Watering Downtown

When Mayor Kadlec asked me if I would like to take care of the flower boxes on Main Street, I said, “Sure, why not? I’d much rather be outside in the sunshine than in the stuffy indoors.”

I’m here to tell you that this project has been both an entertaining and a learning experience.

Let me explain what I’ve seen and heard every day on Main Street as I’ve been watering the flowers:

Monster semis with trailers thundering through town with their loads of grain headed for the elevators.

All kinds of vehicles including speed demons, slowpokes, police cars, delivery trucks, and also bikes, skateboards, motorcycles, and scooters.

A gathering at ‘The Club’ every day which is a mixed bag of smokers and gabbers who congregate in front of Corrective Adventures daily to shoot the breeze.

And then there’s the pedestrians; walkers, employees, people walking dogs, old folks, young shoppers, strangers-mostly friendly, some grouchy, all going somewhere or nowhere.

I would be amiss to leave out the screaming whistle of the freight trains as the boxcars, etc. ramble through shaking the very foundation of our town.

I know most people aren’t bothered by the noise and frequency of the trains, but usually they’re not downtown to hear the annoyance.

I appreciate the experience to have had the chance to see downtown Ritzville in a new way. I became aware of my quaint little town that has a personality all of its own.

Marsha Smith

– Ritzville