My Hometown

I'd like to tell you about the little town I live in.  It's called
Atariville.  It's a nice, small community, out a ways from the better
known, and bigger, cities of Macopolis and Big Blue City.  But it's a nice
little place, with quite a bit to offer its citizens.  We have stores to
shop in, clubs to belong to, and even politics to get involved in, should
we be of that mind.

But, our little town is in trouble, folks, and I want to tell you about it.

Our town fathers, who have run the place since it began, rule with an iron
fist.  Well, they try to, anyways.  They come up with all kinds of
particular ways to make the town into what they want it to be.  But, being
independent sorts, someone always seems to come along and do it some
other way.  We can feel the heat coming from town hall, and sometimes even
hear a cuss word or two, but folks here like to think that they have some
brains, too.  And that just maybe, the town fathers don't always know
what's best for Atariville.  And judging from the way our community has
diminished, that may not be wrong.  I guess problems happen when you don't
listen enough to the citizens, and make up rules without regard to what
they want, or need.

I won't even go into the rest of the political situation.  Like anywhere,
most of the politicians are in it for themselves, and rarely represent
the actual interests of the citizens.  We got crusaders, out to save us
from ourselves.  We got good ol' boys, set in their ways and not about
to change for nobody.  We got sheep, who follow the town fathers wherever
they get led, even if it is to the slaughterhouse.  But mostly, we got a
bunch of folks who just want to live their lives, the best they can.

Now, if the community was strong, and healthy, we could withstand a lot
of that politics stuff.  But that just isn't the case, and all that
politicin' just makes things worse, sometimes.  If those folks'd spend a
little less time trying to get in good with the town fathers, and a
little more time trying to help the community, we'd be in a lot better
shape.  We just can't afford any more petty bickering amongst ourselves.
Atariville is losing folks all the time to the lure of the big city, and
our storekeepers have been hurting for quite a while.  We've lost too many
of the good shops already.  And there just aren't that many left.

Now, I don't want to make it sound like our little downtown isn't worth a
a visit now and then.  We may not have as many stores as the cities, but
the ones we have sell pretty much everything we need.  Oh, the selection
isn't as varied, but what there is is well made, and lasting.  The kind of
stuff folks used to call 'good value'.  But that doesn't seem to help sell
enough to keep all the shops in business.  You see, our local shopkeepers
need new blood in town, so they can do enough business to keep their
families fed.

Of course, the town fathers keep coming up with ideas to bring new folks
into town.  And even their most vocal critics here in town have to admit
that some of those ideas are pretty good.  But with the way they've
handled things in the past, it might be a good idea if they'd just let
someone who knows what they're doing implement the ideas.  A while back,
for instance, they tried to get a bunch of musicians to move into town.
Quite a few did for a while, but the town fathers got rid of the guy who
was running the effort.  And as a result, the influx had slowed down in
the last few months.  Now, the town fathers are working on getting some
renewed interest from musicians.  And, you know, I'll bet it works.

Here recently, their big push has been in trying to get a big printing
plant to move into town.  Most of the printing plants are already in the
big cities, and it's going to take a lot to get them to move way out here
in the sticks.  But a lot of folks agree with the town fathers that a
printing plant will help things out.  And are working on making it happen.
If it all works out, it'll be nice.  But that's a big if.  There doesn't
seem to be a lot of energy left to work on other things that might help
our little community, so I hope things don't slip by because the town
fathers are too busy with this 'pet' project of theirs.

And then I wonder just how many folks a printing plant is going to really
bring into town.  Sure, there'll be some, but I don't think it's going to
be enough to help our storekeepers.  Some will do real well, but the kind
of folks that a printing plant will bring in are already used to big city
ways, and a lot of our smaller shops probably aren't going to see much new
business.  It's too bad, because some of those small shops have been among
the strongest supporters our town has.  It'd be a damn shame if they don't
get some benefits from all the effort the town fathers are putting into
that printing plant.

It's really a sad thing when our local stores close up.  It means the rest
of us aren't going to be able to get the things we need.  And some are
going to leave town, so they can find what they need in the big cities.
And our little community will be a little worse off.  And a little closer
to dying out altogether.

But what really sticks in my craw, is that the town fathers don't seem to
want to do some really basic things that would bring folks into town.  We
don't have enough lots for people to build their houses on.  There are
folks out there, who would build homes, and nice homes, if they could only
get a lot to build it on.  But, the town fathers just don't make the lots
available.  There are some rumors that they own land in another county,
and are making lots available there, so they don't need to do that here.
That's just silly.  It's two different places.  Why does one have to grow
at the expense of the other?  Why not help both of them grow?

Of course, there are all those empty homes that are left from folks who've
moved to the big cities.  We could get people to move into them, but that
wouldn't help as much as getting a bunch of new houses built on some new
lots.  When you're building a new house, you need to spend a lot of money
getting things comfortable.  When someone buys an already existing house,
there is only minor remodeling to do, and a lot less money gets spent.
And as bad as some of our shopkeepers are doing, the more money that gets
spent, the better.

Another thing that really gets me is how our town fathers change their
minds all the time.  Just when something starts rolling, they decide to
concentrate on something else.  I don't know why, and most of us in town
just sit here and scratch our heads in amazement.  Is a little consistency
too much to ask for?  One time, they even built a whole new building, a
beautiful place, and for some reason, couldn't get it to pass the building
inspection.  Oh, some folks used it anyway, but now, the town fathers are
building another beautiful building, and aren't going to do anything about
getting the first one fixed.  The old one is just going to sit there, and
eventually rot away.  I sure hope the new one passes the inspection.
Before they change their minds again, and start another project!

Like I said, Atariville is hurting, like many other communities in this
great big land of ours.  Others have done what they need to do to put
themselves back on the road to recovery.  I hope the town fathers will
wake up to the facts, and get Atariville on that road.  That's the kind of
thing that everybody in the community can get behind, and help make a
reality.  But we'd better get on that road soon, or we're going to be so
far behind, that Atariville is going to just wither up and blow away.