Main Line Banter: Final recap of 2023 highlights and forecasts … then moving ahead
Although New Year 2024 has been waddling around for a fortnight, there are still remnants of its most recent predecessor, to keep us focused on the pair of glasses that accompanied its arrival.
Last column we polished our rear-view mirror and crystal ball to look back and forward as we were bombarded with the thoughts of babbling bloggers (where do they all come from!) and optimistic and odious observers spreading their views of what was and what will be.
As Tevye sang. ‘it’s tradition!”
Last column we also recalled some of the people, places and things that were illuminated in Banter’s spotlight during the first half of 2023.
Today we swing the gleam to highlights of the final six months of the year, repeat the accounting of our 2023 predictions and offer fearless forecasts for 2024 (in the event you missed reading last week.)
Spotlights July through December 2023
July started with a bang remembering and celebrating the reasons that July 4th is still a flagstaff event for Americans after all these years. We also pondered the value of keeping cool when the “three H’s” – haze, heat and humidity – envelop us, and reminisced about those “hazy, lazy, crazy days” of summers gone by.
And readers wrote about “cat controversy” in the dog days of summer, and our commemorating a personal upcoming Leo birthday by looking back into how things once were.
Moving ahead to August, readers were asked to share their favorite restaurants and let us know why. There were columns looking back and ahead to Little League Baseball in the area, and shortcuts around town about happenings in Tredyffrin and Easttown.
September columns lamented the loss of what Labor Day used to be and included a seasonal serving of appropriate trivia, as well as personal reflection on childhood “memories in the rubble” of a backyard shed that once was a monument to coming of age.
Lest we forget, there was an up-close and personal column of the hands-on journey of Berwyn’s Tom Wolter, the executive chef of the historic Kimberton Inn.
October came in from out of nowhere (eerie month that it is) as we mused about the tenth month’s past and present and local upcoming events, the still clattering “Missiles of October’ that put the world at the tip of nuclear war, looked ahead to the upcoming elections and the grim state of the world around us, and, of course, scared up thoughts about the origins of Halloween.
November found Banter revisiting “Project Greek Island,” the code name for a Congressional cold war top secret bunker built into and under The Greenbrier resort in West Virginia and the role he played unveiling it to the public, a myriad of musing about Thanksgiving traditions, tidings and side dishes, post-election opinions and a pre-Christmas season question of what the holiday means to individual readers.
In December, we again raised the alarm to keep fire from destroy your holidays, reviewed People’s Light unique production of “A Christmas Carol” and opined about the monetary sea change in Major League Baseball as The Phillies (and every other MLB franchise) are wheeling and dealing in advance of the 2024 season.
(Note: In the event you may have missed reading some of our spotlights, please let us know. We’ll email you a copy of the column(s).
2023 Predictions’ Scorecard redux
There will be more chaos in the local restaurant business than in the last decade. (Certainly, was true.) More small retail shops along the Main Line will shutter. (Sad, but true.)
Decline in membership and attendance will continue in houses of worship of all denominations. (Do I hear an “Amen?”) Local non-profits will find it more difficult to raise funds for their worthwhile causes. (Again, sad but true.)
Main Line public and private schools will continue to rank high nationally. (Yes, they did.) New and younger faces will emerge on the political scene. (Just look around.) The Phillies will repeat as National League Champions. (Can anybody hiss Diamondbacks?) The Eagles will win the Super Bowl. (Leading most of the game … but no Lombardi!)
Forecasts for 2024 redux
Picking up our crystal ball for these next 350 days or so of our lives, we divine that: 1) Active membership will continue to decline in Main Line churches.
2) Price wars will heat up in sale of homes along the Main Line with an uptick in the spring that will continue throughout the year. 3) The problem of drugs and guns in local schools and neighborhoods will increase. 4) The Phillies will win the World Series. 5) The Eagles will fall short of the Super Bowl
*********
Shortcut around town
Realizing that there is no such thing as “a sure thing.” (just ask the Eagles and the Phillies!) the closest locally is the upcoming final approval by the Tredyffrin-Easttown School Board of Directors authorizing the building of a new elementary school in the district.
A special meeting will be held Wednesday, Jan. 17 at 7:30 p.m. at Conestoga High School to discuss the proposal that the district has been evaluating for several years.
The new school (to be the sixth elementary building in the district) will be on a 15.2-acre property at 1200 W. Swedesford Road which contains an 86,000 sq. ft. building. The property is adjacent to a residential area. Purchase price is $15.9 million. Residents of the district will be given opportunity for comment at the meeting.
Finally, nobody asked, but it’s hard to disagree with Thomas Jefferson when he said: “if the condition of man is to be progressively ameliorated, as we fondly hope and believe, education is to be the chief instrument in effecting it.”
The Last Word: Good day, good luck, good news tomorrow … and (one more time) Happy New Year!
Comments invited to mainlinebanter@verizon.net.
View more on Mainline Media News