The depression comes to Southernmost

I read blogs and newspapers and all the articles are about bailouts and banks going under, people losing their homes, and still it seems abstract to me. That is, until another of my favorite businesses closes its doors.

Earlier this summer, we lost a treasure in Carbondale: the feed store that had been downtown for more than 100 years. They tried to hang on selling pet food and plants for your garden and seed for bird feeders, but in June they closed. Then I called Animal Crackers, the slightly nutty, hippie-dippie pet store/kennel to schedule baths for the dogs. Phone disconnected. Store closed. Last week, we saw the signs go up in the windows of one of our favorite stores, Kaleidescope. They (used to) sell reasonably-priced imported items, candles, cards, scarves, jewelery—a perfect source for a wife or sister’s birthday gift.

Tonight it was a punch to the stomach when I drove into Murphysboro and dropped by the grocery store to pick up some things for dinner. I suddenly noticed all the shelves had empty spots, and when I got to the checkout, the magazine racks were bare. I asked, “are you closing?” “Yes, December 13.” I tried to imagine what it’ll be like in this little town with the grocery store an empty building.

Each of these businesses employed people, and gave vitality to our community. They feel like canaries in the coal mine.

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The freest I ever felt was when I ditched my Ford Pinto. I had moved to Chicago in 1970-something, and urban living meant a car was superfluous. I let my sister take over the car payments and gladly walked away from other expenses like car insurance, gasoline, oil, maintenance, parking tickets, registrations and city stickers. I saved up enough money on my meagre $6,000 salary to go in with a buddy and buy a 40 acre farm in Wisconsin.

My sister actually needed the Pinto, because she was studying nursing in Indianapolis, and had to get to school in a city with almost no public transportation. I, on the other hand, availed myself of my bicycle and the CTA and made out like a bandit.

But in the end, I, like my country, just couldn’t wean myself from the automobile. A few years later I bought a beat-up pickup truck and I was once again a slave to the oil companies and the car companies.

Over the next 30 years I watched, horrified, as the city I grew up in, and every other city I lived in or visited, ate up the countryside around it, spewing out strip malls and vinyl-sided subdivisions as far as the eye could see. I knew in my heart it was not healthy, and I knew it was not sustainable.

Now we’ve reached the point where billions of dollars of taxpayer money are gonna be spent to bail out GM and Chrysler and Ford. I think this is a fool’s mission.

There once was a time where our government was able to fund public scoools, trolley lines, universities, libraries, museums and more. Then all the public money got sucked into building and maintaining highways. The automobile reached into our pockets and caused us to spend more than we could afford as a society. Now we’re at a crossroads.

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Christmas came early this year

Our Christmas cactus has bloomed way before it should have, usually sometime after Thanksgiving.

Oddly too, today, a week into November, it is so warm I was able to pick a bunch of zinnias, still blooming in the garden.

I’m feeling a sense of calm and confidence that I haven’t had for quite awhile now.

Christmas came early this year.

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