The Why and The Wherefore of a Rural Business

Yup. I have been busy. Well, as busy as I get these days. Today is Saturday and I am usually at home waiting for the day to end. Saturday is my Rest and Refit day from the gym. Read that as boring. Except when my kid, Jake, is here from Milwaukee. He is an interesting man. He swore (not at me that time) that he would never show up in My Chequamegon again after he escaped my clutches and his high school. He told me that in 1995 after I dragged him up here for his mother’s grandmother’s funeral. Clara meant something to me. Not as relevant to my character as my mother’s mother, Hazel, but close. She was rural, similar to my grandmother. So I guess it kinda figures. I really intrinsically admire the strength of character of women who came of age shortly after 1900. My grandfather died in an accident two years before I was born. Hazel in a fit of anger when I was 18 told me I was just like him so I like him vicariously. His name was Will. Clara’s husband had dementia when I met him so I pass judgement on him. His name was Peter. He and Clara ran the meat locker in Rib Lake and lived above it. The building still stands but it appears to be apartments now after standing empty for 40 years. There are a lot of empty buildings in downtown Rib Lake. I like Rib Lake and claim it as mine.

The reason that I am in town today on a Saturday is because Sally is at the Rib Lake Flea Market and I get to run Familiars. I have to admit that I really kinda like running Familars, being surrounded by things that my forebears saw value in. It was a much less cluttered world then. I helped set up at the flea market yesterday and made my annual visit to Clara. Unfortunately, Nashua, Iowa is way too far from here to visit Hazel but I count visiting Clara as visiting Hazel as well.

Clara and Peter’s meat locker was in the brown building.