When life is simple magical stories happen... There is a town in anywhere USA that we all wished, at one time or another; we lived in, especially at Christmas time. It is a small town where folks know each other and greet one another by name. Where life is slower and the clock, well the clock ticks by one minute at a time. The winter brings the snow and the crystalline beauty which accompanies it and spring flowers bloom as the earth thaws. There is a lake nearby that doubles as an ice skating rink when the snow falls, summertime is hot but not humid, fall finds leaves turning bright red, yellow and orange and fields of wildflowers where a picnic lunch can be enjoyed as the kites fly overhead. Where the worst news one hears is how Mrs. Ellery’s cat got into Mr. Johnsons vegetable garden. Yes a place where one can leave the turmoil of fast paced city life behind and remember what it is to be human on this wonderful ride we call life. Schmecles Cove was not that town… Oh Schmecles Cove had the scenery to make a Christmas card proud alright but scenery was all it had. There was a nice lake of course that had a huge sign by the boat ramp that let everyone know that “Hanson’s Jet Ski’s and Boat’s” was ready to take your hard earned money for a few hours on the lake during the summer. Of course, when the Christmas season came around the lake would freeze as Schmecles Cove was in northern Wisconsin, land of cheese heads and cool accents. Then old man Hanson would change the sign to “Hanson’s Ice Skates and Ice Boats.” The town was situated near a large valley by the lake and really was beautiful. There were two thousand two hundred and sixteen folk in the town of Schmecles Cove on December sixteenth that year. That number would increase by one soon if Jason and Sally Jones bundle in Sally’s oven had anything to say about it! The streets were what you would expect in a town that could have been the set for “Mayberry” where Andy and Barney kept the law. The tallest building in town was the newly renovated “Hanson Hotel” which was a full, are you ready, twelve stories high! Now on either side of Main Street were where the residential sections of the town sat and, truth be told, Main Street could have been a set of railroad tracks so divided were the townsfolk by dwelling and by status. On the North side of Main Street were the affluent and well off folks who lived in expensive houses with well maintained lawns in the newly developed subdivision of “Hanson’s Hamlet.” These folks were the executives and families of Hanson Electronics which was located twenty five miles outside the city off Route EE. The South side of Main Street was the much older and lees cared for neighborhood that didn’t have a name as it contained the original homes and sidewalks of Schmecles Cove. Most of the folks there worked in the various service places in town like the barbershop, the Rexall drug store or the diner. Things like that. Now, had it been up to the Northsiders there would have been two schools in town; one to accommodate their kids and one for the townies, as the Northsiders liked to call them. Be that as it may, the Town Council had wisely voted down the petition for the request as history proved this would likely lead to problems in the community. Of course, the council had also informed the delegation from Hanson’s Haven that if they wished to build their own private school with their own “private” money then they should knock themselves out. As expected, the delegation was not as gung ho about spending their money as they were spending the town’s money. This being the case, all the kids in both sides of the proverbial tracks attended Schmecles. The school had three distinct buildings for the elementary, middle and senior high students. For most of you reading these pages it would not be a stretch to see how mixing Northsiders and Townies at the tender age of 12-14 years of age might cause some….friction? More on that scenario later… There may have been boundaries in Schmecles Cove but there was a tradition that crossed those boundary lines. Each year, at Christmas time, the town hosted a Christmas tree decoration contest! The way the contest worked was all folks in town, who wished to participate, would put their name on a ballot and put that ballot in a big wooden box that sat outside “Johnsons Hardware” on a table covered in red velvet with white trim. On December twenty second the town folk would gather at Schmecles Park to watch Mayor Curtis ceremoniously pull out twenty names from the box and read the names out loud. Those chosen would have from then until seven PM Christmas Eve to decorate their Christmas tree. At the chosen time the senior living descendent of James Schmecles would choose the best tree to represent the town for that Christmas. That tree would then be the only one standing in the place of honor in the center of the Gazebo in the middle of Schmecles Park Christmas day. What made the contest as fair as it could be, considering the amount of money which could be put into those trees chosen that had Northsiders income to work with, was that all trees were hidden from view with partitions as old as the town itself. At seven PM Christmas Eve the partitions would be removed and the contestants sent into the crowd as Elda Schmecles, great, great granddaughter to James Schmecles picked the best tree. She would have no way of knowing whose tree was whose. The winner would be given the highest honor a member of the town could have bestowed on them. So on the morning of Dec. 16th at the Rexall Drug Store several of the boys in the middle school were hanging out at the soda fountain downing some root beer floats and fries. No matter where you live, no matter when you live root beer floats and fries always get the job done. “If they pick our name I can gaurandamntee you that we will probably win,” Travis Hanson boldly stated. “Why do you think you would win Travis?” Larry Fin asked like he was reading a cue card. “Well duh, he isssss a Hanson,” his friend Toby Lee said to make obvious what was already known. “That is true, that is true but even if I wasn’t we would still win. You want to know why?” As one of the boys gathered readied to reply Travis continued. “I will tell you why. Because my mom sent off to Milwaukee to get the very finest ornaments money can buy, that’s why!” “We got a tree we would like to enter too,” comes a voice from down the bar that soda built. Travis slowly turned his head to see who had the audacity to enter the conversation he initiated without being invited. Standing at the end of the bar stood Jack Strauss and his mutie brother Phillip. “Nobody gives a hoot townie. There could be nineteen townie trees and only one Haven entry, a crappy one at that, and Haven would win.” “Ours could too. We got nice trees. They all come from the same forest,” Jack answered back. Jack Strauss was indeed a townie but he was a proud townie! “Shut your pie hole townie. Anyone from loserville hasn’t got enough money to buy even one ornament. Probably use toys from a Crack R Jack box,” Travis said turning around to high five his buddies. “You shut your pie hole Travis! You are not the boss of me,” Jack brazenly replied. As Travis Hanson raised his eyebrows to see if they could touch his hairline the other boys gave the obligatory “oooo’s” and “now you’ve done it” replies that are given when an underdog pokes the bear. “What did you say to me townie?” “Well you heard what I said!” Travis was fourteen and big for his age while Jack was thirteen and average size so it seemed likely that Travis was about to soil his hands to wipe the floor with a townie. Travis was almost on top of the brave but slow (you had to be slow to stand up to Travis Hanson, right?) when suddenly a small shape came and stood between them. “Get outa the way mutie,” Travis screamed at the boy who had never uttered a word as well as never hearing one. “He can’t hear you Travis,” came a reminder from one of Travis’s posse. “Fine I will just bust him up first.” Bullies are always the same, wouldn’t you agree? “Okay, okay, that will be enough! Travis Hanson you get on out of here, right now!” “What about them?” Travis pointed at the brothers who would have sat at the rear of the bus fifty years ago. Frank Wilson, the owner and pharmacist at the Rexall Drug Store replied saying, “From the way I saw it they didn’t do anything other than make a comment. It were you who was getting aggressive and threatening!” “So, I don’t care, I will kick him and his mutie brother for getting in the way.” “Oh no you will not, I don’t give a rat’s ass who your daddy is. You take another step near that boy and I will not only throw you out but I will ban you from coming in here. He may own half the town north of here but he don’t own this place. This is my place and I swear to the good Lord A ‘mighty I will ban you if you don’t shut your smart ass mouth and leave right now.” At this point everyone in the drug store had made their way over to the confrontation and Travis saw the crowd and quickly realized that there were quite a few more townies in the crowd than Northsiders so he decided to bow out. “Let’s go guys this place has crappy flo…” Travis saw the look in Mr. Wilson’s steely gaze and did not finish the word “floats.” The boy’s left the Rexall without further conversation. “Now Jack I admire that you stood up to that boy but Phillip there could have been really hurt,” Mr. Wilson said. “Yeah you are probably right but I just get so darn mad when Travis starts running us down just cause’ we don’t live in fancy smancy Hanson’s Haven and Phillip ain’t afraid of nothing.”
Posted on: Sun, 24 Nov 2013 22:12:40 +0000