Age: 61
Occupation: a crumb to a cheeto
Last Seen: Washington, DC
Bee-otched For: coming to my hometown
Once upon a time in Traverse City, MI, there were three gas stations all across the street from each other on Front St.
One was a 76 and one of two of that brand in the Cherry Capitol. Another was a brand that I cannot remember what it was and the other was Speedway.
Today, a CVS resides where the 76 was. A bank sits where the other station once stood. The Speedway still stands. However, it closed a few days ago.
Apparently, it was doing OK. But there was a small problem: the lack of employees. At the station's front entrance, there's a help wanted notice begging for future workers.
When the NBC affiliate in town broke the news of the Speedway's closure, its Facebook page was littered with messages regarding how the chain - which was recently sold to 7-Eleven for $21 billion - treats their employees. One person claimed that they knew a woman who worked at a Cadillac location for 30 years and was only making $12 per hour. I've been at my job in Grand Rapids for 18 and make way more than that.
The Front St. location is not the first Speedway in northern Michigan to shutter in recent years. About three years ago, the company closed their Elk Rapids location, which had been a gas station since at least the 1960s. It had been a Speedway/Starvin' Marvin since the late 1980s. Previously, it was with United and Sunoco to name a few. Today, it's an empty lot. Elk Rapids, pop. 1,600 still has three gas stations; two are locally-owned while its Shell station is now owned by True North, based in Ohio.
Speaking of Elk Rapids, it's not known what will happen to the space left dormant by Speedway. Granted, it's one of the biggest cities without a real fast food restaurant, save for a Subway in the town's Mobil station. But, the locals have long cried that the village doesn't need a Golden Arches in their community. Just this past week, the town's only burger joint, Cone Corral was forced to suspend their ice cream and burger services due to a lack of workers. The funny thing is that the mother of one of the employees complained that he was only getting eight hours per week.
Sadly, the same goes with other fast food places. The KFC on Front St. was closed for months recently. The town waited for a Denny's for decades. They finally got one only a few years ago, only to have it operate on reduced hours because of a lack of employees. Other places closed altogether because of a lack of employees that would except crappy pay, including Ruby Tuesday and several stores at Grand Traverse Mall, such as Journey's, Hollister and the now-bankrupt Charlotte Russe and Payless Shoe Source.
Tragically, this type of mindset is why I moved to Grand Rapids 18 years ago. Even though I was a hard worker, I had issues with every year round employer I had. At one place I worked at, I worked with a child molester and every time they hired someone older than me, my hours were severely cut. At the next job, I worked for a drunk Arab who sold his business to a bunch of hilljacks who gave some of my hours to a heroin addict. Thankfully, in June 2002, a year after I graduated tech school, I finally found my first grown-up job. But, I had to move to Grand Rapids and suffer without a raise for a decade.
Since he died in office, many on the left like myself have tried to keep the Democrats as left as FDR. Yes, I can talk up a storm about how fucked up Clinton was, plus the fact that Obama was probably the most liberal president in my lifetime, but he had some flaws. The tragic reality is that because of presidents to the right of Attila the Hun like Reagan and now, Drumpf, the Democrats think that being moderate is the way to go. But, at the end of the day, they're alienating their base, which is why Drumpf is in office.
Not only that, the ideology of a lot of people in northern Michigan is a sad one: Republican - good, Democrat - bad since they make it so black people in Detroit sit on their asses watching Jerry Springer all day. But since it's Drumpf who made it so those whose jobs aren't all that essential can sit on their asses and make $600 extra per week doing so while we have first responders risk their lives daily without personal protection while the Blue Angels fly over their hospitals, well, there you go.
Now, his right-hand man is coming back to northern Michigan. Mike Pence is coming to Traverse City on Friday. He will be speaking at an airport hangar since Traverse City doesn't have a real arena. This is the second runaround for Pence, who pissed people in Mackinac Island not long ago when he came to the Island with a motorcade. With the exception of emergency crews, autos are not allowed on the Island. But of course, Mike Pence is special.
Drumpf himself came to TC in 2016 when his plane landed at Cherry Capitol Airport. He then went to Cadillac for a rally.
The last sitting president to come to TC was George W. Bush, who came to town in 2004 on a campaign trip. The last Democratic presidential candidate who came to TC was Bernie Sanders in 2016.
Sadly, the Democratic establishment doesn't care about northern Michigan. Drumpf doesn't, either, but that's his base. People need to remember that Traverse City is the biggest major city in Michigan that's not even close to a four-year university. And with rent being too damn expensive and wages being low, this is why people like me end up downstate. Since I don't like hanging out with Kaltuckian white trash, either, this is why I prefer visiting over living there.
If people want to see the de facto veep and risk getting the 'rona, they can be my guest. I ain't going up north until it's gone as-is. I'll just stay here and be proud that I'm not on their level. Besides, Biden's way ahead in the polls.
If there's anything that reeks more than the horse shit on Mackinac Island, it's Pence himself.
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