The election is now history and for that I am grateful, as I'm sure are many of you. Whether or not your candidate won, may I suggest that we put aside all our petty quarrels, pointless accusations, and general ill will and be about the business of healing our community?

I feel as if I've been run over by a truck and I was not even a candidate. I can only imagine how those who actually ran for office must feel. Would that we could all look forward together to Lincolnton's growth and prosperity and do whatever we can to bridge the political and emotional gap that has separated us far too long.

Call me a Pollyanna but I look forward to reestablishing the Lincolnton of my childhood…. a town full of friends, neighbors, and family of likeminds who want nothing but the best for the place we call home.

A town where each citizen watches the other's back, cares about his neighbor's children, and is genuinely glad to see one another on the street or in the marketplace. If I'm dreaming, then please, don't wake me up.

I hate conflict, always have. As a child, I cringed at the sound of raised voices and became physically ill at shouts and accusations. I simply believe one can solve problems and settle differences without emotional upheavals and I avoid them like the plague.

Sadly, I have recently seen adults whom I respected and admired stoop to doing and saying vicious things I would never have imagined as a child. Seeing life as it really is seems to be the worst part of growing up I think and, like Peter Pan, I often wish I could have stayed a child forever.

I'm sure hatred, greed, and envy abounded in my childhood just as they do today, I was just too young and naive to notice. Sin is sin, after all, and there is, as they say, "nothing new under the sun."

No, I am not, as some have suggested, refusing to let go of the past. I just believe we can and should (along with growth and the arrival of "new blood" in town) keep some things as they've always been…."not throwing the baby out with the bathwater," so to speak.

There is no reason whatsoever to tear down perfectly good buildings that have stood for hundreds of years just so we can modernize the landscape. If I live to be a hundred I'll never get over the dismantling of the steps next to Jericho Florist (aka Blackwell's Store).

Progress is one thing; change alone is not always best.

I wish to ride down Main Street, uptown and down, and always be able to see the stately old buildings that were so much a part of my childhood and my ancestor's, as well. Stick a new business inside, fine; but please, unless they are falling apart, leave the structures erected by our founding fathers alone.

I don't expect Lincolnton to remain exactly as it was years ago any more than I expect myself to stay the same (although I wish I could hold up as well as some of the buildings) but I'm sentimental enough to fight to keep alive that which is not yet dead!

And if wishing could make it so, I would love for our town to rediscover the closeness we once felt for one another. I would settle for simply knowing one another. How to make that happen? I have no idea, but I can hope.

I would love to resurrect traditions of our past that drew us together as a community. Community talent shows, 100% participation in PTA, Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, and 4-H. Churches filled to capacity on Sunday morning, Sunday and Wednesday nights, people bustling around and cars lining the streets of town on Saturdays, a city playground, community Easter pageants held at the school auditorium, a county-wide sunrise service at Elijah Clark State Park complete with gigantic light bulblined cross, Christmas parades with lots and lots of bands and music (cars and floats rolling through town in silence do not make a parade!) and please, only one Santa.

Dear Hearts, I'm simple-minded enough to think at least some of these things are do-able, and I'm going to do my part to reestablish them. If you agree with me, then help me.

Start a Girl Scout troop or donate to one already active. Go to church. Group together and plan a talent show. Find out who your neighbors are and recruit them. Bring a musical instrument to the Christmas parade—in case. Park your car downtown on Saturdays even if you've no place to shop (that would make me feel better anyway).

I love Lincolnton. I love its people. I cherish the memories I have of days gone by and the people who have lived and loved here among us. It's my hometown and always will be.

There's a reason I chose "Dear Hearts" as the title of this column. Allow me to end with the lyrics to this song, written in 1949 by Bob Hilliard and Sammy Fain. Many artists, including Bing Crosby, Dinah Shore, Dennis Day and, my favorite, Perry Como, have recorded it. "Dear Hearts and Gentle People" I love those dear hearts and gentle people, who live in my hometown; because those dear hearts and gentle people will never, ever let you down.

They read the Good Book from Fri. till Monday, that's how the weekend goes; I've got a dream house I'll build there one day, with picket fence and ramblin' rose.

I feel so welcome each time that I return, that my happy heart keeps laughin' like a clown; I love those dear hearts and gentle people who live and love in my hometown.

I couldn't have said it better myself.