Town Meetings :: Expository Cause Effect Essays

Town Meetings I grew up going to town meetings with Grandma Sue. Every Thursday Grandma would drag me along with her to the meetings. Afterwards, she would always buy me ice cream at Karl's Ice Cream. I loved our time at the ice cream shop, but hated the meetings. But by the time I was old enough to make my own decisions, I couldn't bring myself to tell Grandma that I didn't want to go to the meetings. So I just went along with her. "Town meetings," Grandma would say, "are the only place that we townsfolk get to share our opinions about the shape of things in this town. It's important that we take the time to do so." And share, she did. Grandma shared her opinions about everything at the meetings. Whether it was the construction of a new park, the clean-up crew after the parade, the cost of school lunches, the new leash law, a curfew for teens, or nominations for new board members, she was always involved. She herself was nominated numerous times for positions on the board, but she always declined the nomination. "Some folks have just gotta stay on the other side of politics," she explained to me, "that's how you keep the town running clean." Grandma died of a heart attack when I was 22. Her death came as a surprise to us all. The Thursday after her funeral I just couldn't bring myself to go to the town meeting. I stayed home that week, and the next, and before I knew it, months had passed. Then my neighbor told me about the plan for the new supermarket. She told me that the town had approved a plan to allow a new supermarket to be built on the site of Karl's Ice Cream shop. It meant that Karl's would be torn down! I couldn't bear the thought of losing that precious shop. That Thursday I went to the meeting. When the plan came up on the docket, I stood to speak. "I know what Grandma Sue would have said about this plan, and I intend to say it for her. Karl's Ice Cream shop has been a meeting place for town-folk for more than 80 years.