Sunday, December 11, 2011

My Shiny Balls

These balls actually do not belong to me.  I was trying to explain to Cookie what a small, boring town I live in by telling her about the big "haps" here in Holland, MI. 

It is a HUGE deal right now that the City of Holland spent approximately 50k on new holiday decorations for our downtown.  Now the very first thought when I saw these planters was "kids are gonna start stealing those immediately".  I don't think it's a malicious thing, but we're a college town (and a resort town really) and there are drunken young adults roaming the streets pretty much at any given time after dark.



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Don't get me wrong, I totally love them.  In my book, there are very few things more fantastical than a big bucket of super shiny, colorful balls.  About the only thing that could ever make them better would be glitter and sequins.

Oh but you don't want to miss the hanging balls.  These are on every light pole.


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Anyway, about a week later, FRONT PAGE NEWS:  People are stealing this shit.  And I am not even joking.  That was really front page, not like a figurative, metaphorical front page thing.

Well, no duh.  So because they are like magical, weather-proof, glass from the moon, blah blah or something, they had to spend something like another 2k to replace the stolen big balls.

This is really the big news where I live.  Now there are a lot of people who are PISSED about this money being spent on decor, and I do get it, but I also get that we live in a town where this area actually draws in dollars from outside.  On the Lakeshore, there is some seriously stiff competition for tourist dollars and if we look like we decorated out of your Grandma's basement, people will go elsewhere, truly.

Plus, it really is kinda pretty right?

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*Next time we put wallpaper in our bathroom, it'll knock this off the front page.  

**Sorry about the tipped view.  The boy took the photo in order to make up for the accidental deletion!




3 comments:

  1. I totally want you to go steal me some big giant shiny balls!

    Love them!

    & You!

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  2. They ARE pretty. I was thinking that $50k was way too much to spend, knowing that pretty much every municipality in the US is having a hard time balancing its budget during this recession. Then you reminded me about the tourist attractiveness, and I thought "Good work, Holland!"

    (Our Cookie sent me here. I know better than to disobey The Cookie. )

    ReplyDelete