They’re so friendly in Arkansas that it’s getting a little weird for this Bronx native who grew up leery about talking to strangers.
I’ve received yet another offer of a place to stay during my Bender in Bentonville from Ted Talley, a regional sales manager for a storage shed company that does business with Wal-Mart, He lives close to Crystal Bridges, but has two dogs in his house. (I’ll pass.)
Ted also offered to show me around town during my visit. It might be nice to get a sense of the locality from a local—even (or maybe especially) one who told me he has “disagree[d] with just about everything you have said or written about Crystal
Bridges.” Ted (aka Broughton) was also one of the commenters (on NPR‘s website) for the recent NPR piece in which I participated.
Here’s what Ted wrote to me, as a corrective to my Ugly New Yorker perspective. By the way, I didn’t coin the “Wally World” tag in this post’s headline: That came from Ted’s Blogback:
First of all, I disagree with your take on the “witless” video, as you call it, now residing on the Crystal Bridges home page [my links, not his]. I think the video is one of the wittiest pieces of satire I have ever
seen. Give the people at the museum credit for being able to laugh at themselves
and recognize and include both the corporate and the populist. The cast of
characters in the video are indeed the corporate giants of Northwest Arkansas. Feed
that fact to the 99 percenters and hear their snarling noises rise up momentarily.But the other “characters” include the “arty” guy on the bicycle, which I am sure is
a nod to the artist community over in Eureka Springs and elsewhere in these parts
and the academics down in Fayetteville (where you have been graciously invited to
stay during your visit). And then, of course, the caravan of school kids on bicycles.
What better icon for the educational mission of the museum than the school kids,
à la “E.T”?Capping off with the
grandiose unveiling of the neon “Open” sign, a years-long staple item for small
business owners to purchase at Sams Club (and competitors Costco and BJs as well).
Shake it off, Dear Lee. Laugh with us, not at us, at least for a few moments.Secondly, more importantly than quibbling over a video, I offer hospitality. I
think it is wonderful that one of our local professors has extended the invite to
you. If you take him up on it you will be able to see the true market here (not just
Bentonville from airport to museum): The series of small cities that runs from an
iconic college campus nestled in the hills up through farmland and nondescript
shopping and hotel sprawl up to the little square in Bentonville and the musuem
could be telling for you (negative or positive).And if you were to continue beyond
Bentonville, you would be returned to quietly picturesque Ozark hills approaching
nearby Missouri, similar to the south of Fayetteville. Your visit to a comrade in
Fayetteville would also give you some insider’s view of
our own “family squabbles” here in the two-county market. Fayetteville folks, in
their towers above the “Athens of Arkansas,” sometimes tend to look at us in the
county north, with our big-business and Walmart rumbling trucks, as declassé and
nouveau riche.And sometimes we here in Wally World look at our “town
and gown” friends to the south as being less than pragmatic sticks-in-the-mud. Oh,
yes, and unappreciative for what the “new money” here in Bentonville has done for
Fayetteville in general and the university specifically: Count the number of times
the letter “W” is on a building or academic program at the university!
Sounds like this should be an interesting visit. Speaking of which, my blogging may be light this week. I’ve got much to do and see—starting first thing this morning.