It’s All Right Here, Man
The Source
Okay, so you want to improve the economy but you don’t want your taxes increased….. So you want the Jacksonville area to get an economic boost but you don’t want to lose your pension, benefits, health care, etc…. So you want life to get better around here but you voted against the school referendum…. Is the answer obvious? Christmas is coming! The single biggest spending spree of the American year. If you truly want to put some financial adrenalin into the local veins, the solution is simple! A few years ago my Lincoln Land students were discussing their Christmas shopping plans, nearly all of which involved traveling out of town to spend their money. I asked them why. Why what? Why leave town when every single item you’ve mentioned can be purchased locally. Their answer was nearly unanimous: Because it’s fun! Dear Lord. Spending another 20 or 30 or hundred dollars to travel to Springfield or St. Louis or Chicago just to say that you spent an extra 20 or 30 or hundred dollars to buy things that could be purchased down the street? Adolescents can be excused for such financially immoral thinking. We adults should know better. Make yourself a resolution this year...do more than buy Christmas gifts. Give our local area a needed boost by buying every single item you can locally. I just came off a cruise ship where you could get a therapeutic massage for $120. A Hot Stone Massage was slightly more. I guess it costs to heat the rocks. This week I saw ads for three local businesses offering the same thing for under half the price and you won’t have to cling to the edges of the table on a rocking cruise ship. There’s nothing worse than have your hot stones roll into the wrong spot. More and more people are into giving services as gifts. The average American home has plenty of stuff, and what we really want are a classy and local way to get the needful things done. Although you won’t see it in all of their advertising, I doubt that there’s a local hairdresser, manicurist, mechanic, painter, lawn care expert, or hot stone maker who won’t gladly write you out a gift certificate to get these things done. Someone recently gave me a gift certificate for the White Cottage Catering. That lady knew the way to this man’s heart. Or how about a pizza a month for your teenager? Or grandma? Or mailman/paper boy/favorite waitress? While you will have forgotten nearly every gift you received last Christmas, your friends will be reminded of your kindness monthly. And if you want the perfect gift to balance out the poundage produced by food certificates, why not include a couple months’ worth of membership in a local health club or the YMCA? That’s called working it on both ends. Of course you can leave it wide open for your gift recipient by simply buying Chamber of Commerce Checks that can be used at over 80 local businesses. Even your picky Aunt Snoot will be able to find something that warms her stones in the Chamber’s long list of participating businesses. Okay, maybe you’re the type who simply lives for the moment when you can watch your loved one open a gift and you’re able to say, “That’s from Saks Neiman Marcus Lord & Taylor Coco Guicci Dior.” Can I be honest? You’re a snob who just paid one heck of a lot of money to impress someone with a gift that will wear out at about the same rate as the same item you can pick up at Lincoln Square or the Jacksonville Square. I’ll bet you warm your stones over small bonfire of dollar bills. I once gave my seventh-graders at Triopia the assignment of making a list of the ten things they wanted most for Christmas. With the exception of a kid from Chapin who had his heart set on a Celtic Pony, every item on the list could be purchased locally. And we can forgive the Jacksonville area’s lack of Celtic Ponies, the breed having gone extinct several hundred years ago. The goal of every seventh-grader worth is salt is to make a fool of the teacher. My students always won. Your Christmas tree, your decorations, your wrapping paper, and your fully cooked meals…everything is right here at our feet. And if you really must spend two days “having fun” with my college students, then spend a day shopping locally then volunteer to ring a few bells for the Salvation Army. You’ll go to bed much happier than if you’d just fought the St. Louis traffic. And it’s obvious that shopping at locally owned stores will put a bigger bang into the local business buck, so spend a little time looking around this holiday season. I’m off to find stone warmers.