It is b/c people are scared is why. What w/ the weather getting cold, folks up here are worried what will come next. I will tell you what. A lot of folks burned there furniture last winter to keep warm when oil prices got real high. Nobody talks much abt that but if you go visiting you will notice there are a lot less places to sit down in peoples houses. That is b/c those chairs went in the firebox last winter.
So last nites feast at the grange was more subdude this year. The food was good as it always is. There was turkey & rabbit & venison & gravy & stuffing & potatos & parsnips & all them pumkin pies Dody made. There was lots of elderberry wine & screech & cider. The whole grange was more full then ever b/c Toby Hannah who runs the grange lowered the price of dinner b/c she knows times are tight & some folks might go w/o supper otherwise. It was so full up that I & jake & dody gave up our seats & ate standing up near the back door. We put our drinks & silverware & whatnots on the windowsill there & scratched our initials in the ice that was on the inside of the window.
We did not say much back where we were eating but we listened real close to everyone else. What i noticed was there was plenty of conversation but the mood was real different this year then last year or years before. I know it does not make sense to say this, but even tho it was probly just as loud as it ever is, it was a lot quieter. Dody & i were talking abt this on the way home. She noticed it too & i ast her how it cld be quiet while being just as loud as ever, & she said "Frank it is b/c nobody was laughing." She is right. Folks are real nervous.
That is what happend this year at the grange. We have scheduled a 2nd G8 Economy Summit this wkend to do some more figgering abt how to keep ourselves afloat while the big ship goes down. I will let you know what happens.
