Dec. 23, 2003 - 11:04 MST

THE WONDERING JEW

Its In The Small Things

A very small item in The Rocky Mountain News today. From the Associated Press. "THE SAME SONG, SAME SONG SAME SONG." It tells of, "Labor unions in the Czech Republic demanding that stores stop playing Christmas Carols incessantly or pay compensation for causing emotional trauma to sales clerks." It goes a bit further, "Some stores here play the same songs all day -- and play them loudly. Employees say shifts have become unbearable. Unions have written to major chains and demanded that employees be compensateed. They've received no response."

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Perhaps if the public would tell the stores that it detracts customers from buying and that the music is objectionable -- it might help. Between that and having to pay employees hazardous pay maybe they will jingle their coins and find somewhere else to waste money.

Many years ago when I was working downtown the stores would have loudspeakers on the side walks as well as sound in their stores. Cacophony deluxe outdoors and the same-o same-o repetitious carols on the inside -- everywhere. The only exception I can remember was the organ and very competent organist in the store at J.C. Coin department store. The music was not loud, not too repetitious and it was a pleasure to shop there.

In my opinion the public is assaulted from too many different directions simultaneously. Radio, you wanna hear the program you gotta hear the commercials, TV even the Superbowl is taken up with way too many commercials Big Companies paying big bucks for those slots. So, you wanna watch the Super Bowl ? You gotta mute the sound on commercials to get a modicum of peace but yet you have to look away from the screen to get real peace.

I guess I am old fashioned, but I long for the day when advertising was in the newspapers, and bill boards. One could easily ignore the ads in the news, just turn the pages searching for news items. Billboards ? Just look straight ahead. One good thing I got from billboards was when I was trying to master Morse code to become an amateur radio operator. As I drove to work I began to speak out words I read on the billboard in Morse code. A person riding with me would have thought I was crazy -- doing the dit dah bit on the road. When I could translate every word on all the bill boards as I drove by, my speed of reading code was also to the point that I went and took my test and became an amateur radio operator. I think that is the last time I ever paid attention to any billboard !

The old days where one could ignore the ads in the newspapers and many, many door jambs had the little brass plate near the door bell button, "No Solicitors," made for a bit of peace in the world. Christmas carols could be listened to selectively on our radio and heard by carolers and in churches. To me those were good days. No constant big blare assailing folks. A little peace, Its In The Small Things . . . . . . . . .

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