The Hancock-Henderson Quill, Inc.
by Mitch Worley, Quill Reporter
With the price of gas being over $3.50 per gallon in this area, many people are concerned about finances and conserving this now precious commodity.
Even before consolidation, the small towns began to dwindle in terms of the random activity about town it hosted in its glory days.
A few beautiful days last week reversed that trend, as many members of the community crawled about our seemingly lifeless towns.
People began riding bikes, taking walks, hanging out at the park and made more frequent trips up-town. More parents were at the ball diamonds with their children, or joined by their friends having fun working at becoming better ball players, as well as hitting the links at community golf courses.
It seemed to be all but a brief blast from the past, but something amazing happened the next day that dispelled that fear.
The very next day, people were out and about doing the same things as they were the day before!
As weather has allowed over the past week, this has become a trend that hopefully sees no immediate end.
In conversing with a fellow member of the La Harpe community, we came to a rather clever interesting theory about gas price's effect on small towns.
Basically, with gas prices being as high as they are and more than likely staying that way for a great deal of time, the re-emergence of the small town may be right around the corner.
With a lagging economy and high transportation costs, trips, that are not work related outside of town to buy groceries and to go shopping in a larger town, could become a thing of the past.
To further support this theory, we observed more traffic at locales such as Dollar General and R&D in La Harpe. One will notice that it has picked up significantly in the wake of the "gas crunch" as several financial analysts have dubbed this time period of outlandish gas prices.
Being relatively self-sufficient and helping sustain thriving businesses in this community is a great thing, although it comes with a steep price at the pump.
We can't all be hermits, stuck inside the confines of our towns forever, but it is nice to see people of all ages beginning to come around once again to utilize all that their community has to offer.
Hard times always seem to bring people together, and with the current state of uncertainty that this entire nation faces, our little towns have shown their resilience and has begun rallying together to make the best of this situation.
Being strained financially, and hampering people's livelihood, is never a positive thing, but since it is bringing this community back to its roots, and unifying us once again, high gas prices are a welcomed nuisance for the time being, just as long as it doesn't get too ridiculous.