway 60 were open and we greeted a few friends we knew at one of the shops down there. Traffic was whizzing by on a warm May day and prospects for doing more business looking promising.
We headed uptown to check out the shops on Main Street. One gift shop had already put a notice on her door that today she'd be open at ten AM and she was having a "Going Out of Business" sale. She's had some real Hard Times this year in her family and hadn't been open since the first of March. So seeing her "Going Out of Business" sign wasn't surprising. Sad, though. At ten fifteen, she still wasn't open so we urged Chuy up Magma Street to check out a yard sale that was advertised. I met an extremely chatty four year old, named Julia, who tried to sell me her doll with cerise pink hair. "She smells of cotton candy!" the child commended. "Or you could buy this one..." (It was an identical match to the pink haired doll but had bright purple hair), "but she smells like bubble gum!" (Julia, you'll make a fine sales lady someday!) But no, I resisted and bought one of her grandma's old cookbooks instead.
The Going Out of Business shop still hadn't opened when we returned to Main Street so we walked downtown to another store that's only open on the week-ends. It's run by two convivial ladies and they were having a massive "Fifteen Percent Off Everything In The Store!" sale, so of course, I had to duck in and check things out. I picked out a couple of trays and a bright green wicker basket and talked to the ladies as they rang up my purchases. I told them about the demise of the shop down the street and said how sorry I was that she would be leaving. They tsked-tsked themselves, then one lowered her voice and said she expected that they too would be calling it quits when the torpid summer days set in. (Yeah, you hardly find any shops open in July and August in this neck of the woods. I guess folks just get too hot to shop and take off for the beach.) But instead of just closing for a few months, they'd be closing up and leaving. Being open on the week-ends was just not bringing in enough cash to pay the rent and meet their bills.
I am sorry to see them leave. It won't leave hardly anything open and won't provide even a casual shopper an excuse to come peruse Main Street. It shocks me to see how dreary business is done in this town. For instance, at the beginning of Main Street, is a fairly new (opened last year) restaurant/bar. It has a top of the line building and an adjoining garden patio area. When they were open one day in January, the owner told us excitedly of his plans to have Ladies Night on Thursdays, and each week-end during February and March he had some sort of entertainment planned to drum up business. He ennumerated so many plans I asked him if he had a website I might refer to. He said, yes, soon, it would be up and running. Well, since that long ago day in January, we've found him open only about half a dozen times. Most days, even week-ends, it's shut up tighter than a drum with only a "Closed" sign on the door, never any mention as to when he might possibly be open. Townspeople fume to each other about the strangeness of a brand new business being more closed than open and "What's with that?" There's a rumor that it might be for sale. But mostly, the "Closed" sign is what you see.
Last week, I took an afternoon business seminar given by the Central Arizona College in conjunction with the Small Business Administration. The goal is to create more businesses in Pinal County. The instructor told us to prepare a business plan for what we expect to do in this community. Here's my plan: I'm going to rent one of the dilapidated storefronts on Main Street. I'll gussy up the front of it with bright colored rainbow paint. Bill will sell framed prints from this Australian Outback artist he's fond of and who is trying to get a following in this country. I'll stock it with my Something Fishy Hawaiian print shirts I've been sewing and the patchwork and drawstring bags Gloria and I have been working on. We'll be open only once or twice a month. We'll send fliers out to the locals and take advertisements in the local papers on the week-ends when we will be open so folks will get excited and come out and see what we're offering. And you know what I'm going to call it? Superior's "Never Open" Shop! So when the few days a month when we are open, it will be a red letter day for Superior. What can be any different than the way things are done now?
We headed uptown to check out the shops on Main Street. One gift shop had already put a notice on her door that today she'd be open at ten AM and she was having a "Going Out of Business" sale. She's had some real Hard Times this year in her family and hadn't been open since the first of March. So seeing her "Going Out of Business" sign wasn't surprising. Sad, though. At ten fifteen, she still wasn't open so we urged Chuy up Magma Street to check out a yard sale that was advertised. I met an extremely chatty four year old, named Julia, who tried to sell me her doll with cerise pink hair. "She smells of cotton candy!" the child commended. "Or you could buy this one..." (It was an identical match to the pink haired doll but had bright purple hair), "but she smells like bubble gum!" (Julia, you'll make a fine sales lady someday!) But no, I resisted and bought one of her grandma's old cookbooks instead.
The Going Out of Business shop still hadn't opened when we returned to Main Street so we walked downtown to another store that's only open on the week-ends. It's run by two convivial ladies and they were having a massive "Fifteen Percent Off Everything In The Store!" sale, so of course, I had to duck in and check things out. I picked out a couple of trays and a bright green wicker basket and talked to the ladies as they rang up my purchases. I told them about the demise of the shop down the street and said how sorry I was that she would be leaving. They tsked-tsked themselves, then one lowered her voice and said she expected that they too would be calling it quits when the torpid summer days set in. (Yeah, you hardly find any shops open in July and August in this neck of the woods. I guess folks just get too hot to shop and take off for the beach.) But instead of just closing for a few months, they'd be closing up and leaving. Being open on the week-ends was just not bringing in enough cash to pay the rent and meet their bills.
I am sorry to see them leave. It won't leave hardly anything open and won't provide even a casual shopper an excuse to come peruse Main Street. It shocks me to see how dreary business is done in this town. For instance, at the beginning of Main Street, is a fairly new (opened last year) restaurant/bar. It has a top of the line building and an adjoining garden patio area. When they were open one day in January, the owner told us excitedly of his plans to have Ladies Night on Thursdays, and each week-end during February and March he had some sort of entertainment planned to drum up business. He ennumerated so many plans I asked him if he had a website I might refer to. He said, yes, soon, it would be up and running. Well, since that long ago day in January, we've found him open only about half a dozen times. Most days, even week-ends, it's shut up tighter than a drum with only a "Closed" sign on the door, never any mention as to when he might possibly be open. Townspeople fume to each other about the strangeness of a brand new business being more closed than open and "What's with that?" There's a rumor that it might be for sale. But mostly, the "Closed" sign is what you see.
Last week, I took an afternoon business seminar given by the Central Arizona College in conjunction with the Small Business Administration. The goal is to create more businesses in Pinal County. The instructor told us to prepare a business plan for what we expect to do in this community. Here's my plan: I'm going to rent one of the dilapidated storefronts on Main Street. I'll gussy up the front of it with bright colored rainbow paint. Bill will sell framed prints from this Australian Outback artist he's fond of and who is trying to get a following in this country. I'll stock it with my Something Fishy Hawaiian print shirts I've been sewing and the patchwork and drawstring bags Gloria and I have been working on. We'll be open only once or twice a month. We'll send fliers out to the locals and take advertisements in the local papers on the week-ends when we will be open so folks will get excited and come out and see what we're offering. And you know what I'm going to call it? Superior's "Never Open" Shop! So when the few days a month when we are open, it will be a red letter day for Superior. What can be any different than the way things are done now?
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