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OBSERVATIONS
December 17, 2020 |
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 Wingate Lassiter |
Light Up Smithfield! is bringing back
a much-anticipated treat of the season
The outdoor decorating contest to be judged this weekend is part of the Town of Smithfield's effort to make up for the loss of this year's tree-lighting and parade festivities because of coronavirus restrictions on large gatherings.
It's a throwback to the 1950s, when the Smithfield Garden Club, I recall, sponsored a Christmas decorating contest to get folks to bring out the seasonal lights that had been mothballed during the blackout days of World War II.
Then, as now, such contests give us cause to drive around town after dark to look at the decorations. And boy are they more intense than ever this year!
Thanks to today's multitude of affordable products including LED lights and those huge inflatables, the visual treat has become more thrilling than ever, especially for the youngsters. (And it's not as expensive to light up Smithfield since our electric rates have been reduced.)
So go out and take it all in. And for those of you who have a bad habit of racing up and down our streets after sundown, please slow down and be patient for us slowpokes enjoying the scenery.
Another local shop fades into our history
More than a few folks I know are saddened by the closing of another long-standing local family business: The Jewel Box. Owner Gordon Blow told me this week he has been moved by tears welling up in the eyes of long-time customers coming in for the store's last Christmas season.
It's a familiar story in our time: Families giving up their life-long enterprises as younger generations choose other professions and consumers move to online shopping (accelerated by the coronavirus pandemic).
Even though we understand all that as a product of changing times, it's sad whenever we lose the personal touch of doing business directly with community-minded people we know and trust.
What can we do about it? Simple: Make a renewed effort to shop with those local merchants still hanging in there, especially during these trying COVID times.
A CHRISTMAS WISH FROM THE EDITOR
(inspired by Longfellow's poem about bells, immortalized in song)
I went to church on Christmas Eve
To hear those words I still believe:
Of hope and love
Down from above
That tells of peace, good will to all.
And then this thought came to my head:
"There's not much peace on earth," I said;
"For hate is strong
And mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good will to all."
But then my soul did so declare:
"You can't give up, you can't despair;
The wrong shall fail,
The right prevail,
And peace on earth will come to all."
I'll do my part to spread that word,
Despite the hateful words I've heard.
For "love thy neighbor"
We must do
If we're to worship Christmas true.
COMMUNITY PARK'S "MISTLETOE TREE"
Here's another example of Smithfield's copious supply of mistletoe-graced hardwoods --- this one beside the Partnership for Children Park near the SRAC.
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