EVERYDAY LIFE
He’s been a small business owner for 41 years. Before launching this general store 21 years ago, he owned a KFC franchise, a candy maker, and a catering business. It’s the general store, though, he says he loves the most: “I love people, love working with people, love talking to people. And general stores are really central to rural areas." “We’re 12 miles from one town and 16 miles from another town, and we’re all in the country. We have a lot of people that need a lot of stuff. We’ve got everything, groceries, beer. We’re the post office. We have hardware.” This glimpse into the lives of two Wisconsinites is extraordinary, just because we get a glimpse into their ordinary, daily lives. There was no talk of politics or cultural wokeness either with them or between them and their customers. No one was boycotting them because they found out if they had donated to some candidate or demanded they take a stand on some social justice issue. They just were. And their customers just were. And everything was OK. Sometimes, a day in a life of someone else in someplace else reminds us that the forces you thought were ripping us apart, haven’t. And that at our very core, despite whatever challenges we face in our daily lives, and despite the national daily drumbeat that portrays us as divided over everything, we as a
Waupaca, Wisconsin The Courtside Sports Bar's famous walleye and homemade tartar sauce is seen as part of their Friday fish fry selection. Sparta, Wisconsin Cataract Mart owner Steve Boris says of his general store, “If we don’t have it, you don’t need it.“ (Images courtesy of Salena Zito)
OKAY WE’RE
This is a common story to hear from small businessmen. “If we don’t have it, you don’t need it,” said Steve Boris of Cataract Mart, about two hours west of Waupaca. He’s not wrong. He’s got fresh local produce, hardware, groceries, grilling supplies, very popular homemade sandwiches, and just about everything you need in a pinch, all neatly stacked inside the compact roadside building. Salena Zito is a CNN political analyst and a staff reporter and columnist for the Washington Examiner . She reaches the Everyman and Everywoman through shoe-leather journalism, traveling from Main Street to the beltway and all places in between.
country are doing pretty OK. © Creators Syndicate, Inc.
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