Big 'Thank You' To Banks

On behalf of the 1000 plus residents who packed the Scottsbluff High School auditorium Monday night to listen to the inspirational words of Charles "Tremendous" Jones, we issue a tremendous thank you to Western National and Scottsbluff National banks for sponsoring this happening.

And to all the "thumb suckers" in our midst who didn't take the time to attend the meeting, we can only say it was your loss. You should be sucking doubly hard now. Heck, it was worth the free admission to see Mayors Don Overman and John McLellan, County Commissioner C.A. Thomas and others get their arms pounded black and blue, be the object of bards and be made to laugh about it, and as the evening wore on , to flinch whenever Jones walked their way.

JONES HAD THE AUDIENCE laughing until tears ran down cheeks, but he also delivered a battery of thoughts that made the listeners think, and nod in agreement, and smile, an d perhaps for a little while forget their individual problems.

The payoff came during the intermission when people were smiling, laughing, and communicating more freely, and afterward talking positively and optimistically as they walked to their cards and gathered for coffee to digest the onslaught of words and wisdom that Jones forced the listeners to revive from their hearts and think about.

JONES' TRICK WAS NOT IN delivering any new words of wisdom, but in brushing off the cobwebs of common sense and common decency that too often all of us store away in the attics of our minds.

It probably is a good guess that Monday night and on into Tuesday morning the family lives of most people who attended improved noticeably, and that the message Jones delivered dominated the coffee talk and early morning work chitchat of others. It is unknown whether this rebirth of attitudes will prevail to any great degree over the long haul, but it is doubtful if any of the people in attendance Monday night ever will be quite the same.

It was a college course crammed into three hours, and surely a smidgen of it will be retained. If so, we owe it to Jones, and to the community interest of officials at the two banks who thought up the idea of bringing him to town.