There we were, enjoying Harvest Homecoming on the town square where I'd just finished winning two goldfish by successfully pitching ping-pong balls into plastic cups. The skill level approached that of a 4-year-old, and somehow I got lucky bounces.
About 10 minutes later, Lela Garrison, who'd been manning that booth, sought me out as I visited another venue around the corner. She smiled and handed me a $5 bill, asking if it had slipped from my pocket onto the grass while exhibiting my tossing prowess.
"From where you'd been standing, I figured this had to be yours," she said. It was. My daughter, Anna, became so concerned for my uncanny ability to unknowingly spread the contents of my pockets across the countryside that she bought me a zippered bag to hang around my neck. Classy indeed.
There were several reasons I chose to move back to Harrison four years ago. As with many smaller and midsized Arkansas communities, the core values of life here have endured, as evidenced by this example, along with similar expressions of caring that appeared in Harrison on social media that same day.
Sue Wilson praised the person who turned in her purse left during a trip to Walmart. Tammy Sales wrote how thankful she was the credit card she'd left at a local coffee shop had been retained and returned. And Larry Brandt said he was relieved the folks at Miller Hardware had found and kept safe the wallet he'd left by accident.
You see, valued readers, all the media negativity being spewed daily from the urban centers is, in reality, minuscule when compared with the genuine goodness and caring of a majority, especially here in the flyover hinterlands.
I appreciated what Marcus Jones had to say after reading of all the returned possessions in town: "Harrison is about as close as you can get to Mayberry from The Andy Griffith Show." Except that Harrison is probably five times the size of that fictitious North Carolina community, I'd have to wholeheartedly agree with Marcus.
Ominous wind blowing
When the teen-trendy Forever 21 chain announced it is filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and perhaps closing as many as 350 stores worldwide, including 178 stores in the U.S., I couldn't help but think of what effect this move toward Internet shopping ultimately will have on shopping malls and downtowns.
It certainly can't bode well for the brick-and-mortar malls that America's younger set are increasingly doing their clothes shopping online.
The privately held chain founded in 1984 in Los Angeles is said to have fallen victim to rapidly changing youthful tastes and the growing preference for eco-friendly fashion.
An Associated Press story about the company's bankruptcy quoted a prominent retail adviser saying that while the retailing world changed, Forever 21 didn't sufficiently adapt with it. The financial walls eventually closed in on its decisions, especially when it came to competition. The company will retain its online business, which represents about 16 percent of total sales.
My primary interest in what's happening lies with the revolutionary impact online shopping and rapid product delivery are having on many familiar shops and brands that have long filled our malls, as well as the transforming effects on our culture and its future.
What happens in society when enough traditional businesses fail (and negative incidents occur within and around them) to encourage most shoppers to turn to the anti-social shopping environment behind closed doors? We could well end up spending entire days preoccupied in isolation with cell phones or computers to satisfy our wants and needs. What kind of world will that leave our children and theirs?
Couple of truths
Some interesting, conservative-oriented questions popped up in my email last week. I decided to share a couple that seemed particularly compatible with truth.
If President Donald Trump deleted all his emails, wiped his server with BleachBit and destroyed all of his phones with a hammer, would the mainstream media suddenly lose all interest in the story and declare him innocent?
Isn't it wrong to label welfare, food stamps and WIC as entitlements? Aren't they instead taxpayer-funded handouts? Aren't Social Security and veterans' benefits the true "entitlements" because the ones receiving such compensation are entitled to them since they were earned and paid for by those recipients?
Don't know about you, but I certainly feel entitled to the money I paid into Social Security for decades. As a veteran I also understand why we believe the benefits we receive have been earned, unlike welfare handouts too often used today to buy votes in this corrupted political system we have allowed to take root and flourish at our children's and grandchildren's expense.
Now go out into the world and treat everyone you meet exactly like you want them to treat you.
------------v------------
Mike Masterson is a longtime Arkansas journalist, was editor of three Arkansas dailies and headed the master's journalism program at Ohio State University. Email him at mmasterson@arkansasonline.com.
Editorial on 10/15/2019