To the Editor and Residents of Fillmore:
We recently read in the Fillmore Centennial book this poem that reflects how we citizens of this city should feel about our town. It was written by William Thaw Deniston, and was originally printed in the 1920 May Day Festival bulletin. It is very appropriate at this time for us residents; of Fillmore to realize that it’s the PEOPLE of Fillmore that determine what happens to the city. Poem:
It Isn’t Your Town – It’s You
If you want to live in the sort of town,
Like the sort of a town you’d like,
You don’t have to slip your clothes in a grip
And start on a long, long, hike.
For you’ll only find what you’ve left behind,
There’s nothing that’s really new,
It’s a knock at yourself when you knock your town;
It isn’t your town—it’s you.
Real towns are not made by men afraid
Lest somebody else gets ahead.
Where everyone works and nobody shirks,
You can raise a town from the dead.
And if while you make your personal stake,
Your neighbor can make one, too;
Then Fillmore will be what you want to see - - -
It isn’t your town - -
It’s YOU.
Louise & Gertrude Lovelace