All I want for Christmas...

All I want for Christmas is for the City of Mt. Pleasant to turn the intersection of HWY 271 S and  49 into a traffic circle. Nothing fancy. Just a simple modern roundabout. It doesn’t even have to be perfectly round. Oblong would do.

Every time I drive through that intersection coming from the Dellwood Park area and needing to turn south toward KFC and Walmart, I look over my right shoulder, wonder if this is the day I’ll be visiting the local ER, then scream out, “A modern roundabout would fix everything! Come on, Santa! Let’s make this happen!”

If that intersection was turned into a roundabout, drivers would eventually get used to it. There’d be fewer accidents. People would come from miles around just to give it a whirl. Roundabout tourists. So good for the economy.

All I want for Christmas is for the City of Mt. Pleasant to build an open-all-year-long Aquatic Center. Nothing fancy. Just a multi-pool facility good for local school swim teams and people with bad knees wanting to stay in shape. Lap swim from 1 to 3 p.m. Open swim from 5 to 10.

Every time I drive past Dellwood Park and reminisce about time spent in the city pool, I wonder how many of our kiddos will grow up to be swimming illiterate? There are lakes nearby. Someone’s bound to fall in. Nobody will be able to jump in and save anybody because they won’t be able to swim either. It just makes me want to shout, “An aquatic center — even if it comes with a multi-million dollar price tag — would fix everything! Come on, Santa! Let’s make this happen!”

If Mt. Pleasant had a year-round Aquatic Center, our children would feel safer on the water. People would come from miles around just to give it a splash or two. Swimming tourists. So good for the economy.

All I want for Christmas is for the City of Mt. Pleasant to turn off the music at the county courthouse. Nothing fancy. Just flip the switch. Let the natural sounds of downtown be our calling card and not “Hey, somebody has their car speakers turned way up! It’s coming from the courthouse? You’ve got to be kidding?”

Every time I visit the city square I can’t fathom sitting at a bistro table, trying to discuss dinner plans while music from Garth Brooks or the Trans-Siberian Orchestra echoes around the courthouse square. A little bit of peace and quiet would fix everything! Come on, Santa! Let’s make this happen!

If Mt. Pleasant had a “quiet” square (except for when the Union Pacific is blowing through), nobody would like it and they’d blame it all on this grumpy old man. So, never mind. No “Singing Courthouse,” no “Singing Courthouse” tourists. Not so good for the economy.

All I really want for Christmas is a pair of red socks. Bright red. Nothing fancy. No kind of cutesy cat or airplane design on it. Soft and comfortable. Socks that give you that cosy desire to stay home from work today. Call in sick. Maybe read a book.

Every time a put on a clean pair of socks, I wish I had red ones instead. Having them wouldn’t affect our economy in any way. No “Red Socks Tourists” would come to town to see them. But they’d remind me of my younger days. A simpler time. A time when we believed everything was possible and our wishes would come true. So, come on Santa! Several pairs of red socks would fix everything! Let’s make this happen.