Overheard at Chipperfields' ... Part XLVII ...

Ross was sitting in the corner reading the latest Winnipeg paper when a couple of regulars came in ordered their coffees and sat down with him. In the shop, the crowd was fairly busy for a week night ... out the window, the sun was setting ...

"Interesting story in there about the traffic that is being forced through Portage eh?" said one of the regulars pointing to the paper.

"I stopped in at the coffee place by the mall on the west side there," the other regular offer, only to be cut off by Ross who lowered the paper.

"Really?" said Ross his eyebrows raised.

"I needed a coffee," said the second regular, "and last time I checked there wasn't a Chipperfields outlet in Portage."

"True enough," said Ross folding the newspaper and setting it aside.

"Besides, it was so darned busy," said the regular, "that I couldn't even use the washroom, and I wasn't about to wait for any of THEIR coffee."

"When I stopped in there yesterday, the washroom was out of order," said the first regular, "and I wouldn't drink their coffee if it was the last beverage on the planet."

"You can stop now," said Ross smiling, "I know you're loyal customers."

"Well, my point wasn't so much the locale, as it was the volume," said the second regular.

"What do you mean?" said Ross, looking perplexed.

"Well, ordinarily when you stop in the place is kind of busy," said the second regular, "but this week with the by-pass around Portage closed and all the traffic going through town the place is jammed. The whole town is busy."

"It's kinda like the last scene in the kids' movie Cars," said the first regular. Then when his companion's raised their eyebrows at him he added, "I went with my grandkids in the spring. It was a pretty good movie."

"But what was the last scene?" asked Ross, "I haven't seen it."

"Oh that," said the first regular, "I thought you were criticizing my choice of movies."

"We were," said Ross, "but we still want to know about the movie."

"Ha Ha," laughed the second regular, as he paused to sip his coffee, "well in the final part of the movie the little town where all the cars are, and where the lead character ends up gets back ont the map and traffic starts coming back through the town."

"Back through?" asked Ross..

"Yeah," said the regular, "when they built the four lane highway, it by-passed the town and the town started to die. But then the main character; a racing car; made the town home and tourists started to come and pretty soon the place was hopping, and they even build an exchange to bring the traffic off the highway into the little town."

"Kinda like Portage," observed the first regular.

"Except, it was fears of the overpass collapsing that has brought the traffic through town," said Ross.

"Yeah, but the people are stopping," said the second regular, "and even if it is for a coffee and muffin, or a burger, it's money that wasn't there in the town before."

"Too bad we couldn't get people to detour through Minnedosa and stop here for awhile," observed the first regular.

"It would be good for business," observed Ross, "if we could get some of the traffic off the highways that pass by here, it would be good for all the businesses in town."

"Yeah," said the second regular,"everyone stops in Neepawa because they pass right through the town, but here, we're tucked in off the highway and people tend to just blow by and not realize what a beautiful community it is."

"There's pluses and minuses to that," observed the first regular, "keeps the riff-raff away."

"Yeah, but with more vacancies on Main St," stated Ross flatly, "we need to consider doing something to pull some of the traffic off the highway and run it through town."

"Maybe we should park some farm equipment across the highways," mused the second regular.

"Beats blowing up a bridge," said the first regular as he picked up his coffee.

"What?" said Ross, looking shocked.

"Just making an observation," said the first regular shrugging his shoulders, "it would be easier to park a combine at the turnoff rather then blowing up the bridge out by Agri-core."

"Something we should know?" pressed the second regular, looking very worried.

"Nay," said the first regular, then chaning the subject observed, "you do serve a fine cup of coffee here ..."

Neither Ross nor the second regular said anything, but stared at their companion with a mix of horror and amusement.