Another gray, cold, and rainy day here in North Iowa happened again. With the wind blowing, it felt as though its bone-chilling dampness was able to infiltrate every crack and corner. One of my customers has been on a burn to get the closing of her purchase done more sooner than later due to her fears that the weather is going to continue being all the more difficult until we’ll be seeing snow on the ground.
One of the rentals that I agreed to help get rented that’s owned by an old colleague of mine got rented today. The new tenant is from out of State and again absolutely did not want to rent here in Mason City. Seems we’re getting quite the reputation even before those coming here, have even crossed the borders of our fair State. I’m growing all the more concerned that our problems have become so big and so deeply embedded, it’ll take years to correct. There are many of us natives who wish we could turn the clock of time back to when those undermining signs began appearing, and put a stop to them before they mushroomed out of control.
When this downward spiraling grew noticeable by some, there were all those many more others with their heads buried in the sand due to their being too busy trying to eek out an honest living for themselves and their families. So their children grew, they were educated, but when the time came to either stay here, or move elsewhere, they chose to bolt. It’s been happening year-over-year for over a generation now.
Some of those comments I read in our area online newspapers are either written by Pollyanna mentalities, or dyed in the wool defeatists. What I fail to read are people mentioning how our City’s middle class is dying. Per capita, there’s a far greater percentage of people living here who are just trying to keep their bills paid. I personally know those by name who’ve risen so high above the rest of us in our community, that they’ve actually lost touch with reality. Simply to have their companies be noticed, they give generously to fairytale promotions where only those like-minded few are invited. But you see, they still don’t “get it”!
Late this afternoon I ran into a retired professional couple who’ve now liquidated one of the last real estate assets they own. I congratulated them and wished them well with their retirement here in Mason City. The husband paused a moment before informing me in a sheepish voice that they’ll likely be moving to a much larger Metro Area out of our State. Every time I hear of people who’ve made their money compliments of our citizens, yet refuse to give back either monetarily or via personal service to our City, I just want to shake my finger at them and say, “So, Mason City’s been good to you while living here like carpet-baggers, and now you’re moving on to your beachfront property where you’ll be enjoying your selfish retirement.” Actions like that speak volumes of how selfish the upper tier of our community has become. It was never like that a generation or two ago.
My morning took me on a near two hour detour while on an errand up in the Forest City area. Since I had some time to kill as well as in possession of my camera, I decided to drive over to Pilot Knob and take some photos. I’ve actually never been there in weather like this, and I can understand why I was alone up there the entire time.
I took a number of photos which I’ll share these next days. How do you like tonight’s?Kinda creepy cool isn’t it? Oh, if only those walls of that “Dark Tower” could only speak, because I could’ve sworn I was hearing some whisperings while inside. I’ll continue to tell myself it was only the wind.
