The buck starts here
Here’s a humdinger about what’s going on in Lenox, Massachusetts, up in the Berkshires. This one landed on the front page of The Wall Street Journal. Yeah, the goddamn front page, Gin Bottle Garvey.
Lenox High's sports teams are called the Millionaires and the mascot is a spin-off of Mr. Monopoly, also known as Rich Uncle Pennybags. With that nickname, they make it clear that people have big bucks in Lenox. But right now they’ve got a hubbub going between older townies and younger students at the high school. This hot potato has really divided the town.
The old guard is fighting to keep the name because it honors local history. The younger generation, including many athletes, are embarrassed by it. When they play against other high schools, they say it makes them seem like snobs. They get snide remarks from fans and other teams wherever they play.
Well, down the river here in South Hadley we don’t have a nickname problem. Our team is called the Tigers. But the town is about to go bust. A coupla weeks ago, like a lot of Massachusetts towns, South Hadley had a vote on a Proposition 2½ override, which allows municipalities to provide additional funding—and the bill lost big time.
Now the town is getting ready to cut teachers, police, fire, DPW, and school sports and music. I guess they’ve already let the athletic director, the trainer, and maybe four others in that department go. Serious business. So while Lenox dukes it out over whether they want to be known as millionaires or not, how ’bout they take on a real cause and try to help South Hadley save school sports? It’d be a great human-interest story that would get ‘em back on the front page of The Wall Street Journal— and also keep the Tigers marching. Keep your dukes up.
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