Return To Main Blog Page Hard Times Ahead? Thu Oct 9, 2008 at 3:39 PM
The last two weeks have been almost totally focused on the global economic melt-down, causing me to put internet sales, holiday pre-books and impulse buys on hold. All I’ve been able to think about is how are we going to get through this when no one really needs to buy golf equipment?

When Charlie and I got married October, 1987, the stock market dropped several hundred points on our honeymoon, which resulted in empty golf courses where ever we played on our way to and from Ashville, NC. The glorious weather, fall color (Smokey Mt National Park is about a good as it gets in autumn) and uninterrupted golf rounds made for a very pleasant trip, despite the terrible financial news.

When we got back Charlie’s dad didn’t even mention the stock market crash. When I asked him what he expected his answer was something to the effect that people play golf in sun or in rain, in good times or bad, when they need to and when they don’t. Hmm.

Among a number of people I know in a community peace activist group, I am definitely the only capitalist. At the last meeting the leader was reminded of my association with the golf shop. His comment was, “Golf is so bourgeois.” I laughed. He’s right; golf is a completely bourgeois activity. I suggested that world peace is just as likely to get figured out on the golf course as it is at a G8 Summit meeting. He scoffed, of course, but agreed that you never know.

Bourgeois or not, golf in the fall is pretty great. The Zen of following a little white ball through four miles of prairie, grass, trees and hazards can put this financial mess behind us, even for just an afternoon.

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