Coonridge Digest: Willing to take a stand

Greetin’s from the Ridge.

If Grandma hadn’t died, she’d still be using that woodstove. Grandpa bought her a new one and she turned it into a shelf for cooking utensils. Her daughters bought her a new stove and Grandma put it on the sun porch as the county’s only chrome display rack for violets. Grandma would not give up the woodstove.

Her house was air-conditioned, she drove a new Buick, she even tried a waterbed, but come hell or charred pot roast, she would not give up that woodstove. She claimed that everything tasted better when cooked over wood, and despite the fact that it didn’t, Grandma persisted.

Grandma kept cooking on it for one reason: it was familiar and her family before her used it. Every time she took a bite of overdone potato, she’d think of the long list of predecessors who’d gnawed with similar angst.

When Grandma died we buried the woodstove and Grandpa got his meals on time for the first time in 60 years. He said he missed Grandma dearly but it was a pure pleasure to eat lunch before two o’clock in the afternoon.

I had nothing against her woodstove but this was because for so many years I didn’t know any other way. It took more effort to run and maintain, wood cost more than gas, and worst of all, you just couldn’t get nearly as much done. It was a much-cherished, charming relic of another day.

We’re fighting consolidation down at Coonridge Public School and I’m wondering if we aren’t stoking the woodstove again.

What was barely an economic possibility in good times has become a real problem now that money’s tight. Our little community is wondering just how much we’re willing to pay for sentiment. And the worst possible outcome might be to keep the sentiment and refuse to pay for it.

We consolidated once years ago, and I recently talked to a fella who was on the school board at that time. He told me, "I was for it. In fact, I stood up and pushed it. Still got folks who won’t speak today, some thirty years later. But you know Freida, I was right. In a small community you’re in danger of more than losing a good education. You might just lose good friends. I guess it all comes down to whether you’re willing to take a stand."

There’s nothing I like better than simply spending time with people of true wisdom and courage. Both are in short supply, no matter how technologically advanced we become. So I quizzed my friend further. I asked him how people could be convinced to do the right thing for their schools. He told me, "You gotta have two things, Freida. You need to have the eyes to see down the road instead of what’s right in front of you, and you need a heart that’s big enough to care about every child and not just your own. That’s a tough recipe. Not many can live up to it."

Oh, I don’t mean to imply that those who like to cook on the old woodstove aren’t wise or courageous, but I do pray they have the sense to see with long-sighted eyes and care with an open heart.

Uncle Johnny was a horse-trader. When horses went out of fashion, he became the town’s leading tractor expert. "The trick," he’d say, "is to trade the tractor before you need a new one. Otherwise you end up paying two bills, the fix-up on the old and the purchase price of a new one." Horse sense.

The color on a basketball uniform, the name of the mascot, the pleasure looking down the street and seeing your old school still standing …all good things. All assuring us that things are the same as they always were. Even if they’re not.

The local school used to serve two purposes. It educated kids and it served as the social focus of a community. It was a comfortable place to go on Friday nights as the local boys took on their rivals from across the county. It was the place you saw your friends as your kids grew up together. Today’s schools have been forced to take on many more functions. They are social welfare agencies, they are the local arm of law enforcement, they are full-time counseling services, and in a growing number of cases, they become surrogate parents. In short, they’re just too darned busy to serve the social center role for the community. It’s a shame, it’s regrettable, and it’s a fact.

My friend Clara retired after 40+ years of teaching. She told me, "In most schools, folks get what they pay for. In a really good school, they get more. But after a while, it just runs out." Clara said she gave up her woodstove the day they invented electricity.

You ever in Coonridge, stop by. We may not answer the door but you’ll enjoy the trip.