Then I woke up. If you haven’t left home lately, get out there and see what “normal living” looks like in Queens (one of the boroughs of New York City), or on Long Island, for example. There are places where people factor in an extra half-hour just to look for a place to park! There are turnpikes that get so backed up that you have to get off of them and wander around the countryside while the robot voice of your GPS device says “Recalculating” over and over. There are city and county governments so overwhelmed and understaffed – especially in this time of recession – that it’s necessary to take a day or two off from work to go and deal with them. And all of that is without even mentioning the thousand smaller inconveniences: the supermarket carts that you have to pay to use; the parking meters everywhere, demanding quarters for each ten minutes. Arriving back in Commerce feels like landing in a giant feather-bed; I sink in with a sigh of relief. Whew! There may be some drawbacks to local living that I can’t think of right now, but generally speaking, things move along here mighty smoothly.
The passing of my parents has made it necessary for me to have dealings with our county government – from the coroner’s office, to the sheriff’s department, to the Probate Court and the tax assessor’s office – and I have found, in each of these, nothing but expertise, efficiency, and enormous kindness, of the sort that is impossible to take for granted. Of the sort that leaves me thinking, “How can we be this fortunate?”
As for our city government, I was never able to say anything in print while I was a city employee – but now (aha!) I can freely note how very lucky we are. City manager Clarence Bryant, as even his increasingly few detractors will acknowledge, is a “money man,” highly skilled in fiscal management. With the help and support of our experienced mayor and our city council, he has planned so well over the years that Commerce isn’t in the dire straits in which many other small towns now find themselves. But Mr. Bryant is also a person of principles, and heart, and he has worked hard during this recession to keep people from becoming jobless, using furlough days rather than downsizing, and thereby retaining the excellent, motivated team that is the city’s staff.
And I hate to point this out, but we can’t even complain about that typical target, the post office! Ours is clean, quiet, efficient, and orderly, and runs like a Swiss railroad: right on time. Our postal workers are so personable and friendly that people bring them gifts. I mean, is there anyone reading this who doesn’t regard Melba, Brenda, Belinda, Terry and Karen as friends?
No, when I came to Commerce 15 years ago, I was planning to make the best of it. Now? They’ll probably have to carry me out feet-first! I know when I’m blessed.
Susan Harper is retired, lives in Commerce and volunteers for the Commerce Library Board and the Jackson County Literacy Program.
