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Aug 272025
Note from Serenity: A few days ago I posted a good article on the “re-branding” of Cracker Barrel Old Country Store. It is a great article and recalled the memories of many of us of what used to be a great travel or even local rest stop. It wasn’t derogatory by any means, just “put the
store to bed so to speak. As an update, in view of the massive monetary loss in the market and the wide spread negative response from millions of fans, it seems that the CEO is taking a second look. She says things will be restored back to the original image we all remember. So it is possible that an obituary may be premature. We shall see as time goes on. Is she lying to us to save herself or could she be sincere? Only time will tell. Have a great rest of the week and Happy Labor Day (a few days early) By the by, Labor day September 1st, is also the meteorological first day of Autumn. EDIT: BTW, I have not deleted the article just moved it. I can put it in it’s own page for anyone who wants to read it.1
- For those of you that don’t know, there are 2 1st days of autumn Sept 1st is the meteorological 1st day of fall. Where the weather starts to change to the fall pattern. Sept 22nd will be the astronomical 1st day of fall or as its called, the Equinox. Hope that clears things up. [↩]
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Remember all those that came before.
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Dec 242024
Eight-year-old Virginia O’Hanlon wrote a letter to the editor of New York’s Sun, and the quick response was printed as an unsigned editorial Sept. 21, 1897. The work of veteran newsman Francis Pharcellus Church has since become history’s most reprinted newspaper editorial, appearing in part or whole in dozens of languages in books, movies, and other editorials, and on posters and stamps
The Editorial
DEAR EDITOR: I am 8 years old.
Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus.
Papa says, ‘If you see it in THE SUN it’s so.’
Please tell me the truth; is there a Santa Claus?VIRGINIA O’HANLON.
115 WEST NINETY-FIFTH STREET.VIRGINIA, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except they
see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men’s or children’s, are little. In this great universe of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.
Yes, VIRGINIA, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus. It would be as dreary as if there were no VIRGINIAS. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.
Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies! You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if they did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that’s no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.
You may tear apart the baby’s rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, VIRGINIA, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.
No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives, and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.
Dec 182024
Dec 182024
