Mayor’s Row…..by Ned Mitchell
One holiday down and one to go! Now that Thanksgiving is history for 2005 we concentrate on the huge marketing blitz known as Christmas. Mind you that all this mad rush about shopping and parties to attend have absolutely nothing to do with Christmas, but that is merely my opinion and you of course have yours. I liked it a whole lot better when it was simpler and less of a hassle and when folks took the time to sit down and hand address a Christmas card and sign it themselves. Kitchens were busy with both the men and women creating their own home made delicacies to give to family, co-workers, friends and neighbors. Now I am told that mothers or fathers for that matter, cannot even bake cupcakes at home to take to school. Schools have no way of knowing what is in those cupcakes so now home made items cannot be brought to school for kids to eat. What in the world is going on? We’ll get into that in a future column.
So our Christmas shopping is off and running and it took me about 30 seconds to get in a bad mood. Understand it usually does not take too much to get me in that mood and Friday evening was no exception. For a long time I have been wanting an articulating ladder, one that folds in different directions and all. The only thing that kept me from buying one is they start out at about one hundred dollars. Too much to pay for a ladder so I skipped that idea until I get the Home Depot ad in my local newspaper. They have a ladder like that on sale for $59.00, a whopping $40.00 off. We load up and head to Marion on Friday evening. Entering the Home Depot store I head immediately to the ladder section, find a sales clerk who informs me they are out of the ladders that I want. No problem I say, just give me a rain check and I’ll come back and get one. No rain checks on this item was the response to which I pointed to the ad in the flyer saying it does not say anything about no rain check. The clerk had a shocked look on his face as I asked to speak to the manager. While at the service desk speaking to the manager who also denied me a rain check, two other customers came up, one wanting a Christmas tree and another an outdoor weather station and they were out of both of those items. Then the thing that really frosted me was the manager saying they only have a limited supply of these items and they run sales on them to get people into the store early the day after Thanksgiving. The only problem with that is they did not advertise it that way. To top things off the manager then goes into a pitch that since they ran out of those ladders early corporate headquarters had allowed them to mark down appliances drastically to ease the pain for us ladder shoppers. That would have been fine except I wanted a ladder and not an appliance. I have of course complained to the Home Depot web site and the jury is still out as to whether I remain a Home Depot shopper. The moral of the story is, if you can’t or won’t get out of bed at 4:00 am the day after Thanksgiving, don’t expect some of these huge retail stores to stand by their advertisement.
Prior to that mood setting experience another sign of the times happened at the West City Wal Mart store. A lady from Sesser was robbed at knife point in the parking lot one evening last week. Right here in Franklin County a lady doing her shopping and walking to her car is grabbed, pushed into her vehicle and a knife put in her face. Another sign of the times in which we are living. This was no doubt a white male who was in need of a drug fix. This was not some person trying to feed their family, not that would make a difference, a crime is still a crime. This person as shown on the security tapes is lurking about looking for a victim. Obviously West City Wal Mart did not have parking lot security on duty. I personally don’t like to shop places like Wal Mart in Mt. Vernon, Marion, or Carbondale at night simply because of the seedy characters hanging out around the exits. I realize they have a right to hang out and look seedy if they want to but I also have the right to not shop there because of that. I had never given a thought to not being safe at the West City Wal Mart store however. Some advice to all of us, try to exit these stores at night when someone else is leaving at the same time. Park as close to the exit doors as possible and avoid walking across the lot. If in doubt, ask store personnel to walk you to your car. Don’t look down at the cart when going to your car, look around and be aware of your surroundings. Lastly, carry a big ol’ gun! Just kidding on that last part but what a surprise this knife wielding thug would have had if he had a gun stuck in his face about the time he went for his knife. We’ll eventually get to that in this state as most others are already allowing folks to carry a weapon but our liberal faction in Chicago has not figured that out yet. When one of them gets robbed things will turn around. Until that happens we’ll just let the politicians rob us without weapons!
There is a silver lining to all this bad news right before Christmas. As you know I have been less than kind to the reformer/unreformer governor in this state. And before my fellow democrats rise up in arms about one of their own who dares to tell the truth about this guy, I’m still a democrat, I’m just wanting a governor who will do what he says he will do. I bought the “it won’t be business as usual” line from this guy and he has made a mockery out of the entire concept. A note here, this governor is a democrat who openly admits to voting for Ronald Reagan twice. I did not vote for Reagan either time so which of us is more of a democrat, me or the reformer/unreformer? Now for the silver lining, Edwin Eisendrath, a former Chicago alderman, HUD director and public educator is considering a run for governor. You never heard of Eisendrath? Me either, but then I had never heard of Blagojevich either. Petitions are being circulated and I have them. If you want to help clean up the mess this administration has created give me a call at 625-5322 and I’ll show you how you can help. It will be a tough fight to say the least, facing an incumbent with 20 million dollars, almost all of it from employees or those holding huge state contracts, but if Eisendrath does run, I’ll be there swinging away and doing my part to change things for the better. You too, can do your part!
On December 10th from 1 to 5 in the afternoon the Sesser Area Chamber of Commerce will host a visit with Santa to help the Giving Tree fund. There will be free photos with Santa and free food but those in attendance are asked to bring a new toy or monetary gift for the Giving Tree Fund to hand out to those in need at Christmas. This event will be held at Valente’s Terrace on Main Street.
Sesser has some upcoming events that merit a line or two. First the Rea Clinic will sponsor an informational meeting concerning the new Medicare program. This meeting will be held on December 12th at 2:00 pm at Valente’s Terrace on Sesser’s Main Street. Maura Webb from the clinic will be on hand to make a presentation and to answer questions. This event is free and we thank the Rea Clinic for taking the time to come to Sesser and do this program for us.
The evening of December 12th will feature two events at the historic Sesser Opera House. First, from 4 to 9 pm our chamber will host a down home Christmas display in the upstairs of the Opera House Annex featuring local home based businesses and others selling unique gifts for Christmas. This event is free and refreshments will be served. Next door in the Opera House that evening will be a Variety Show with local talent on stage for everyone to enjoy. We’ll have more on that next week. City council meets this Thursday at 7:00 pm in city hall. If you need us or have a suggestion give us a call at 625-3611, 625-5322, 625-5788 or write nedmitchell@verizon.net or www.sesser.org
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