Page 14 THE VILLADOM TIMES II • November 13, 2013 Saving the downtown saves the whole town! Some things are too important to be written off. The importance of quality local shopping is one of them. Here are some collective examples. The other day, I ventured into my favorite realm of the absurd: automotive transport. I am not a great fan of recre- ational motoring, but since my wife generally knows where I sleep I am not about to stand her up for a ride home from various work-related locations. Over the weekend, while clambering during darkness and rain into the crammed driver’s compartment of the biggest SUV I could have afforded 10 years ago, I surmise that I must have rammed the seatbelt tong into the seat-bound clamp over a piece of somewhat challenged soft paper. This is not difficult to do when you are my size and wearing a heavy coat, especially at night and when it is raining. I surmise this because the next time I tried to ram the tong into the clamp, it would not fit. I was serenaded by that ominous monotone tink-tink- tink-tink-tink-tink-tink-tink that sounds like the musical introduction to Tom Jones singing “Delilah.” It was not a happy ride, but it was a short one. The next morning, I analyzed the problem. I discovered very soft but surprisingly stubborn paper detritus inside the seat belt clamp. This stuff was as impervious to being dislodged as it was impervious to reason. What to do? Call my son, who knows more about cars than I ever wanted to? I generally maintain a policy of allowing him to spend Saturday afternoon and Sunday with his nuclear family and, as I ascertained later, he and my daughter-in-law and grandson were at the Children’s Museum in Philadelphia -- a venture not to be disturbed. When they were kids, I used to take my son and daughter to a lot of museums and historic homes like Museum Village, Speedwell, Morris- town, Jockey Hollow, The Hermitage, the Steuben House, and the De Wint House. I felt validated that they had done likewise. Next thought: Get tweezers. I got the tweezers, but they were too thick to fit into the crevice in the seat clamp. My wife arrived at the scene of the catastrophe and we both sorted through downtown on a Sunday morning to try to find affordable tweezers that would fit in the malicious crevice. She actually located such a pair of tweezers, and the price was right. “Your son did me a favor once, so I’ll loan you this one,” the local merchant said. “It costs $22, but it’s mine, so please bring it back and give it to me personally.” The tweezers were indeed the thinnest I had ever seen. They were almost thin enough. The key word here is “almost.” I got a little bit of the upper stratum of paper out, but not enough. My next thought was to go to the local supermarket or the hardware store and buy a toothpick and some glue. I would then dip the toothpick in the glue, twirl it in the stubborn paper dust, and let it harden until the paper was more stuck on the toothpick than the clamp. I also briefly thought of burning it out with one of those electric fire starters people use for barbecue grills, but the proximity of the SUV’s gas tank convinced me this was not a good idea. Then it struck me. The downtown service station gives people free air for their tires. Was there a way to channel some of the free air into the crevice and blow out the shred- ded paper? The two attendants came over, located a nozzle, and hooked it up to the air hose. All three of us awaited the results of the experiment with fascination. There was a great hissing whoosh and, in a matter of seconds, the recal- citrant shredded paper had become part of the atmosphere and the seat belt clamp worked again. How would this problem have been resolved had I not lived in a town with a friendly downtown? In a worst- case scenario, I would have driven off, headed toward the Hudson River or the New York border trying to find a car dealership for this particular make of car. (Both of the dealers in northwest Bergen County have been shuttered for years.) I would have been pulled over for not wearing a seatbelt. You can only stand so much of the first eight bars of “Delilah.” I have had other favorable experiences. When a swivel chair collapsed, the local hardware store found a way to fix it at a very affordable price. When I needed what I called a “soap eraser” -- what the manufacturer called a “soft eraser” -- the local pharmacy had them in stock at a reasonable price. My two most recent books -- tandem, in one case, with the first book I ever wrote -- are now displayed in glass-front picture frames, arranged locally at a downtown store. When I stagger off to bed, I can look at them and reflect that my life has not been entirely in vain. Downtown businesses must be saved. The way to save them is to shop there first, even --gasp -- if it might cost a few cents more than buying the same article at some place in a mega-mall where the gasoline costs involved in get- ting there eat up any savings. Ever see what the prices are like in the stores at airline terminals? Five bucks for a soft eraser shaped like a hippopotamus? The mega-malls may be a little more competitive, but do the math. You can walk downtown on a pleasant day, or drive there for a fraction of a gallon of gasoline, support the local economy, probably find just what you want, and get home in less time and with less money spent than you would spent on a haul through traffic with rude people who can always find the horn, but may not be able to find the brake. A lot of people refuse to believe this. Spending $5 to save 50 cents sits well with them. I presume these are the same people for whom every vacation trip is advertised as an escape. Who wants to escape from northwest Bergen County? I don’t. A lot of people work a second job just so they can keep living here. This area is a bastion of civility and intelligence compared to other places I have lived or have covered as a reporter. Why would anybody want to escape? Rather than escaping, we should cherish and protect. Shopping at local stores is one of the best ways to do this. Other ways include volunteering for environmental proj- ects, enjoying local programs at the libraries, and dropping the idea that a vast lawn with no other plant life is the key to the American Dream. Do not throw out those mums that people seem to buy in September and throw out in Novem- ber. Plant them and mulch them. Many of them will grow again next year. This is it! There are a few other places as nice as this. If we let local businesses slide because we are penny wise and pound foolish, the darkening of our downtowns will represent the darkening of our own lives. Shop locally; it helps keep our hometowns great places to live. Preschool presentation Ridgewood nursery school children from the Glen School enjoyed a 911 presentation from Northwest Bergen Central Dispatch. Frank Meredith and Lynn Tedeschi demonstrated for helpers Madison and Ryan and their classmates. The Ridgewood Fire Department brought Sparky, Burt, and Ernie to show the children that firefighters are friends.