They Just Don't Get It

After 70 years on this earth, I wish I could say that I not am surprised by the number of people, particularly those in government, that appear to have no understanding of economics. I’m not talking specifically about the various theories of economics like those of Adam Smith or of Marx and Engels or others. I am talking about basic economics such as bottom up free markets versus cronyism versus top down planned economics. Goodness knows we’ve seen more than enough examples of each throughout the past couple of millennia.

Free market economics such as those put forth by Smith have seemed to work pretty well, though like any system it isn’t perfect. We’ve seen the ‘socialist’ economics as outlined by Marx et al tried again and again and seen them fail...again and again. We’ve seen cronyism, often mislabeled “crony capitalism” even though it is an economic system in and of itself and can be seen as a parasitic entity in every economic system. (Yes, there is also “crony socialism”. Goodness knows we’ve seen it in a number of socialist and communist countries.)

But I am not specifically address those systems per se. Instead, I am addressing some of the street level economics that most people do not or will not understand. They don’t understand how the costs of everyday items is determined, what factors can affect costs and in their turn the prices everyone pays.
They don’t understand how taxes can affect an economy.

They don’t understand how regulations, be they economic or environmental, can affect prices across the board for the worst or the better.

They don’t know how prices are determined, how both demand and supply works and affects prices.

They don’t understand how government mandates can damage or cripple an economy, or how those who put those mandates in place don’t understand the effects of them either.

Too many people have no idea how money ‘works’, meaning they haven’t a clue about things like wealth or poverty. My biggest gripe is that so many people seem think the wealthy are just sitting on piles of cash stacked up in their basement, said cash just gathering dust. They don’t understand that cash is working by ways of investments – stocks and bonds – or venture capital to fund new businesses, and business loans or mortgages or auto loans and so on. They have no idea that diverting the working capital to fund someone’s dream government program can have a negative effect of the economy if it goes too far. (We passed that point a few generations ago which is why the US is $44 trillion in debt.)

None of this is a diatribe to say how gawdawful our economic system is. It’s about people’s absolute ignorance about how thing actually work and because of that ignorance they’re willing to believe the silliest and most unworkable economic theories even with all of the historical evidence of what works and what doesn’t.

Seeing what we’re hearing during the run up to mid-term elections in November has me worried to too many of the electorate will buy the ignorant BS put forward by one party as a solution to all of our problems despite hundreds of years of historical data showing they don’t really understand economics.

Friday Funny - Google Knows Everything

Thoughts On A Sunday

It was a gorgeous day yesterday, sunny, warm, and a little breezy. Today was different with rain starting early in the morning and not ending until early evening. The promised sunshine never appeared as the clouds that were supposed to clear of didn’t do so. Despite all of that it was a relatively quiet weekend.

Not many of the summer folk came up for the weekend, but that’s okay. One of my favorite ice cream stands is now only open on weekends and then, only for the next couple of weekends until it closes until next spring. Many of the summer attractions are now closed, with most of those closing after the Labor Day weekend. There’s still plenty of boats out on the lake and that will likely continue until the end of the month. Many of the die-hards will wait until after Columbus Day Weekend to finally pull their boats from the water. BeezleBub and I haven’t decided when we’ll pull the Official Weekend Pundit Lake Winnipesaukee Runabout from the lake, but I have a feeling it won’t be pulled out early. We didn’t get out onto the lake nearly as often as we would have liked, but it was more a matter of being busy and trying not to venture out during the weekends.

And so summer is winding to a close.

==++++++==

I have to agree: The best political ad I have ever seen.

==++++++==

From one of the comments to the above post comes this challenge to “liberal White Women…who constantly complain about White Men.”

How many liberal White Women do you think would take her up on her offer? I’m thinking ‘none’.

==++++++==

Just when I think they can’t get any crazier or unhinged they prove me wrong.

Democrat Candidate Suggests Nazi-Style Death Camps for Trump Supporters

Anyone familiar with 20th century history can guess how ugly it will get if the maniacs who have been taking over the Democratic Party seize power nationally. Shelly Headen, District 62 Democrat candidate for the North Carolina House of Representatives, provides confirmation.

Via Breitbart:

Headen posted a Facebook story from a vacation showing her in front of ovens in a German concentration camp memorial, saying, “Visiting Dauchau [sic] Concentration Camp in Germany… This is where Trump supporters belong.” …

In social media photos, Headen is seen smiling as she stands in front of what appears to be crematorium ovens, which were used by the Nazi SS to burn the bodies of Jews and other prisoners who died or were murdered at the camp.

The concentration camps of the National Socialist German Workers’ Party were preceded by those of Hitler’s fellow socialist Vladimir Lenin, whose Soviet Union went on to kill far more people than the Nazis and to inspire the current generation of Democrats.

For folks who say they are antifascists, they’re certainly acting more like fascists every day.

Yeah, I’m sure the folks in North Carolina are going to flock to her banner.

==++++++==

This is something I have been saying for decades, yet I have been ignored. What is it I’ve been saying? Something right out of Santayana:

“Those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it.”

We see otherwise smart people ignoring the danger of the Democrat/Democratic Socialist/Progressive/Communist party even though history shows us what’s in store for our country if the gain power.

We see otherwise smart people ignoring the danger of the “Forever War” that has been going on between the US and Iran since 1979. Some say that it isn’t true despite Iran funding international terrorism, some of which has killed thousands of Americans over the past 47 years. At least one fellow Granite Stater sees that it is true, too.

...December 7, 1941 proved America’s vulnerability. Our Presidents mostly ignored Muslim terror attacks so we suffered the World Trade Center attack and 9/11/2001.

The lesson: believe and stop an enemy who hates you, attacks and kills your people, declares its intent to destroy you, and develops nuclear weapons capable of killing millions. This describes Iran’s actions and stated intent.

Iran has been killing and maiming Americans since 1979. Iran’s nuclear program exists to deliver “Death to America”.

As with North Korea, we unsuccessfully asked, negotiated, threatened, sanctioned, and bribed Iran to abandon its nuclear ambitions. Every President since Carter has warned that Iran mustn’t get nuclear weapons.

Do we wait until there are nuclear mushroom clouds over New York, Washington DC, Los Angeles, Chicago, and so on before we believe Iran wants to destroy us? Or do we put up with the existing hostilities that have been destroying Iran’s ability to make war even though it does mean higher fuel prices? (I must note here that Don Ewing, the author of the linked and quoted post above has pointed to a website showing that after adjusting for inflation, gas prices are still lower than those during the Obama and Biden administrations.)

==++++++==

And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee where its been raining all day, the summerfolk were scarcem and where Monday is once again arriving to harsh our weekend mellow.

Now The Campaigns Begin

I spent this past Tuesday working at our town’s polling place for the New Hampshire State Primary. I spent about 13 hours on my feet helping people insert their ballots into the counting machine, directing them to voter registration, and answering questions voters may have had.

All in all, things went smoothly. Two things that were surprising was the voter turnout which was considerably higher than the NH Secretary Of State’s office had predicted. They were expecting between 10% and 15% turnout. In my town it was closer to 34%. That was seen across the state. Generally, a state primary which is for state level offices – governor, state House, state Senate, Executive Council – as well as Federal offices – US House and US Senate.

One thing that occurred that no one had expected was that a lot of towns, including mine, ran out of Democrat ballots. In my town’s case we took the unused absentee ballots after they were signed by the Town Clerk after striking out ‘ABSENTEE BALLOT’ at the top. We also had to run some off on a copier since we had a limited number of those as well. All of the ‘copied’ ballots had to be hand counted since the machine rejected them because the copying paper used was too thin as compared to the usual card stock the ballots are printed on. (In case you are wondering, all of this was done at the direction of the state’s Secretary of State office.)

A lot of ‘Independent’ voters participated since they can ask for either a Republican or Democrat ballot. That request is marked at the Voter Registration desks. After they vote they can “undeclare” at checkout desks if they wish to return ti “Independent” status.

Ironically, after the polls closed and all the votes were tallied up, the number of voters who voted Republican or Democrat were only a couple of voters off from being equal. Of course that begs the question whether or not a smaller number of Democrat ballots the Republican ballots were shipped to our town for the primary? If so, why?

Winning candidates didn’t waste any time starting up their campaigns for the November elections, particularly those for the US House and US Senate seats. It seems the most of the campaign ads are negative ads thrashing an opponent for things they did or failed to do in the past. They haven’t reached the point of condemning them for their choice of a wardrobe pallette or footwear, but I have a feeling it will get as ridiculous as that the closer we get to the November election. As it is I am seeing my Election Bingo Card filling rapidly with each ad or campaign speech. Even though the election is only two months away I have a feeling that it’s going to seem like forever by the time it takes place.

Was It 25 Years Ago? Or Was It Yesterday?

It’s hard to believe it was 25 years ago today that we experienced That Awful Day. I was thinking of writing something completely new but realized I had written something for September 11th every year after That Awful Day. After reading everything I’d written I realized I wouldn’t be doing it any justice as I would be regurgitating all of the things I’d written before, so I decided to look through the previous years postings and find one or two that say it better than think I could do today. Other than adding a few thoughts, I haven’t changed anything. Somehow I think this one says it all.

*************************

I have to start with saying that until September 11th, I never understood the folks who had experienced the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7th, 1941 saying that they remember exactly where they were when they heard the news, remembered their feelings on that day. The one thing that so many of them said that to them, it hadn’t happened ‘x’ years ago, but ‘yesterday’.

On September 12th, 2001, I came to understand what they meant. In the years since That Awful Day I know exactly what they meant when they said it didn’t happen all those years ago. To me That Awful Day happened yesterday.

All these years later when I see the Twin Towers on an old TV show or movie I catch my breath. I flash back to That Awful Day, remembering exactly where I was when I first heard of a plane hitting the North Tower and the subsequent report of another plane hitting the South Tower. I remember watching TV as the towers fell. I remember seeing the report of a plane hitting the Pentagon and another crashing in the town of Shanksville, Pennsylvania. I remember my pager going off again and again and again as I was called in to our state’s Office of Emergency Management. (I was a staff member back then.) I remember the faces of the people in my workplace and the Emergency Management office.

It was yesterday.

After 25 years It. Still. Hurts.

I remember what it looked like before That Awful Day, having visited the North Tower about 5 years prior to that day to visit with a friend of mine and to pick up some equipment he’d obtained for one of the organizations I belonged to at the time. I remember what it looked like after it had been struck by the two airliners. And I remember what Ground Zero Looked like two days after, having been there as part of an emergency response team.

*************************

I have visited the 9/11 Ground Zero memorial in New York. I wasn’t sure what I was going to do when I got there, what I was going to feel being there again after all those years. I saw the footprints of the North and South Towers, the metal panels surrounding those footprints bearing the names of all of those who died there on That Awful Day. I read every name on those panels. Every name.

I couldn’t make myself go down into the museum. I could barely move. I could barely breathe. Then someone spoke to me.

“Sir, are you alright?”

I turned my head and saw a young women standing to one side, looking concerned.

I could barely choke out my reply.

“No. No I’m not...”and that’s when I broke down. I don’t know how long I stood there, tears running down my face. That young woman came over to me and hugged me, just holding on while my grief overwhelmed me.

Once I regained some semblance of control of myself, she let me go and told me that she witnessed something like this almost every day, people coming to Ground Zero and grieving, each in their own way. She asked if I would be alright and I told her I would. I thanked her and left.

*************************

Over the years we have heard the stories of the heroes, both individuals and groups, who did amazing things to help the people they didn’t know under daunting circumstances. But it is those stories that have been a silver lining on an otherwise horrific and horrifying day. It is something that when the memories and feelings start weighing me down, I watch this story, one that exemplifies the selflessness of ordinary people doing extraordinary things. It allows me to see the good things that happened on That Awful Day.

Thoughts On A Sunday

It was a mixed day here at the lake, at least when it came to the weather. It started pouring around 3am and continued until just before 7am. By 10am the overcast had changed partly cloudy and by 5pm it was just a few stray clouds here in there in a blue sky. At least the temperatures were decent with it reaching a high of 72 degrees here at The Gulch.

It was a good day to be out and about, something the WP Mom and I were doing from about 9:30 this morning until 2 this afternoon. This included attending church, stopping at a bank ATM and a gas station, and then heading south to the “big city” of Manchester to have lunch with the youngest WP Sister, her husband, and their youngest daughter who was home from overseas for a short visit before she flies off to yet another country for her employers later this week.

All in all it’s been a good day even though this weekend marks the semi-official End Of Summer.

Yes, I know it actually ends later this month as far as the astronomical calendar defines it, but most of the summer activities are coming to an end and summer attractions are either closing after this weekend or will remain open only on weekends for the next few weeks.)

==++++++==

Just a quick note that today’s TOAS will be a bit abbreviated as my day is not quite over and I still have things to take care of.

==++++++==

Normally I wouldn’t care about this one way or the other, “this” being a major company that has so offended its customer base that it has seen its stock value decline 80% from its 2021 peak. However, seeing as all of this damage was self-inflicted much like Gillette’s self-immolation when they did something similar to their customer base, I do have to ask “Just what the heck was Nike management thinking?”

How bad is it?

This bad.

Nike is set to leave the S&P 100 before U.S. trading opens on September 21, 2026, according to S&P Dow Jones Indices. The change was announced on September 4 as part of the index provider’s quarterly rebalance.

If you want to see what has brought Nike to this sad state, what their management team did to cause Nike’s fall from grace, just Read The Whole Thing.

==++++++==

Another thing, something I’ve known for a long time, that ‘thing’ being LBJ’s so-called War On Poverty was a lost cause. Why?

Because after 62 years, poverty won.

==++++++==

Is Canada doomed? If you need an example that something is seriously wrong, here it is:

Dad stabbed to death in front of his toddler at Starbucks for asking stranger to stop smoking weed… now Canadian judge has let killer off lightly.

A Canadian man who fatally stabbed a father in front of his three-year-old daughter has been convicted of manslaughter rather than second-degree murder.

British Columbia Supreme Court Justice Kathleen Ker made the shocking decision on Wednesday in the trial of Inderdeep Singh Gosal, 34, who has admitted to stabbing Paul Schmidt, 37, six times in the torso and neck on March 26, 2023, CTV News reports.

It has been reported that there is security camera footage showing Schmidt was the initial aggressor, but it seems that stabbing him six times is a bit much. When does it stop being self-defense and starts being murder? I haven’t seen the footage so I cannot comment whether Schmidt had gone so far that Gosal felt he had to kill him or whether Gosal overreacted. I don’t know if Gosal was under the influence of marijuana (though he’d been smoking some which led to the confrontation), but that certainly could have been a factor in his response.

==++++++==

The price of allowing illegal aliens to remain in the US keeps going up.

Illegal Alien Charged in $1.3B Medicare Fraud Scheme

An illegal alien from the country of Georgia allegedly spent five months running a Pennsylvania medical equipment company that filed $1.3 billion in fraudulent claims against Medicare and private insurers, then funneled the proceeds to a Russia-based criminal network. Federal prosecutors say this is the largest health care fraud case the Justice Department (DOJ) has ever prosecuted.

Erekle Gugava, 33, was indicted in Massachusetts on one count of conspiracy to launder money. The case arises from Operation Gold Rush. The criminal organization behind it was based in Russia and elsewhere.

Gugava purportedly owned ND Medical Solutions LLC from February through July 2025. In those five months, the Pennsylvania durable medical equipment company allegedly submitted at least $1.3 billion in fraudulent claims to Medicare, Medicare supplemental insurers, employer-sponsored health plans, and other insurers.

$1.3 billion (with a ‘b’) in fraud? How much was the fraud discovered in Minnesota between the ‘Learing centers’ and health care companies and such that existed only on paper? Some estimates say up to $9 billion. Again, something that has been run by ‘refugees’ and illegal aliens.

This crap has got to stop.

==++++++==

And that is the (abbreviated) news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where the weather has been pretty good, we’ve been taking advantage of some of the last of the summer fare, and where this week Monday is a holiday!

The Computer OS Battle Continues

I have written about computer issues on and off for years. My most recent scribblings dealt with restoring two Linux desktops and one laptop that suffered catastrophic failures that finally got restored. None of the failures were the fault of the OS as I was using two different distributions of Linux – Linux Mint and Ubuntu. While Linux Mint uses Ubuntu as a base, both desktop failures turned out to be hardware issues with one desktop suffering a power supply failure and the other an improperly secured NVM card – basically a solid state drive (SSD) – that finally loosened to the point that the desktop wouldn’t boot. The laptop failure was also a hardware issue, in this case the hard drive failed.

Now that all but one of the Linux computers are up and running (I have a newer laptop that has not yet had Linux installed), I wanted to dive a little deeper into why I no longer use Windows at home. (My work laptop uses Windows 11 and I truly have come to intensely dislike it.)

One of the complaints about Windows 11 that I hear again and again is that everyone fears updates because it seems every update breaks something. For instance, one of of the most recent complaints I heard that the VLC media player now takes a long time to load and run a media file. This occurred after a recent Windows update that appears to block access to some Windows resources that were readily available in the past.



There’s also the increasing number of ads that show up on Win 11, as well as the notification that insists that users must have a Microsoft account to even use Windows 11. There’s also been the push for users to put all their files on Microsoft’s One Drive, a cloud service that allows Microsoft to scan all of your files whether you want them to or not. My work laptop has ‘forced’ this which can mean that if I don’t have an Internet connection I can’t see my own files. I certainly didn’t like this and set up to make sure I have copies of my files on my laptop’s hard drive and our local file servers. My employer’s IT department has pushed to maintain our own file servers and so far the corporate guys have agreed to this. I also keep copies of my files on an external hard drive, a ‘belt and suspenders’ precaution that I am glad I have used because it has saved me all kinds of grief on more than one occasion.

I have been using Linux for years now and I have no complaints. I have found it to be easy to use. This is particularly so for more recent versions and distributions. Some distributions are almost indistinguishable from Windows when it comes to how some of them look and their ease of use.

There are two I recommend if someone is interested in trying them out. (One of the beauties of Linux is that you can try it out without having to install them as they’ll boot from a USB key.) One of them, Linux Mint, is one that I have been using for a couple of years now. The other is Zorin OS. They both have a look and feel that is similar to Windows 10, but better. (I must mention here that Hewlett Packard has been shipping an increasing number their computers with Zorin OS installed as they have found it to be an excellent alternative to Windows 11. It has also reduced the number of customer support calls they have had to deal with due to Win 11 being so awful.)

I find it telling that Linux has a rapidly growing portion of the OS market with over 10% of computer users in the US using Linux. If Microsoft keeps doing everything it can to make using Windows ever more miserable than it already is, I expect that percentage will hit 25% within 2 years...if it takes that long.

Friday Funny - This Is How You Party In Your 50's

Thoughts On A Sunday

It looks to another nice day here at the lake, though with more clouds and slightly lower temperatures. That suits me fine as I am still recovering from a very long day yesterday as our town celebrated Old Home Day, a topic I covered in yesterday’s post. It was one of those days where I was on my feet most of the day, sitting down only when I was eating something or talking to friends who were sitting down and eating. Mostly it was walking from one part of our town’s ‘downtown’ to another and back again.

What makes this a little less fun was that sometime during yesterday morning I tweaked my knee and woke up this morning with it aching and not wanting to cooperate when I needed to walk from one room to another here at The Gulch. I still don’t have any idea how this happened.

So today is going to be a low key day for me, foregoing some of my usual Sunday activities. I did not perform my usual “pre-church” shopping at Walmart early this morning. I also did not attend church though I did watch it on Facebook.

And so August is winding to a close. Where did the summer go? Wasn’t July 4th just a couple of weekends ago?

==++++++==

I could have commented on this last week, but I was distracted by something far less important.

Does it seem suspicious to anyone else that Hillary is already planning Bill Clinton’s funeral?
Is he going to be ‘arkancided’ when she feels the time is right?

==++++++==

Just when I think California can’t possibly get any worse, I’m proven wrong.

In this case, it’s lawmakers are pushing a law that will give businesses yet another reason to leave the Pyrite State.

What sort of nonsense are they pushing on businesses this time? Get a load of this:

Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-Calif.) may soon receive a bill requiring major companies to swear, under penalty of perjury, that they searched generations of corporate records for ties to slavery.

WTF? Just how woke are these numb-nuts legislators going to go? Too far, apparently.

This bill, upon appropriation by the Legislature, would require any business or enterprise that is doing business in the state that was in existence or whose predecessor company was in existence on or before December 31, 1964 and has annual worldwide gross receipts that exceed $100,000,000 to complete an affidavit, under penalty of perjury, verifying that it has searched through any and all records in its and its related entities, as defined, possession, control, and knowledge for records that the in-state covered entity or its related entities bought or sold persons subjected to slavery, used persons subjected to slavery as collateral, provided loans to purchase persons subjected to slavery, insured such transactions or the persons subjected to slavery, or provided related or other services to aid or otherwise facilitate those transactions. The bill would set forth the contents of the affidavit, the timeline and manner of submission, and reporting requirements.

And how much will this cost those businesses or enterprises to meet the requirements of such a law? Will it affect those businesses one way or the other...unless this is going to be used as a means of extracting “reparations” payments from those businesses to be forwarded to those they deem to be victims of that long past transgression or transgressions? I wouldn’t put it past them.

Even though I and others have used this phrase facetiously here and there, now and then, I am nor thinking we should now seriously consider consider taking it to heart. The only way to stop this twisted nonsense is to “Nuke it from space. It’s the only way to be sure…”

The level of asininity from the Pyrite State is growing at an exponential rate and it needs to be stopped, now.

==++++++==

Somehow, this seems entirely appropriate.

Hamptons Yacht Club Cancels Restaurant Service After Staff Deported

Oh my!! Whatever will they do?

The swanky oceanfront Devon Yacht Club in Amagansett — which reportedly charges around $100,000 in initiation fees — canceled its Wednesday night dinner service after its foreign cooks had to leave the US because of problems renewing their H-2B temporary work visas, according to a letter sent to members the same day.

Food service was also canceled Thursday and was not expected to be back up and running until Friday’s lunch service, the club informed its deep-pocketed members — a group that once included Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis’s parents.

[…] “It seems that an oversight either by the agent or attorney responsible for submitting our petition or perhaps by the US Immigration Office itself has resulted in a situation where our H2B kitchen staff must leave the country immediately and return to their home countries for at least 60 days before their visas can be renewed.” (read more)

The author of the post recognizes that removing a lot of the foreign workers, be they legal or not, will have an impact on economics in a number of ways, some good and some not so good.

As a ‘let’s get on with it’ proponent of deporting all illegal aliens, cancelling H1B and J-1 visas as well as removing all Temporary Protected Status populations from the USA, we must also accept the very predictable consequences.

There are a lot of businesses that may fold because they are so heavily dependent upon foreign workers, but those businesses are “operating on an inorganic business model, that could never have been sustained without massive import of cheap foreign labor.”

Maybe it’s time to stop that kind of economic nonsense and get back to “organic business models” that will work for domestic labor.

Read The Whole Thing.

==++++++==

As bad as Detroit came to be, Gary, Indiana is far worse.

Former Gary Resident Explains Why the Lights Have Been Off

We are told that when the lights don’t come on in nearly all-black Gary, Indiana, this is due to “environmental racism.” Black former Gary resident Kira Davis reveals the real reasons residents are miserable:

First, people literally shot at the power company. NIPSCO (Northwest Indiana’s energy provider) has reported that multiple bullets struck their vehicle as employees tried to navigate the streets of the city and make repairs….

This lazy and corrupt leadership barks that whites are to blame for the failure of a city run entirely by blacks. Turns out Critical Race Theory does not keep the lights on.

This is quite telling, particularly since it doesn’t support The Narrative in any way shape or form.

==++++++==

And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where the summer tourist season is coming to an end, schools are opening, and where even Monday can’t change that.

Another Little Piece Of Life In Small Town America

It was a gorgeous day here at Lake Winnipesaukee today with comfortable temperatures, low humidity, and clear skies. It was a perfect day for my home town’s Old Home Day, a celebration of our town by residents past and present. This year’s theme was “There’s No Place Like Home”.

It started with a pancake breakfast at our community center next to our church, followed by a 5K footrace and then a parade. The parade participants included some of our town officials, both the police department and fire department color guards, numerous community organizations and businesses, a couple of bands, a number of classic cars, some equipment from our Public Works department, some beauty queens, dance troupes, veterans organizations, and a number of candidates running for public offices in our upcoming state primary in a little over a week.

Once the parade was concluded the food vendors and crafters were open for business in our village field. There were also games, contests, music acts, and some sports activities. (I will admit to having a ‘basket’ of french fries and chicken tenders for lunch...consumed for quality control purposes, of course.) There was also a used book sale along with pie and ice cream at our library and a white elephant sale and raffles at our church. (The WP Mom has been working at the jewelry tables for a number of years now.)

Earlier this evening there was a band concert at the bandstand at our village field followed by fireworks.

It was a chance to meet friends and neighbors past, present, and future. Two of my long time friends came up from their home in southern New Hampshire to attend Old Home Day as they have been planning to make the move up here sometime, hopefully in the near future. This is the fifth or sixth time they have come up for our Old Home Day and I’m hoping that soon they won’t have travel so far to attend.

This was just a small slice of life in a small American town, one that was an absolutely wonderful time for those who attended and/or participated. I couldn’t think of anything better to do during a beautiful late summer Saturday.