Al’s Corner – December 2021

                       Merry Christmas 2021

It is time once again for another Al’s Corner note for December 2021.

Two main events for the St. Louis Transportation Club to promote.

Ladies Day Holiday Party on Friday Dec. 10^th.  This year we are moving it to an old previous site called Das Bevo on 4749 Gravois Ave. St. Louis, MO 63116.  The event starts at 1030-2pm.  For $65 you get Lunch, Open Bar, and a Silent Auction.  All funds will benefit Hands that Serve.  Please bring a toy that will be given to Lifewise STL.  FUN FUN!!

Dec. 15^th is YSCP Ugly Sweater Holiday party at Johnny’s West.  Game time is 5PM for this free food, cash bar event with prizes awarded to the ugliest sweaters!

This Month’s Topic—Christmas Then and Now

Back when I was 5-19 years old my favorite gift was always a new basketball.  Early on the type or quality did not matter as most of my shots were attempted on dirt surfaces.  As I got older, in my teen’s, new synthetic indoor-outdoor balls came into existence. These were very close to the kind of balls I used in grade school, high school and college games.  So exciting!!! I also got a belt each year too (underwhelming but needed), along with shirts, pants and such but it was always the basketball that meant the most and what I looked forward to.  Those days were simple times, all I wanted was a new basketball, and the basketball was made in the USA.  I also will never forget that my mom, when she was a child got an apple or something each year as they were poor.  Think about that. I am grateful now and for my past years too.  But for those of us that are getting older, we miss our parents, and grandparents, sons, daughters, spouses, that left us all to soon.  Most of us when we were/are young don’t consider that all of life is temporary, so see your family as much as you can.  You can’t buy time!

Now Christmas is very commercialized with the true meaning of it, Jesus’ birth getting kind of lost.  It can be stressful too when deciding what to buy for others.  This is particularly the case for me each year getting gifts for my wife Kathy, who is normally not helpful with suggestions.  It is now mostly about buying gifts and family get togethers. Now since Covid, supply chain issues are a big concern and the poplar buzz word that has been wreaking havoc on gift buying.  Since I am in the transportation side of business “supply chain” were words that I was very familiar with, with very few other people ever hearing or thinking about it.  Now, everyone talks about supply chain.  When I used to tell someone, I was in transportation and logistics, they would ask me if I drove a bus or something.  Now more people know what I do, but still not all. 

So, let’s talk about Christmas 2021 Supply Chain.  First, the biggest issues are that most of the products we buy are made in other countries.  We are buyers, consumers, not producers in the big picture, but we are still innovators.  The Supply Chain starts with raw materials that are sourced in one country, many times shipped to and assembled in a different country and shipped all over the place.  Any hiccup along the way, from labor shortages, to warehouse, trucking, materials, port issues, driver shortages, and so on can stop it in its tracks.  If you think about it back many years ago the jobs of making products were moved out of our country because the labor was cheaper.  So, we were too expensive to make the same products that the manufactures were expecting and planning on us buying???  The auto industry to me seems to be the most messed up now.  I Never saw that coming.  It has been said that we need to bring manufacturing back home to the US, I agree some. But on the flip side that sounds great until you figure, we don’t have the manufacturing plants ready or here anymore, nor do we have the raw materials coming here either, maybe not the labor force on top of that (scary).  I hear occasionally that we were energy independent the past 4 years too, but my answer is we don’t own the oil companies thus we are subject to global prices.  I do think the Pipeline shutdown was too early though and drove prices up, some.   But driving cars was way down the past few years due to Covid, so prices, sorry, were going to go up.  Oil companies (Energy Companies now) are in it for huge profits and always will be.  

Ending this part of my speech—the Supply Chain will get better over the next year or two, it has too, it really could not get much worse.

Simple Christmas this year:

Remember

Christmas is an annual festival commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25^th as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people around the world.  (This came from the Internet)

Yes, it is about gift-giving some but attending a church service, enjoying a family or other social gather can be priceless. The pure beauty of symbolic decorations on trees, yards, windows, coffee tables are awesome, and special to Christmas.  Try to take in ALL of it. 

For me, hearing Don Frazure sing “O Holy Night” at Christ Church in Fairview Heights on Christmas Eve is always a highlight of my Christmas season.  It gives me chills when he gets to the part “fall on your knees!”  

Also, I cannot get this out of my mind—for thousands of years we have celebrated his birthday, pretty much the whole world, must be something to it, right?

So, with that said enjoy your Christmas, and don’t worry or make it just about the gifts, it is way more than that!

Merry Christmas, AL