Inside city hall, 6-24-09

Munday will have a Farmer’s Market. Maybe not this month, but it will happen. Gardeners, farmers, plumbers, builders, bring forth your produce. Please. There is plenty of space around the square. First one there gets the shade.

Thursday evening at the Church of Christ the Community Garden/Farmer’s Market Council will meet at 7 p.m. There is always something interesting to talk about. So come on out and join in.

Everyone loves a parade, especially on the Fourth of July. Munday folks are putting together a colossal and colorful collection of entries. I asked the Air Force Chief of Staff if he could arrange a flyover of the Thunderbirds at 10:00. He was sort of noncommittal, but he will try. Who knows, maybe they will airdrop a shipment of fresh produce from Maryland. Don’t hold your breath.

Did you know the first parade floats were decorated barges towed along canals with ropes held by parade marchers on the shore? Now you know where the name came from. Floats were occasionally propelled from within by concealed oarsmen, but the practice was abandoned because of the high incidence of drowning when the lightweight and unstable frames capsized. Strikingly, among the first uses of grounded floats, towed by horses, was a ceremony in memory of recently drowned parade oarsmen.

No barges afloat here, but there will be all kinds of vehicles and animals in our parade. It is rumored that the mayor has an entry and will be pulling a custom-made trailer. This we gotta see.

If you haven’t entered your barge do so soon at the chamber office. Decorate them something along the lines of Freedom Fest, since this is an Independence Day Parade. Display the colors with pride: WE ARE AMERICANS! And we are proud of it. If you are not, stay at home. Better yet, leave the country.

Don’t forget to enter your little miss in the pageant, too. I’m sure there will be more about it in the Courier.

These events are small steps forward. Old Japanese proverb say, “Journey of a thousand miles begin with first step (forward).” We are not planning a destination, an end to our planning. We will build one step, then build on that step, with no end in sight. We keep building, and enjoying the journey.

This kind of journey requires people of vision, dreamers, those who think outside the box. There are many people stuck in their little boxes who want out, but don’t know how to get out. It’s as easy as changing the way they think. Remember the little steam engine who said, “I think I can, I think I can . . .” I have watched people react to a request to do something out-of-the ordinary. Without thinking they will say, “Oh, I can’t do that.”

If I come to your house with a match and say, “I’m going to burn your house down.” How would you react? Probably you would say, “Like hell you are!” At least I hope you would react that way. Listen, our homes are in danger. Our town is in danger of disappearing. And if we don’t get out of our boxes and start thinking of ways of save our town, our society, and our culture we will be moving to Dallas or some other city. We have a much better life in Munday than we ever would in a big city.

There are those who say it is inevitable, towns like Munday are fading away. People who say those things are paid to think that way. These are the same people who could think of ways to save our small towns, but they would have to change the way they think. They only bet on sure things: small towns must die. Don’t believe a word of it. We the people control our own destiny: and we will not allow Munday to die.

If you look fast you can see Richard Albus and Steven Smith zipping around town on two shiny, new John Deere lawn mowers. Keeping Munday Beautiful bought one of the mowers and the other one was a gift to Munday. Albus and Smith voluntarily mow many lots and yards around town. They could use some other volunteer help: cleaning debris off the lots before they mow and following after them with weed eaters. The pay is the same, but these guys will not give up the Deeres: you could say they are attached to the mowers, as in joined at the hip.