Life in the Village: In which I visit the town square
A little bird told me that I should visit Our Town Square, and critique the new fountain, and I was happy to do so.
The Town Square, otherwise known as Bayliss Park, is a lovely little space - Very small town, in the Norman Rockwell sense of the term: On the four sides of the square were the offices of the Daily Nonpariel, the Public Libary, the three mortuaries, the Masonic Temple, the Baptist church, Doctor Dean's residence, the Oddfellow's Temple, and the Chieftan Hotel.
The Nonpariel has moved to new quarters, Doctor Dean's residence is gone (a victim of the Baptist's lust for parking). The library is now the Union Pacific Museum. The mortuaries merged into one, and the Cheiftan is now a senior citizen's residence called the Bluffs Tower (where the Council Bluffs office of the odious Steve King now is) but otherwise, it's pretty much the same.
Except for the fountain....
When I was a mere slip of a thing, the fountain was an ornate Victorian affair, with lots of overflowing basins, frolicking nymphs, and what have you. Perfectly suitable for a town square, even for a person of a mid-century sensibility such as mine. Some things are just better left untouched.
Then came the 70's, At which time the people who bought us the dreadful Midlands Mall set their misguided eyes on the Bayliss Park Fountain. It was suddenly deemed hopelessly outre, and was replaced with a ridiculous "dancing waters" fountain - a fleeting fancy that was big at certain California malls at the time.
This survived for several decades. Generations of Council Bluffs children waded in it, dumped soap flakes in it, and were chased out if it by the Council Bluffs police. But times change, and people change, and it was time for a new fountain, but they didn't want to start from scratch (I told you these people are cheap). The old fountain (the Victorian one), was still around - it had just been cooling its heels at the General Dodge House all these years. One would think it could have gone back to its old home, but for some reason that wasn't an option, so they stuck it in one of the numerous vacant lots in downtown Council Bluffs.
So I headed downtown to see the new fountain, and I was excited to see that it was operating. I went to pull in so that I could get a better view, but then I saw this:
The message on the side of the truck reads "YOU WERE ELECTED TO SERVE THE PEOPLE OF OUR COUNTRY SENATOR HARKIN. ENFORCE THE LAWS!"
This is typical of the political discourse one encounters in Council Bluffs, and it's one of the reasons why I honestly don't know if I could live here again. What sort of person takes the time to paint something tacky like that on the side of his truck (because you just know it's a man), and is then happy to drive around town with this as his constant companion? The other side of the truck had some sort of message about enforcing immigration laws, and God blessing America, which just goes hand in hand with this drivel.
Anyway, that threw me off my mission, at least as far as the fountain was concerned. This being Council Bluffs, it doesn't really matter what the fountain looks like, as they will just get rid of it in a few years. Yes, that's a bit bitchy, but I don't like anyone who disses my Senator Harkin.
The Town Square, otherwise known as Bayliss Park, is a lovely little space - Very small town, in the Norman Rockwell sense of the term: On the four sides of the square were the offices of the Daily Nonpariel, the Public Libary, the three mortuaries, the Masonic Temple, the Baptist church, Doctor Dean's residence, the Oddfellow's Temple, and the Chieftan Hotel.
The Nonpariel has moved to new quarters, Doctor Dean's residence is gone (a victim of the Baptist's lust for parking). The library is now the Union Pacific Museum. The mortuaries merged into one, and the Cheiftan is now a senior citizen's residence called the Bluffs Tower (where the Council Bluffs office of the odious Steve King now is) but otherwise, it's pretty much the same.
Except for the fountain....
When I was a mere slip of a thing, the fountain was an ornate Victorian affair, with lots of overflowing basins, frolicking nymphs, and what have you. Perfectly suitable for a town square, even for a person of a mid-century sensibility such as mine. Some things are just better left untouched.
Then came the 70's, At which time the people who bought us the dreadful Midlands Mall set their misguided eyes on the Bayliss Park Fountain. It was suddenly deemed hopelessly outre, and was replaced with a ridiculous "dancing waters" fountain - a fleeting fancy that was big at certain California malls at the time.
This survived for several decades. Generations of Council Bluffs children waded in it, dumped soap flakes in it, and were chased out if it by the Council Bluffs police. But times change, and people change, and it was time for a new fountain, but they didn't want to start from scratch (I told you these people are cheap). The old fountain (the Victorian one), was still around - it had just been cooling its heels at the General Dodge House all these years. One would think it could have gone back to its old home, but for some reason that wasn't an option, so they stuck it in one of the numerous vacant lots in downtown Council Bluffs.
So I headed downtown to see the new fountain, and I was excited to see that it was operating. I went to pull in so that I could get a better view, but then I saw this:
The message on the side of the truck reads "YOU WERE ELECTED TO SERVE THE PEOPLE OF OUR COUNTRY SENATOR HARKIN. ENFORCE THE LAWS!"
This is typical of the political discourse one encounters in Council Bluffs, and it's one of the reasons why I honestly don't know if I could live here again. What sort of person takes the time to paint something tacky like that on the side of his truck (because you just know it's a man), and is then happy to drive around town with this as his constant companion? The other side of the truck had some sort of message about enforcing immigration laws, and God blessing America, which just goes hand in hand with this drivel.
Anyway, that threw me off my mission, at least as far as the fountain was concerned. This being Council Bluffs, it doesn't really matter what the fountain looks like, as they will just get rid of it in a few years. Yes, that's a bit bitchy, but I don't like anyone who disses my Senator Harkin.
posted by Catalina Vel-DuRay @ Thursday, April 12, 2007
1 Comments:
At 3:50 PM,
daisymayrobin said…
Your attention to detail of childhood memory totally blows be away. I "kind of" remember blips from my childhood. (A pizza joint here, a elementary school playground there...)
Did you not smoke pot in high school/college? I'm 99.9% sure that's why I don't have the memory you do. Oh, and also because I started smoking it at age seven.
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