I don’t know about you, but I’m sick and tired of being tooled around by Big Oil. At the slightest sign of inflation following the faintest hint of its coming by the Fed, I drive up to the gas pump and see prices rocketing up by dollars. Once the scare subsides, my trips to the pump are met with ever-so-slowly decreasing gas prices. Manipulation?

Juxtaposed with this with the closing of Fiddleheads. Why? Maybe because of staffing problems, a shortage of workers in the service industry? The U.S. Chamber of Commerce blames it on a lack of workers. The GOP on overly generous jobless benefits making folks lazy. But Robert Reich cites the federal minimum wage not being raised in 13 years and its real value at its lowest in 66 years. And small-business owners bear the burden – can’t compete with the global fast food joints and make a reasonable profit. Now me and my pals can no longer look forward to a weekly morning coffee at Fiddleheads.

What a pleasure it was. A short drive from Francestown, hardly a traffic light in sight. Easy parking in the prettiest village in all of Christendom. Always a pleasurable and humorous interaction with the exceptionally gracious wait staff. Kibitzing with the fellows from Hancock about who gets the long table today. Time to take matters into our own hands. Agree to a server appreciation bonus (SAB). We all drop a buck into the tip can now because we know that hourly wages stink. If the tip was increased and formalized into an SAB, maybe we’d get the ladies back behind the counter and Fiddleheads could open again. Something must be done to save the hearts and souls of our villages. 

Ronald Cheney 

Francestown

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