The Fire Within

The other night at the Redevelopment Authority meeting, there was a group of excited folk busy working prior to the meeting. Well. It wasn't the usual adults that attend these sort of meetings. It was the kids of one of the staff members. Right prior to the meeting they were keeping themselves busy coloring pictures on sheets of paper.----Then they compared who had the best picture. And just as the meeting began, the other parent came and the kids left. What a disappointment. A lot of the excitement had just left the room.

I thought to myself when was the last time I had seen such excitement. It sure was infectious. Yes. I had seen it that very morning. I had wandered up to the FFA Plant Sale at the Evansville High School and in the green house had run across Mr. Krake also buying some hanging plants.

Always on the job as The Observer, I asked him, "Well, Mr. Krake, how are the sketches coming? Have you been keeping up the production?"

In a flash he whipped out a small sketch book from his pocket. "As a matter of fact, I have been quite busy, " he said. "These sketches were from a visit to the emergency room yesterday." "The waiting room, that is."

I really liked the sketch of the guy with the glasses, just about my age. Just when I was wondering what the price of the whole little sketch book would be, he left in a hurry to get his plants home.

The excitement. The very same excitement that the kids had demonstrated prior to the Redevelopment meeting was the same excitement that I had seen in Mr. Krake's face as he reviewed his sketches.

Last night was the Evansville High School Awards night, with the presentation of the academic awards and such. There were the usual quotations. The usual best wishes.

The best wish I have as the Observer is that the fire within will still be burning for these graduates 45 years from now as it is today. I hope they will never let anyone, or anything be a cheap bargain for the thing itself. The fire within.