A warm wish for a pleasant end to the calendar year

We went shopping a couple of days ago and before we saw it, we heard the familiar ringing of the bell at the entrance to Von’s. They’re back. The Salvation Army ringer was back at our local Von’s and boy, was that ever a great sight. We didn’t see any last year and we know that the Salvation Army and their loose change-seeking ringers had been the subject of a few snopes searches as to why they weren’t out in front of dept. store ‘X’ or grocery store ‘Y’ over the past few years (we recall some sleuthing we did at our local Target a couple of years ago where the Salvation Army ringers were allegedly banned which seemed to suggest Target corporate was just tired of the controversy surrounding this faith-based outfit and if everybody just couldn’t get along then a pox on all your houses and no one gets to stand outside our store.... And we couldn’t really blame them).

All that aside, it was good to see the ringer from a charitable organization that has always had a sterling reputation in the business for efficiency, transparency and ethics as well as being an outfit that has resisted the urges and admonitions for a more toned-down and “correct” approach to their ministry – and we wanted them to know it.

So after dropping some spare change and pocket lint into the red kettle, we smiled at the lady and said, “Its great to see you guys back”. She smiled in return, “Its great to be back….. Happy Holidays.”