A Cold Reception for a Community Booster
While Kennewick gained prestige from 'Strawberry Day,' local residents embarrassed the town by ignoring a guest speaker who traveled from Seattle to address them.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
It isn’t usual that the other fellow takes a more genuine interest in your affairs than you do. For that reason Kennewick’s Strawberry Day presents some really unique phases. There is hardly a district in the Northwest that did not show more interest in the event than did Kennewick. In spite of the fact that the idea was conceived and put into execution on very short notice, the day was a big success. The credit belongs to the Commercial club committee, to Secretary Tom Swayze and to Sales Manager Blot and General Manager Parks, of the Kennewick-Richland Marketing Union. Kennewick went to the moving picture show and left the speaker, who, at his own expense, had come from Seattle to address the citizens of Kennewick, speak to arm chairs. In plain, crisp English, it was a rotten display of civic spirit, an insult to the speaker, and enough to take the heart clear out of the committee who were made the goat.
“Kennewick went to the moving picture show and left the speaker, who, at his own expense, had come from Seattle to address the citizens of Kennewick, speak to arm chairs.”
Public apathy toward community events is a timeless complaint of local boosters, but this instance highlights the disconnect between regional marketing successes and the actual local engagement of the townspeople.
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