SOUNDTRACK: THE WEAKERTHANS-“One Great City!” (2003).
How could you not pair this song with this story?
A fast, pretty acoustic guitar plays as John K. Samson sings
Late afternoon, another day is nearly done
A darker grey is breaking through a lighter one
A thousand sharpened elbows in the underground
That hollow hurried sound,
The bridge switches chords but not tempo as the meldoy rises
feet on polished floor
And in the dollar store, the clerk is closing up
And counting loonies trying not to sayI hate Winnipeg
Back to the opening melody
The driver checks the mirror seven minutes late
The crowded riders’ restlessness enunciates
The Guess Who sucked, the Jets were lousy anyway
The same route everyday
The bridge
And in the turning lane
Someone’s stalled again
He’s talking to himself
And hears the price of gas repeat his phraseI hate Winnipeg
Instrumental break before the bridge resumes
And up above us all
Leaning into sky
Our golden business boy
Will watch the North End die
And sing, “I love this town”
Then let his arcing wrecking ball proclaim
Then stretch out the final line
I … hate … Winnipeg
Few songs paint a city and its population in less than 3 minutes with such a pretty melody.
[READ: June 28, 2019] “Winnipeg”
There are few things worse than a person holding a grudge.
It doesn’t do anything in the long run. Usually it just makes the person miss out on a lot of opportunity because they are too focused on something that nobody else (not even the person the grudge is against) cares about.
I’ve held a grudge and in retrospect, regretted the time and effort it wasted. So I now try to, as the kids say, just get over it.
So when you read a story about a guy who holds a grudge, you just want to smack the guy.
I was intrigued by this story because it begins in July of 1969 with a recent high school graduate fleeing the country for Winnipeg. I’ve never heard details about how that worked before. In this instance, he just flew there from Minnesota and that was that. He looked over his shoulder (figuratively) for years, and then settled in happily.
The grudge comes because his girlfriend Dorothy was supposed to go with him. But, well, she was sensible. And a Republican. And her parents belonged to a country club. There was no way she’d leave, really. But he was bitter about it.
He was bitter when she started dating his friend Ron.
He was bitter about it when he started dating the woman he would marry.
He was bitter about it even after they had a daughter.
He was bitter about it even after he became a hugely successful businessman.
Is there anything less enjoyable to read about?
Well, his wife is killed in a car accident. He is not all that bitter about that.
But he is bitter when Dorothy calls to console him and all he can do is ask about a bracelet he gave her over twenty years earlier. Putz.
There’s an interesting twist about his wife’s death which I won’t spoil. That was the coolest part of the story. But of course, his bitterness about Dorothy overshadows anything there too.
Imagine ruining your life as well as at least three other people’s lives because you hold a grudge.
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