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By Bonnie J. Bardos

 

Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity! I say, let your affairs be as two or three, and keep your accounts on your thumb nail …

Sometimes, in a summer morning, having taken my accustomed bath, I sat in my sunny doorway from sunrise till noon, rapt in a revery, amidst the
pines and hickories and sumachs, in undisturbed solitude and stillness, while the birds sing around or flitted noiseless through the house, until by the sun falling in at my west window, or the noise of some traveller’s wagon on the distant highway, I was reminded of the lapse of time.

~ Henry David Thoreau, Walden, excerpt from “Simplicity”

Raise your hand if you like simplicity, Dear Reader. Can you see me raising both? Yes, please! The wiser (code word for older) I get, the more simple I like things. Less fabric, less bills, less stress. Less is more, the old adage goes; I believe Thoreau might have said that too.

I guess big banks didn’t get the simplify message. Our bank here in Saluda just officially changed from Entegra Bank to First Citizens. The new sign is up. Honestly, I hadn’t recovered from changing from First Citizens to Macon Bank to Entegra yet. Now here we go again, like Dolly Parton sings. Back to First Citizens.

After a few years of Entegra, account number memorized, it’s all new numbers as of today. Dear Reader, I can tell you one thing: I won’t be remembering the new account number in this lifetime. Einstein I’m not. The new on-line log-in consists of 16 digits. Help! Times change. Banks come and go, gobble up little banks, turn into big banks. Nothing’s simple —you have to go to other accounts such as PayPal, eBay, etc., all places where you use banking information: painstakingly enter all those new numbers, all 1,000,000 of ‘em: correctly. Get those reading glasses on and prepare for a rocky ride.

As a little kid, I was taken in  the town bank to set up my very own savings account, complete with a little leather-covered passbook that showed every penny. The account was probably my name, not a number even (that WAS a few years ago, huh?) An added attraction was a cherry-red sucker wrapped in cellophane, a new pencil or two–even if you were just a ‘small potatoes’ customer.

These days, I’ll just be hopeful and grateful to see the same smiling faces at the drive-through window.

Keep up with Saluda Community Land Trust (SCLT)’s latest projects: visit saludaclt.org or call 828-749-1560 to learn more. You can support SCLT with donations, volunteering, and through Amazon Smile. SCLT’s trails can benefit from regular clearing and pick-up; if you’d like to help, contact Trail Boss Chuck Hearon at 828-817-0364 or chearon@skyrunner.net

 

The Community Pop-up Pantry is open for drive-through each Tuesday, 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. at Saluda Presbyterian Church parking lot. Send donations to Church of the Transfiguration, designated for Pop-Up Pantry, 72 Charles Street, Saluda NC 28773. For information, contact saludapantry@gmail.com

 

Saluda Historic Depot & Museum is open Thurs.-Sat. 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Sun. 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. Saluda Train Tales are canceled until September; the next date will be September 18, 7:00 p.m. with Ray Rapp’s “Back on Track”. 

 

Saluda Library hours: Monday through Friday 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. and Saturday 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.

 

Saluda School reopens August 24. Students and staff will go through temperature/health screenings before entering buildings each day. Students may start arriving at 7:30 a.m. and will be considered tardy at 8:00 a.m. Parents/guardians will not be allowed to walk students into building/classrooms.

Visit Saluda.com to see updates on local businesses, re-openings, plus take-out/on-line ordering information. Recent happenings to share: Mewdlic’s Tea Shop has moved beside Wildflour Bakery. Blue Squirrel Cafe has opened for business. Entegra Bank is now officially First Citizens.

Happy August Birthday to B.J. Kent, Paul Stoney, Jen Pace, Zack Pace, Don Mintz, Caroline Tindal, Nora Ward, Samantha Ward, Reeda Ward, Natalie Aabye, Verlie Murphy, Peter Eisenbrown, Coleman Bradley, Ryan Bradley, Libby Archer, Rodney Thompson, Cathy Jackson, Bill Jameson, Tayloe Francisco, Troy McAfee and Ron Bennett.

Feel free to contact me at bbardos@gmail.com, 828-749-1153, or visit bonniebardosart.com